Okay, so I think I’m on board for the October Unprocessed – 2012, starting TODAY. I know I sound very hesitant, and I am.
Partly because I think some pledged people go a bit too far with their views of “unprocessed” and it can drain the joy out of eating. LOL.
I like to use “Food Rules” by Michael Pollan as my reference to unprocessed eating instead. Using the ole “if grandma had it in her kitchen” rule as my guide.
I’m also a little hesitant, partly because I did it last year and IT WAS DIFFICULT! I feel like I’m gonna fail before I even start…..but I have to have a better attitude than that!
On a positive note, last year was very eye-opening. I lost a couple extra pounds, and so many of the guest authors on Andrew’s blog were awesome! I learned a lot!
So, yeah I’m going to try it again this year.
I had a few “considerations” last year and I have a few this year as well.
- Chocolate – I lean toward fair-trade brands. I feel it’s more important than worrying about a little soy and/or white sugar in the list of ingredients, which brings me to my second consideration.
- White Sugar – yes, I have white sugar in my cupboard. Again, it goes back to grandma’s kitchen. No, I don’t make a habit of using a lot of it, but I do use it for canning my jams/jellies, but I’m using a much smaller amount than most commercial preserves.
- White Flour – yep, I use white flour. I add it (sometimes up to half) in my homemade bread. What’s more important? Homemade bread with a little white flour or commercially made bread with only whole wheat? I’d rather control my ingredients and make it from scratch.
- Eating Out – Okay, this one is tough. We don’t eat out a lot, and I’m gonna try my hardest not to eat at any fast food or chain restaurants this month, but there might be days when I just need take-out Italian or Chinese. I’ll hoping to stick to local restaurants, but I’m not going to go too crazy and worry about the ingredients on the menu. All I can do is my best!
Here we go! Happy October 1st! And good luck to anyone taking the pledge!
Good luck, Debbie! I did this a couple years ago, and agree, it’s hard. But it’s also so eye-opening. It forces you to eat more fruits and veggies, which is great! But, sometimes when you are pressed for time, it’s hard to not grab something “convenient.”
Good for you for jumping in again!
I had some of the same reservations as you. I’d love to hear how you do this time around.
Well I already kind of blew it.
I’m in Whole Foods, noshing the samples. LOL> I didn’t even THINK about it first before sampling salsa, tortilla chips & pita chips. Luckily all those things are fairly unprocessed. I checked the ingredients list on the pita chip bag to be sure.
I gotta stop mindlessly eating like that!