Real Food

We started a 10 day real food pledge seven days ago.  We've been without refined sugars, preservatives, or store-bought convenience items for seven freaking days.  I found the pledge on www.100daysofrealfood.com but have since discovered 3058320923850 blogs and websites devoted to real food and I'm loving them all!  My bookmark tab is getting used like a cheap hooker these days thanks to all of these websites.

A lot of people have asked what we eat.  It's very simple: nothing from a box, nothing with sugar, nothing with more than 5 ingredients on the label. We eat organic whenever possible.  Everything is fresh and it's wonderful.  I have shifted our focus to fruits and vegetables rather than meats and processed foods.

Honestly, the first few days were pretty bad.  I was fatigued, grumpy, and depressed.  My face broke out like a 13-year-old boy as my body shed all of the toxins inside.  I wanted to eat junk food but I didn't at the same time.  I'll admit I caved one time and ate exactly one square of Hershey's dark chocolate.   I don't think that's too bad considering I was pretty much addicted to crappy food before.  I read that all of these things would happen, so they were expected.  We are now on day seven and I feel amazing.  I've been eating so well and preparing everything from scratch and it's honestly so refreshing. Surprise!  Real food fills you up way more than processed food!  Does this mean that we can't have sweets?  Not necessarily.  We can eat anything that is naturally sweetened with honey, maple syrup, or even Stevia.  I haven't tried Stevia yet, but I probably will once our 10 day pledge is over.  I'm really trying to stay away from anything super sweet and junky.  We went to VBS graduation last night for Superboy and were able to stay away from the crappy food fest that it was -- hot dogs, chips, cupcakes, and lemonade or sweet tea.  Superboy had a cupcake because I didn't want to look like the crazed lunatic that wouldn't let her kid have one freaking cupcake.  I may have wiped away some of the [ridiculous amount of] frosting while he wasn't looking though... hey, I didn't want the kid to go into some type of sugar shock since he hasn't had any in 7 days!  Overall, I'm incredibly proud of us.   No fast food for seven days is quite a feat for me, the drive thru queen. I was even tempted by Taco Bell but didn't get anything at all.  It just suddenly seems so uninteresting and gross to fill myself with crappy food.  I don't want to be one of those people that goes on a health kick and it fizzles out after a week or so, but this is honestly the best change we've ever made.  I definitely see us implementing this to the rest of our lives after the 10 day pledge is over.

I'll post some recipes later.  For now, I need to chase these boys around with my new found energy. :]

Love,
Supermom

Crafty Smafty!

We have been crafting up a storm in our house lately! We were on vacation last week and took a mini vacation the previous week, so we are finally getting back on track. We've been working on setting a home schedule for ourselves and making the most of what we have at home. I'm doing everything on a budget and it's been really fun so far! We've made finger puppets (Superbaby loves those), sock puppets, collages, color wheels, paintings, and watercolor murals so far. We've also been doing learning time and Superboy really loves that. :) we are having a great summer so far!

Here are some pictures of our most recent craft:

I took a 16"x20" canvas and spelled his name out with masking tape, then let him choose the colors he wanted and he went to town painting! When it was dry, we peeled off the paint and we had a cool picture for his room. Cheap. Easy. Fun. Just my style. :) He also left us a set of handprints on the front porch. Thanks a lot.