It’s time for a new month…

I really do not like January.  No idea why – maybe its coming down from the hype of the holidays or maybe the weather.  In any case, I’m so glad tomorrow starts a new month. 

The good thing is that Andrew and I have done very well this month with our health and fitness routine.  I’m starting week 5 of insanity this week and loving it so far.  I have a ton of energy and feel so much better.  This program really does work.  We’re also sticking with a nutrition plan during the week which has helped.  Monday-Friday are super healthy meals with no coffee, wine or soda.  Saturday’s are “eat and drink whatever we want” days and Sundays are a combo.  I love brunch so we compromise.  It was really hard to get used to but now we’re settled in a routine.  Healthy food and regularly exercise are truly the secrets to feeling great and living a better life.  We’re hooked. I now cringe when someone wants to go out for Mexican food!

My nutrition kick started quite a few years back when we made some adjustments on what types of food we buy at the grocery store.  Through the years, I’ve done a lot of personal research on where our food comes from and was appauled at some of the things I found.  I first read about the truths about fast food in Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation which also became a major motion picture.  Check out this book – you will never crave fast food again.  After I read that book, I never ate at McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and other “major” FF joints again.  There are still some “good” FF places I will eat at today, Chick Fil-A, Subway (veggie only though- avoid the lunch meat there!) and Chipolte to name a few, but that has become a rare occasion when I truly need something quick.  It’s very hard when you live in a city where food as a convenience is all around you.

Since then, we made the investment (and it is an investment in your life!) to only shop at Whole Foods and/or Central Market 99% of the time.  We try to buy organic when it makes sense but we also switched over our pasta and bread choices to spelt (sprouted wheat).  We are very lucky that our local Central Market makes spelt bread on the weekends and carries spelt pasta.  We also made the switch to buying 90% perishable items when we shop each week.  That means nothing that contains preservatives (no jars, cans or boxed foods) and a lot of things are made from scratch and could spoil with 5-6 days.  At first this was time consuming as we had to look up recipes for everything but now I can whip up an amazing pasta sauce or really anything from scratch within 10-15 minutes.  And it tastes SO much better!! We also heavily invested in spices – we have an entire draw dedicated to spices!  We must have over 100 types of spices on hand.  This makes cooking from scratch super yummy and easy!  We also only buy organic milk and dairy products, when possible.  For your typical gallon of milk at your local grocer, I was shocked to learn at how much hormones they inject into cows to produce more milk.  You are essentially drinking hormones!!!

We try to mix things up each week and never make the same thing more than 2x per month.  We enjoy cooking this way and trying new things so it makes it super easy.  Right now, I’m addicted to allrecipes.com for most of our meals.  I love how I can type in what ingredients we have on hand and it will bring up some great recipes.  We’ve also taken some cooking classes while on our international travels but also at local places in Houston.  This keeps things fresh and interesting.  As for meat, we eat a lot of organic, free range chicken; grass-fed beef; lamb, turkey, fresh caught shrimp and fish (mainly snapper).  We don’t eat pork – I know its the ”other” white meat but I just can’t eat an animal who lays in its filth all day.  I’ve also started to push Andrew to eat more veggie meals but I usually have to surprise him with it.  He’s very much a meat guy so its been an adjustment!

If you are curious about where your food comes from, I highly encourage you to read the book and see the movie, Food Inc.  It will really make you think about the types of foods you buy from the store and also what you eat at your local family restaurant.  There is a reason that “value meals” exist in this country.  You pay for what you get.

I didn’t mean to get on my soapbox but this is a topic I’m very passionate about.  I sometimes wish I could go back to school and become a nutritionist to better educate people about this important subject.  I hope some of my resources in this post will help you make better eating decisions for your family, and most importantly, yourself!