What I'm Eating.....

...Real food.
End of post......
Not really!

Remember the old food pyramid that advised us to have 6-11 servings of grains?! I hear it is getting updated once again. I offer for consideration the Real Food pyramid. I've been working towards this model for over a week. It requires a lot of thinking at first and I'm taking a gradual approach because there are a lot of things that are hard to give up/replace in order to LOVE what I'm eating and in order to cover all of my dietary needs - for example - protein and calcium.

For me, the most important thing to get away from is stuff that comes in packages and contains very little to NO food. Take a box of Kraft Dinner - one of Canada's favourite "foods". I've eaten a mountain of KD over the years starting when I was a wee tot and you could buy 2 boxes for 15 cents! BUT - it contains next to NO real food and provides no nutritional value. All it does is taste good and fill you up. Well, as a single parent sometimes those are the choices I've had to make. I get queasy thinking back to when Kazi's favourite lunch "food" was Zoodles!! I mean there is no such real food called a zoodle!!  So NO more. No more mystery foods!

Getting enough protein is easy as we love eggs, chicken, turkey and fish/shellfish and we eat lots of vegetables for every meal. Calcium is harder though I take a supplement along with vitamin D every day. I have to start examining labels on yogurt, cottage cheese and other cheeses to see which ones contain food but no chemicals. Sticking with organic should do the trick. I don't drink milk except for soy milk and again I stick with organic as I'd like to stay non-GMO as close to 100% as possible.

I'm not craving anything, so far. I will make things to satisfy my sweet tooth. With my Vitamix I can make my favourite food - ICE CREAM - by mixing soy milk and frozen berries. I will try to substitute honey, maple syrup, raw sugar or other natural sweeteners to re-create my favourite oatmeal cookies and scones. It can be done, it just requires some thought.

My hope is to have a stronger and healthier body. The body doesn't know what to do with UNreal foods so it stores it as fat. UNreal foods don't boost your immune system, don't strengthen your muscles, don't build bone etc. It all turns to FAT. I should know. I have a nice belly made out of licorice, ice cream, candy, pretzyls and chocolate bars. (Pssssst! I'm not giving up chocolate - just making better selections! There are choices that are organic and contain only real ingredients!)

Today I am eating:
Breakfast - organic green tea, 1% cottage cheese with raspberries
Lunch - falafel mixture (ground chicken, green/red peppers, onions, garlic and spices) over a bed of romaine
Mid-afternoon - organic green tea/cheese/half grapefruit
Dinner - green beans, cauliflower and broccoli, grilled shrimp, green salad (spinach, grape tomatoes, cucumber, onion, red pepper)
Before bed - a small yogurt

I'd like to think I can stay away from NONfood products but I know I'll want Dairy Queen eventually (VERY MUCH NOT A REAL FOOD) and I'll enjoy it! But I will try to keep to meals made from Real Food. It's a work in process!