Real Food is Real(ly) Simple

Okay, so some may call my attempts to be the next big thing in blogging an epic fail.  I’ll take it.  Boy, this whole Mom gig is a lot more time consuming than I imagined!  I dreamed that my maternity leave would be a paradise in which I would accomplish all the things I’ve been putting off, like printing out all of my photos from the past few years and organizing them into albums and finally starting that blog I’ve been meaning to get to.  And now that I’m back at work, fitting in time to catch up on my Real Housewives in five minute increments throughout the week seems like a true win in my book.

Now, I’m certainly not the only new mom out there who hardly has time to breathe some days.  One thing that hasn’t fallen by the wayside, however, is the commitment to ensuring Husband and Baby F are well fed.  This is definitely a dual effort and would be impossible without help from Husband.  However, there are weeks when the prepped foods counter at Central Market gets frequent visits from the Fennell family.

Eating healthfully and providing your family with nutritious meals isn’t, and shouldn’t ever be, rocket science.  Often times, though, food can get so complicated that giving up before we even try to make positive changes seems the easier option.  And who can blame you?  Supermarkets are a jungle nowadays.  Trying to navigate them has become so difficult that grocery stores now have on-site Dietitians and employees dedicated to help you find food to feed your family.

There is a lot of grey area when it comes to getting the “perfect” diet.  Most people tend to rabbit hole themselves into finding the new magical berry that will melt away cellulite or micromanage their nutrient intake to an exact gram amount before eventually going off the deep end.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. You will never achieve optimal health by solely focusing on the quantity of food you’re eating without addressing the quality of your food first.  Food QUALITY makes for a solid diet foundation upon which all other dietary strategies thrive.

Here are FOUR things you can do today to improve the quality of your diet:

1. Eat REAL Food. Humans are not meant to survive on sodas, 100-calorie packs, and fat-free yogurt.  These foods have crept into our diets within the past century along with diabetes, obesity, and a myriad of other lifestyle related diseases.  We survived on food from the earth, both plants and animals, for several thousand years up until recently.  If I was a betting person, I’d put my money on avoiding our modern day convenience foods.
2. Ignore the Nutrition Facts Label. Yep, who cares if your TV dinner is only 200 calories if it’s made up of a combination of sugar, chemicals, and who knows what else? The ingredient list, if your food even requires one, is the most important item on the packaging you can look at to determine the health benefits (or deficits) of a food.
3. Eat Foods that can Go Bad. Foods that can “go bad” mean that there is still some vitality and integrity left from which we draw health enhancing nutrients.  Basically, the nutritional value hasn’t been depleted.  A great example of a food that seems healthy but is really considered “dead food” to me is whole-grain pasta.  There is no telling when the grains were harvested, what processing they went through to get into pasta form, and how long it has been sitting on the store shelf before we boil it to death.  Nutritional value = zilch.
4. Have Basic Go-To Foods on Hand for Easy Meals. I think 99% of our family meals are thrown together in under 5 minutes.  Some foods we always have ready and prepped in the fridge/freezer are cooked sweet potatoes, jasmine rice, boiled eggs, cut up salad greens, sliced veggies, a few cooked proteins, frozen vegetables (we like stir fry blends), and several options of frozen leftovers.  One day it may be 10-Minute Chicken Stir Fry for dinner and the next it’s Stuffed Sweet Potatoes all from our toolbox of grab-and-go meal prep items.

This is not a conclusive list of action steps to take to revolutionize your health, but is a rather great jumping-off point.  Sure, we didn’t tackle whether or not you’re eating Organic, Pasture Raised, Certified Humane, Non-GMO, Soy Free, Grain Free, Cage-Free, Everything-Free, etc. eggs or not yet, BUT, like I said, real food should be real(ly) simple.

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