Ever since I started watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 I've wanted to go organic. I knew as soon as I had kids I was for sure I was going to. Many times I would buy this or that and get halfway motivated and come up with a million excuses.
Today I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I am on board now.
If you haven't watched this program...DO IT! The foods we are putting into our bodies and into our children's bodies, when you really look at it, is DISGUSTING. I'll leave my opinion on chicken nuggets out of this entry. If you want to see it go here:
http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution
Really...do it...really.
Okay enough of my promo for ABC! After watching episodes 1 and 2 today here we go. There are a few issues with this little project of mine and some background.
In July I finally started the recovery process of an eating disorder that I've dealt with for the last 14 years. It has been an amazing journey in itself. In January I started counting calories, hard core. I have lost 30 pounds so far. I am totally positive about this journey and now that things are under control it is just a day to day process.
The majority of what I have been doing has been purely counting calories, which has included a whole lot of crap: low calorie or portioned controlled crap, but crap nonetheless. Am I losing weight? Yup. Am I getting healthier in the long run, by losing weight sure I guess, but I don't I think really am.
So here goes the organic. And the problems with organic.
Selection:
Granted I started this on a Sunday evening, but I live in Norman, Oklahoma, not exactly the hub of organic activity. I started at Walmart. I have heard to start small, replace one area of your eating at a time, but I never do anything halfass, so here we go. At Walmart I got long brown rice (because white rice has NO nutritional value, just empty calories!!!), all natural chicken breasts (best I could find), blueberry Greek yogurt, 2% milk (can't do skim, just can't do it), and granola. Onto Homeland. There I added all natural wheat bread, grape jelly, peanut butter, a ready to make risotto and chicken herb rice box, bananas, and morning blend orange/pineapple/papaya juice. Generally I don't like to get calories from beverages, but I figure what the heck.
I posted on facebook that I wanted to do this and asked for suggestions of stores to try here. I got these suggestions:
Native Roots Market
Forward Foods
The Earth
Dodson's Health Foods
I plan to try them all tomorrow.
Price:
Oh my gosh. This is expensive! Here is the breakdown:
Walmart:
Rice $2.97
Chicken $6.52
Yogurt $3.50
Milk $3.68
Granola $2.86 (it was on sale!)
Homeland:
Bread $2.99
Juice $4.19 (but $.20 off with my Homeland card!)
Grape Jelly $4.69
Roasted Chicken Rice Ready to Make box $2.79
Risotto Ready to Make box $3.99 (but $.23 off with my Homeland card!)
4 Bananas $1.23
and the WORST:
Creamy Peanut Butter $7.65!!!! Oh my gosh!!!
I looked at a can of green beans, regular at Walmart, what 80 cents, maybe? At Homeland, organic: $3.19! OUCH! Fresh food here we come!
Here is the plan for each day:
1 container yogurt 90 calories
1/3 cup granola 105 calories
1 cup of milk 120 calories
1 cup of juice 130 calories
PB&J sandwich:
1 slice of break 100 calories
1 Tbsp PB 95 calories
1 Tbsp jelly 40 calories
1 banana 105 calories
1/2 cup risotto 140 calories
1 cup brocolli/cauliflower/carrot steamers (not organic, but already in my freezer) 50 calories
1 baked chicken breast 7 oz about 200 calories
1/4 cup edemame pods 55 calories
Grand Total: 1230 calories, which at 1470 a day leaves me with some wiggle room
My Concern:
Time:
I am currently working 40 hours a week, taking 6 hours of grad school, lead a small group at my church, am one of the survivors' chairs for Relay For Life. I don't have time to cook, so I think. I need to make my health a priority instead of finding excuses, which is all time is. Tomorrow I can cook up several days of meals and have them ready to throw in the microwave.
BOREDOM!!!!
I love food! I love to cook! I am going to get bored with this prescribed menu quickly. I realize that I can't do this every day, so I am going to have to figure out how I can, economically, make my favorite recipes organically. I just bought Rocco Dispirito's new cookbook Now Eat This! After this trial week I'm going to see what I can switch up so I can still eat organically, but still have my favorite comfort foods.
We'll see how this goes. I think if I am holding myself accountable to this blog I'll have a better shot of sticking with it. We shall see!
