After posting a little while ago about my inspiration to go really, truly vegan and maybe even raw, I back-slid horribly. We've been SO busy! Between the chaos, needing to go grocery shopping, and my kitchen being a constant mess with no time to clean, we ended up eating out a lot this week. I tried to do good some days- I got a smoothie and half a sandwich at a cafe, and another smoothie through a drive through. Although, who knows what they *really* put in those smoothies! Probably not a lot of real fruit. Some other days we ended up grabbing granola bars and chips at a gas station and apple dippers and fries at McDonald's. (did you know that the fries there don't have potatoes in the ingredients? yuck!)
Today, I was planning to go grocery shopping, but first I had to run some errands in an unfamiliar part of town. I just happened to see a farm stand and decided to stop. I'm so glad I did! Mostly local, no-spray produce at good prices. I got apples, bananas, oranges, plums, strawberries, peaches, cherries, potatoes, tomatoes, cantaloupe, broccoli, cucumber, and mango. Tomorrow I'll go to the garden to pick peas and beans. Then Wednesday I'll go to the farmer's market and get anything else I'm missing. Raw foods- here we go!
D is getting more serious about it too. He has a lot of health problems, and every time he feels particularly awful for a few days in a row, he vows to get healthy with me. He does well for a few days or a week, and then falls back into old habits. But each time, less time goes between vowing to get healthy, and the fall back isn't as bad. I've always eaten healthier than him, but it would really help me if he's on board. I admire women who can eat well even when their husbands don't. I just don't have that kind of self control when he cooks.
I don't want to make any kind of big commitment that we aren't going to keep. I'm not going to say that we're going 100% raw. I just want our day to day lifestyle to be mostly raw and vegan, and then not stress about it. I just want it to become a habit. But I also don't want to get into a rut of feeling guilty or making food our number one concern. And once we get some health issues cleared up, I'm not opposed to eating local, organic meat and raw milk, as long as we are feeling well. That's the most important thing I think we have to learn- how to listen to our bodies to find out how different foods affect us.
Hubby only eats somewhat healthy because he hates to cook and I do all the cooking :) I do compromise though and make him the occasional treat that I almost always stay away from. Having a weekly food plan does wonders for me. We don't eat many different things which makes the shopping list easy but I keep it as organic and natural as possible. My once a week shopping trip and grocery budget does wonders too. I know that one day is devoted to grocery shopping... then the rest falls in place. It saves time, money and gas too :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe shooting for such a high raw diet is encouraging the back-and-forth habit. Try making a goal you guys can stick with, give one thing up at a time. Or foods you can't give up, say "We're making this for dinner the first day of the month" (or pick a regular date on the calendar) and DO IT! Do it until you notice it making you feel unwell, then you'll have the motivation not to.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you guys can commit to a raw breakfast at first and make no other changes. Or do a raw meal per day, plus give up ___ for good.
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ReplyDeleteCeanne, I keep trying to make a meal plan each week. Sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't. I need to get better about it. When I do the grocery shopping it's easy, because I get all healthy stuff and then there's only healthy stuff in the house. But he likes to come with me.... he's doing better than he used to though. Also, I hate cooking and he likes to cook, so that doesn't help us any. Do you have a meal calendar or something? How do you organize your meals and then your shopping?
ReplyDeleteAnnalise, that's a good idea. I do a raw breakfast or lunch about half the time, and the majority of our snacks are raw. It's dinner "meals" that get us or when we are too busy to go grocery shopping. I gave up MSG, HFCS, most sugar (I use honey for baking), artificial dyes and preservatives a long time ago. I still grab the occasional thing with those ingredients when we are busy and out of the house, but mostly I don't eat them. So, for D the small changes like you suggested would be good. For me, the only step left to make is to go totally raw/vegan, and just not succumb to the temptation of his cooking when he does it. We are keeping a food journal now and writing down how we feel each day, so that should help with really seeing how the food is affecting us