It's the First Day of the Rest of My Life (kind of dramatic but I'm trying to pump myself up)!

After much influence from my mom and my cousin Jason in Colorado-I have decided to try to sacrifice the convenience and my love of crappy food during this Lenten season. I stress the word LOVE now because I love food....fast food, dessert, fried food, etc. Yet, after watching the movie Forks over Knives

(available to watch instantly on Netflix for those who are interested), and listening to the wisdom of my MUCH older cousin (ha, ha, Jason), I have realized the danger that eating our current diet is putting us in. Joe and I both have a history of heart disease in our families and I want to spend as much time on this Earth with both him and our kids. So we are going to be trying out a whole foods (mostly plant based) diet for the next 40 days. I know it's going to be hard, and I'm sure I will slip up, but I'm not going to let that deter me! As a hard working mother and wife, I deserve to be healthy and happy and I think that eating the right foods will be a great step in the right direction.

Numerous long term studies have shown that eating a whole food diet can greatly reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer as well as providing numerous other benefits. The sad thing is, that in the United States, the American Dietetic Association, USDA (the governing bodies who recommend what foods we should be eating) are controlled by food corporations who are making money off the Standard American Diet that is high in meats, dairy, and CORN SYRUP. The pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars each year on our chronic illnesses. We need to start changing our diets now so we can help prevent our children from the obesity epidemic that is overtaking our country.

I recently had lunch with my kids at school and was appalled at the hot lunch options offered to our children. Most of the fruits and vegetables they are offered comes out a can (loaded with sugars and sodium). The meat is often unrecognizable (I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be chicken or beef underneath the gravy that day). Some of the offerings at my kids school: mozzarella dippers (since when are sticks of cheese considered a main meal?), mini corn dogs, hot dogs, nachos, and lots of pizza. We have always packed our kids lunch, and while I admit to throwing in a bag of chips now and then, I am confident that the food I was sending with them was much more nutritious than the food they would get at school. 

I KNOW that it is going to be hard to get my kids on board with this whole foods way of eating (my daughter lives off macaroni and cheese and pancakes). It will be a challenge to try to find healthy alternatives to these things (but I found a great whole wheat pancake mix at the store today) but if we don't have unhealthy food available in the house, they will be forced to choose from the fruits and vegetables that are available. We will see how it goes and I will keep you all updated!! Stay tuned for a post tomorrow showing our first day of menus containing only whole foods.