Week One: New Bread

The first week.  I changed the bread products.

Remember my first post about the whole wheat bread.  I knew I had to get rid of the Aunt Millies or the Koepplingers's that I use to buy.  Our bodies are not made to digest the high amounts of carbohydrates that are consumed in the "typical diet".  I'm talking about bread, cereal, pasta, corn (a grain, not a vegetable), rice, potatoes, and processed cakes and snacks.  Oh yes, I was eating at least one of those things for every meal and snack and so were my kids.  Sometimes my snacks were purely one of those things.  Cutting out carbs is not the answer though.  It's changing your perspective of what a carb is.  Fruits and vegetables are also high in carbohydrates.

My new and only bread is the Food for Life Ezekiel 4:9 (seen above).  It's organic, free of preservatives and a sprouted whole grain bread.  Yes, that was a new term for me too.  The process of sprouting changes a grain’s composition in numerous ways to make it more beneficial. The sprouting process greatly increases the content of vitamins.  Sprouting also breaks down the complex sugars responsible for intestinal gas and transforms a portion of the starch into sugar. It also inactivates aflatoxins, which are toxins produced by fungus and potent carcinogens often found in grains (Chek 2004).  I was amazed that this bread was actually available at the Meijer I typically shopped at, but in the freezer.  Which I keep it in at home, since it's shelf life is a day without the preservatives.  The gluten free tortillas were next to them so I picked up a package of those since eating tortillas for lunch is typical for us.  So what's the price tag you are wondering for this wonderful bread?  Well at Meijer it is $4.59, but I found it at Trader Joes for closer to $4.00 and it was $3.00 on sale at a nearby "specialty health store".  But, it is very thinly sliced so a loaf lasts my husband and I pretty close to a week. I highly recommend you try it just once!

Now for my kids, they were not into it.  So, I buy a organic multigrain bread for them at Trader Joe's.  Therefore, hitting my goals of reducing the gluten (with the other grains than wheat) and eliminating the preservatives (mystery ingredients) in the bread.  They like it better than the old bread and it's about a dollar more than the old stuff.  But, it fills them up faster, so they only need a slice and typically would eat two slices of the old stuff.  So, it's probably equivalent in the end.

While I was at Trader Joe's I got them whole wheat tortillas too.  The rice tortillas were not a hit with them either.  They are crispy when you heat them, turning close to a chip.  They don't like crispy (I however do).  There are so many "interesting" ingredients in tortillas, seriously take a look.  Got rid of those this week. 

I also ditched the idea of buns.  The gluten free ones I found were not natural.  I'm sure natural ones are out there.  I haven't found them yet.  But, the kids still get the whole wheat, preservative free buns from Trader Joe's.  I use my SWG bread for now or sometimes use a different carb like potatoes.  For me I enjoy a cheese burger without the bun with a side of oven roasted potato spears.  No, problem giving up the bun this way. 

So, this was a lot of extra money spent on these organic bread products, right?.  Well, I skipped all the packaged foods I typically buy.  I knew I was going to eliminate them, so I wasn't going to buy replenishment for the pantry.  This week we will eat what we what we have and I actually spent about $30 less this week! 

Summary:

Scratched off the shopping list: 
- the typical shelf bread, tortillas and buns
- all the processed, packaged foods (yikes I better find replacements next week!)

Added: 
-organic, preservative free bread (found in the freezer, quite likely, in regular supermarkets)
- preservative free rice tortillas for the adults (also found in freezers of typical grocery stores)
- whole wheat, preservative free tortillas for the kids 

My New Goals in Eating:

As with any project I take on, I made some realistic goals.

For myself:
1. Significantly reduce gluten (later I pretty much eliminated, realizing I was much more intolerant to gluten than I thought, but that's another story)
2. Eliminate processed foods, meaning eat foods in their most natural forms
3. Eat protein with every meal and snack

For my family:
1. Take gluten out of snacks.
2. Eliminate processed foods
3. Give them less carbs from bread (pretty close to number 1)

So why would I give up all these foods?  I really didn't give up anything.  I found healthier substitutes, they leave me feeling better.  I found I actually enjoy eating these foods more.  I have not spent more money on groceries either since I am substituting new foods for less the healthy alternatives I use to buy.  I've also noticed a change in my children's behavior too.  They are happier and less temperamental.  With the addition of protein in every meal and snack I don't get the sugar crashes between meals and snacks and I'm pretty sure my kids don't either. 

Of course, it would be way too overwhelming to change everything at once.  So, I made a small goal each week, changing just a few foods, taking as long as I need to completely convert to achieve all my goals.  I will admit, that first trip to the store I felt a bit out of my comfort zone.  I am a typical sale shopper, coupon cutter.  These foods don't often go on sale or have coupons, so I realized I had to be a bit more creative.  I began buying foods I had never bought before and for much more than I typically paid for those types of foods.  But, the key was, I left a lot of foods off my list, making the total price equivalent when I went to check out.  But, I was a bit anxious leaving some "comfort" foods behind.  Later I found I enjoyed my new foods much more as they were delicious and left me feeling great and not hungry for longer periods of time.

And so the journey begins...

So where did I get this idea?  Who wakes up one day and is like, "I know I'm going to get rid of all processed foods.  Yah, that sounds like a great idea."  Well I think it was looming for quite some time.  I was getting tired of giving my children crackers, granola bars, etc. that were said to be healthy, but I kinda of knew they weren't really.  They were whole wheat.  But, what about all those extra ingredients I didn't know what they were? Things like inverted sugar, calcium phosphate, turmeric oleoresin, malt syrup, oligofructose, polydextrose, diacetyl tartaric and soy lecithin.  And partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, well I knew those were bad.  But, hey that's what's available, right?  Then there was the meat, it just didn't look so good.  What about those chicken breasts that weighed a pound and a half.  Come on, I knew chickens don't grow like that normally.  So, what are they doing to make them grow like that.  The milk that tasted pretty much like water, hmm.  I also noticed that I was gaining some weight and feeling lethargic most of the day even though I was eating "healthy", living an active life and sleeping at least seven hours a night.  "Why do I feel like this", I wondered.  I came across an article that said "Are these "healthy" foods making you fat?".  Hmm, I thought I better take a look at this.  Most on the list I knew about margarine, artificial sweetners, orange juice.  But, what caught my eye was whole wheat bread.  Whole wheat bread!  I eat that everyday, and most of the products I eat are whole wheat.  It was linked to a forty minute video.  I was interested, had the time, so I watched it.  It was eye opening and thought "Hey, what could I loose.  I will try it."  It was for Beyond Diet.  It's more than a diet to loose weight (I wasn't interested in that).  It was a website put together in a way that made it easier for me to eat healthy and make better food choice.  I tried her suggested meal plan and after the first day was floored at how much better I felt.  It's been about three weeks now and the positive changes have not stopped.  I have felt great the whole time (except for when I accidentally bought sprouted wheat bread instead of sprouted whole grain bread, more on that later)  I'm not following it exactly because I'm not interested in loosing weight.  But, I love their recipe share, her daily articles about eating better and her resources about where to find healthy food.  I'm on a mission to make this work for the entire family especially small children.  The benefits are great and I want you to partake in them also.  So, I will share my findings with you as I take this journey in changing our diet for the healthier.  Here's to better eating (without extra time and money spent)!