A Little Detour.....

On Friday, March 19, my husband and I attempted for the second time to take a little honeymoon trip. That evening, after arriving in southern Louisiana, I was admitted to the hospital and remained there for 9 days. I only returned home this past Sunday.

Hospitals do not serve much "real food". I quickly realized that the fried egg resembled a real egg more than the scrambled egg, which seemed to be an egg-like substance. Other than fresh fruit and some of the raw veggies available in the "salad" section of the menu, I did not have many "real food" choices. I did the best I could with what was offered. All in all, it wasn't the end of the world and my health issues (which were not food or diet related) were paramount, so I did what I could to eat well.

I will say the food I was served seemed to be better than the fare at the cafeteria that my family "enjoyed". The portions were reasonable and even on the small side, which was helpful. Milk, coffee, and iced tea were available with all meals. I went easy on the salad dressing, if I used any at all. I tried to have raw/fresh fruits and/or veggies at each meal.

The hubby was not able to stay with me and had to return home for work. He fared much better. He continued the real food lifestyle at home and without my prompting. He has determined that no one sells organic yellow squash - it just doesn't exist. I assured him that I'll grow some in the garden so we will have our own. He has also compared selection and prices to discover that our Super Target has most of what we want to buy at good prices.

Before being admitted to the hospital, I had lost about 8 pounds. I gained about 4-5 in the hospital. I've lost 1 since being discharged. Hubby says his pants are fitting better but he thinks he has hit a plateau. Exercise will be our next lifestyle addition, I suspect.

West Wind Farms

I found West Wind Farms on the internet while searching for locally raised and grass-fed beef, pork, and chicken. The farm is not really close to us, but they do deliver to a location about a mile from our house. I took that as a sign! Today I placed my first order with them for boneless pork chops, a boston butt roast, a whole chicken, split chicken breasts, salted cultured butter, organic grassfed medium cheddar, one dozen farm fresh eggs, and smoked pork bacon.

West Wind also offers a veggie CSA, along with other CSAs for their meat products.

Since I do not know if I am ready for the financial commitment of a CSA and I know I don't have any storage for that much meat (yet), I am glad West Wind sells meat in individual cuts. It also allows us to "try before we buy". We can sample the various meat products and decide if signing up for a CSA is right for us.

I'm looking forward to trying the sure-to-be tasty items from West Wind - delivery is this Saturday! I can't wait!

Two Weeks of Life Changing Actions

I suppose I should stop calling the change in eating an "experiment" because we are not experimenting. We are actually DOING it and have no plans to stop. I've decided to call our decision to eat real food our "Life Changing Actions".

Finding real foods is still challenging but it just requires a little more research and the willingness to go where the food is.

I will say I was quite shocked at the prices at Whole Foods (and the maddening crowd). A friend said someone he knows calls it "Whole Paycheck" and I have to agree with that description. However, our Whole Foods carries grass-fed beef from Georgia (as opposed to Australia or Uruguay). I bought a large rib eye and a shoulder roast. I also picked up a large wild-caught tuna steak and some yummy sauce. I found whole milk kefir, too, as well, as whipped organic butter. We tried some caseless organic sausages that were very flavorful while having a short ingredient list on the package. So, I bought 2 beef items, 1 tuna steak, 3 dairy products, 2 packages of sausage, and a jar of store-brand organic peanut butter for $80. Yep, EIGHTY BUCKS.

Hubby grilled the rib eye last night and it was DEVINE! Tuna steak is marinating in the yummy sauce for tonight. The whole milk kefir is extremely tangy and so good with fruit and sprinkling of turbinado sugar. The organic peanut butter has a wonderful nutty flavor and is not oily.

So, for $80, I don't think I wasted any money. I do have to wonder how people with less monetary resources could afford to eat "real food" when the overly processed stuff is so much cheaper?

My husband and I stopped at Kroger on our way home last night and we both noticed the processed food-laden cart of the lady in front of us. We watched as the cashier scanned yogurts, packaged mass-produced meats, pre-made cookie dough, and other "middle of the store" items. Later we discussed how we both noticed what she was buying and how we used to have the same items in our cart.

It really does not take long for your body to go back to real foods. I would argue that our bodies crave real foods and we don't realize it. We eat more and more of the processed stuff because our bodies are craving the nutrients the collective "we" don't get from food any longer.

We, as a couple, are eating less food. We are eating smaller portions. We are eating a greater variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats. Despite the smaller portions, we are not hungry. We are putting good food in our bodies and our bodies are responding in kind.

My desire for snacks - especially sugary snacks - had diminished. My desire for sodas is gone. My desire for a big, greasy hamburger is gone. In fact, the thought of my formerly-beloved Sonic burger makes me feel a little queasy. Processed items that once seemed delicious are lacking now.

I have lost 7 pounds since we started this new eating lifestyle. I have not counted a calorie, worried about a carbohydrate, thought about sodium or fat content. It's not that those things are not important, but 100 years ago the nutritional breakdown of the foods people ate were not commonly known and people simply didn't worry about it. People lived healthy lives and eat healthy foods without knowing the nutritional breakdown of what they were eating.

I have started planning for a vegetable garden. I will plant blueberries and blackberries this year so I can have my own fruit in a few years. I am contemplating dwarf apple trees. I am still sourcing local grass-fed beef.

The change is really not that difficult. It is more a change in how we think about what we eat and where that food comes from and what has been done to it before it gets to us. Pretty simple stuff, really. Basic and simple.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." - Michael Pollan

Real Food for the Weekend

Eating real foods is much easier on the weekend. Being at home, we have the opportunity to control the menu and prepare the food.

Saturday morning the hubby and I got up and went to Fresh Market and Easy Way to see what we could find.

Fresh Market has an impressive meat department! We decided to get some prepared (gasp!) sausages, hamburger patties, and stuffed chicken breasts. There are somethings that I may try to make at home but I don't think I'll always be able to make everything myself. If we are going to eat prepared foods, at least we can choose items we feel are fresher and made with better ingredients.

The sausages contained chicken or turkey with various seasonings (spinach, feta, asiago, garlic, etc). The burgers consisted of high grade, less fat ground beef mixed with (1) bleu cheese, (2) bacon, sundried tomatoes, and cheese, and (3) swiss-steak style. Hubby grilled all those and we all tried some of each item. They were all really, really good!

The chicken breasts were stuffed with (1) crab and shrimp, (2) asparagus and crab, and (3) feta and chives. Those were all excellent, too.

Last night we had more grilled meat. Hubby grilled salmon that had been in a marinade overnight. He doesn't care much for salmon but declared it was good and the marinade had taken away the "fishy" taste that he doesn't like so much.

Our side dishes were steamed broccoli, orzo with onions and garlic, steamed baby carrots, steamed summer squash/zucchini, and balsamic vinegar rosemary roasted fingerling potatoes. We did have canned corn. That was the only commercially canned/prepared vegetable we ate this weekend.

I made a chocolate cake from scratch this weekend with homemade cream cheese frosting. It turned out extremely well! The cake is dense and rich and the cream cheese frosting goes really well with it! We haven't gobbled it up yet, either! The cake recipe is from the Country Living website and they call it "Basic Chocolate Cake".

So far, so good!!!

Eating Out - Non-Western Diet-Style

The hubby and I went to an IMAX movie last night with his mom. Afterwards we thought we would stop somewhere for a bite to eat.

Since he and I are making an effort to eat less (much, much less) processed foods, we found ourselves in a dilemma. Where the heck do you go when you want to eat out in America and are trying to avoid the "Western Diet"? We live in the Memphis, TN area. Southern-style food abounds! Fried this, fried that, super-sized portions of everything are the norm.

After much discussion about the matter, we realized that if we wanted more vegetables than meat and fresher vegetables at that, our choices were Greek/Mediterranean or Oriental (and NOT the oriental buffet). Hubby hasn't gotten on board with the Greek/Mediterranean yet, so we opted for Thai.

We decided to go to Thai Bistro in Cordova, TN. We all have been there before but don't go there often enough. As we assumed, the menu options and ingredients were quite appropriate for our goals! He had broccoli with chicken in oyster sauce. I had Pad Woonsen with no added meat. It had veggies, sprouts, rice noodles, and eggs in a light sauce. (They do not over-sauce their dishes at Thai Bistro.) The broccoli in my husband's dish looked like someone had just gotten it from the garden to put it in his dinner.

What he left on his plate, his mom took home for her lunch today. What I had left on mine came to work with me for my lunch.

Since Monday, our dinners have consisted of:

• Shrimp in a homemade creamy tomato soup (Italian-style with Ancini de Pepe pasta)


• Crab-stuffed flounder (the Flomlette) with steamed zucchini/yellow squash/onions, sauteed baby portobello mushrooms.


• Tuna curry (made by my mother-in-law - one of hubby's all-time favorites)


• And our Thai last night.

I have salmon thawing in the fridge for tomorrow. The weather should be nice so hubby will grill that!

We have taken left-overs for lunch most days. We have each had one pre-packaged frozen entree for lunch because they were already in the freezer. Once those are gone, we will buy them less frequently (if at all). I will be exploring ways to create good lunches for us that are in keeping with our "real food" commitment.

I'm really amazed that my husband has taken to this change so well. He really wants to change how he eats and that means he must change what he eats. I don't think he has had more than one Coca-Cola this week. As a result, he said he has lost some weight. I'm really proud of his willingness to try new things and to participate in making changes in how we eat. When everyone in the family is on board, things are so much easier!

Day 4 of the 28-Day Real Food Challenge

It is very interesting how the same idea is circulating all over.

Last weekend, I read Food Rules by Michael Pollan. I really like his plain-spoken writing style and what he put in that book made a lot of sense to me.

I remember eating veggies grown in my grandparents' and my parents' gardens as a kid. I also remember how much I hate cutting okra and how much I still don't like to eat it.

I remember the fruits my grandparents grew: strawberries, blueberries, pears, peaches, apples, and figs while wild blackberries grew on their property for cobblers and jams.

My grandfather raised beef cattle and when I was a tot, he owned a dairy farm. Fresh milk - raw milk - straight from the cow is something most Americans have never had the opportunity to try. That is a shame!

I was raised on REAL foods but I have stopped eating real foods. My grandmother is 88 years old and may be in better health that I am. She's definitely in pretty amazing shape compared to her counterparts!

Today, I read an article on CNN.com by Madison Park entitled An Inconvenient Challenge: Eat "Real Food" for a Month. The article features nourishedkitchen.com's challenge to eat non-processed foods for a month. I decided to sign up for the challenge. Yes, it is four days into the month, but my husband and I actually started trying to eat only "real foods" on Monday, March 1. We were doing it before we knew about the challenge.

So, how's it going? Well, honestly, I spent twice as much at the grocery store on Sunday than I normally do. I loaded the basket with veggies and meats. I selected organic milk produced on a farm where cows get to eat grass and organic grains. I bought FISH. We don't typically eat fish. I bought shrimp, flounder, and salmon.

I did buy processed pasta. I am not ready to make everything we eat from scratch quite yet!

Thus far, the week has gone well. We have eaten more fruits and vegetables than normal. We have reduced our portion sizes of meat and increased portion sizes of veggies at meals. We are not drinking soft drinks (except for that diet dr pepper I had on Monday). We are drinking coffee, but the hubby has started using agave sweetner instead of refined white sugar.

We will not cut out all processed foods immediately. I don't think it's practical and I do not want to waste foods we have already purchased. Unopened items can be donated, but opened bags of pasta, rice, etc will be consumed in smaller portions and less frequently, perhaps, but throwing things out is not something I can do.

I have been researching bread recipes so I can make bread. I have gathered some "from scratch" dessert recipes, too. I don't know that I've ever made a cake from scratch before, but I will give it a try!

I'll keep posting our experiences with eating real foods and finding real foods. I have called my mother to ask if she can come up after the last freeze and help me plant a vegetable garden. Of course, she said she would. I'll post about that experience and what I am able to produce for my family myself. It should be interesting to see how my lifestyle changes and what impact these changes make on our health.