Me and my challenges.
In surfing around the internet I often stumble upon challenges and I love to see if I can do them. Goodreads had the read 26 books, each whose title starts with a different letter of the alphabet all in a year. Flylady wants me to get my house clean in 15 minute increments (can I do it faster?). The no excuses man wants me to exercise every day for at least 10 minutes; can I do more? Can I cook every recipe in a cookbook? Can I cook the cover dish of every cooking magazine I recieve? It goes on and on. The things that amuse me. It never bothers me if I don't complete the challenge, I'm not competing against anyone else. I just like to see what I can do.
Last week I stumbled up the "Real Food Challenge"
True, there weren't a lot of details about what we'd be asked to do for the month of February, but I'm always up for eating healthier. So I signed up.
This morning the first challenge greeted me in my mailbox.
Clean Your Cupboards it boldly demanded.
The challenge is to start with a clean slate and a kitchen full of healthy ingredients. I think my kitchen is pretty good other than perhaps those two last boxes of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies from last year still hanging around. But, are they not better in the cupboard than in me?
After reading the list it is very clear that my list of healthy is much more lenient that the challengers. I knew this, her tag line is "where real food gets political" but still.
No refined oils, white flour, sugar, dairy (though interesting it's the low and skim products she specifies - could that heavy cream really be ok?), essentially nothing that comes in a box or package.
She suggests donating to a food bank - what, the poor don't deserve to "eat clean"? There are also suggestions for using up items in non-edible ways like turning that salt (yes, salt is forbidden!) and oil into a nice scrub.
I'm resisting already.
While I'm happy to toss those old cookies and the ancient package of Rice Krispies, I'm really not willing to toss the whole grain pastas, the dairy nor the whole grain, fat free crackers which sometimes just really cure the "crunch" crave.
Forget tossing the white flour, salt or the sugar. That just isn't to be considered.
True, we nearly always have 100% whole grain breads around here; there are just times when only white will do. Same with rice. It's nearly always brown in this house, but occasionally white rice is just what a dish needs. I just don't have a problem with the less then stellar foods being a "sometime" event.
I think sort of clean is good enough for me.
Those of you who are really inspired to be clean can even do the bonus rounds of removing all foods that contain more than one ingredient or removing all sweeteners, natural or not.
I'm not that dedicated.
So, how clean are you willing to eat?
-- marcella
My kitchen cabinets are (sort of!) organized, but my food supply in the garage is another story. I managed to get some of the really old stuff pitched and when I get all the "holes" closed where critters can invade I plan on RE-organizing that space too. Eliminating many of the things the Real Food Challenge, OTOH, is NOT on my calendar!
I've managed to switch to all organic foods (which wasn't nearly as hard as I expected, though it took 2 months in a household of One - I imagine it would be harder with a whole family to feed). I do, however, keep pre-made whole grain pastas and such on hand. I'm all for making things from scratch when possible, but there are just some days when time doesn't permit. So, I would say, I'm willing to eat clean all the time - but am not always able to! :) A dose of realism is a healthy thing, I think, and mostly clean is reasonable to me.
Well, I think the healing of the knee comes first of all. It's amazing how fast the chores pile up. I would swear I had just organized the pantry shelves out in the garage but the could sure use some neatening up again.
Well, I think the healing of the knee comes first of all. It's amazing how fast the chores pile up. I would swear I had just organized the pantry shelves out in the garage but the could sure use some neatening up again.
We do pretty well with organics and not eating too many processed foods but I'm with you. It just isn't always reasonable to have the time to make the pasta and some other items like that. I think it will be finding the right balance of what I am willing to give on and what we are not.