Try Something New: Real Food

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by Renae Chiovaro on February 27, 2013

Vegetables

For the last year I have been on a healthy living journey with my family. We have slowly made changes in our diet adding in more produce and cutting back on the unhealthy foods. Right after Christmas, several people I knew had been diagnosed with cancer. It really hit me hard since in a weeks time cancer had effected four different people of various ages. The hows and whys filled my mind. I honestly believe that some illnesses are related to ingredients in foods and products we use.

For the last two months, I have been working on getting rid of processed foods in our diet. I am cooking as many items from scratch as I can. I read the labels on packages more closely- keeping an eye out for ingredients I can’t pronounce and for MSG.

So what do I mean by real food?

Well, I try to buy mostly foods that are in their original form or that have minimal ingredients. That means I use a lot of produce, grains, flour and seasonings to make our meals. Instead of buying a box to make something (like Mac & Cheese), I try to make it homemade.

I know what you are thinking- it’s time consuming. I was scared about the time commitment too. However, it has been a whole lot easier that I anticipated. I do a lot of prep work on the weekends to make my work week cooking quicker. The health benefits outweigh the few minutes extra it takes to prepare things from scratch.

We are not on a perfect real food diet yet. Almost, but there are some occasions when something processed will sneak into our meal plan. Since we have made the switch, I have felt great! I have also lost weight- 7 pounds since January (of course I am working out too so it’s not just food that has made the weight loss difference!).

If you have been contemplating about cutting our processed food- DO IT! Once you get into a routine, you will see that it really isn’t difficult to do.

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Renae Chiovaro

Renae is a married working mom of two handsome boys. She works as a registered dental hygienist by day and blogs here at How to Have it All by night. She enjoys cooking from scratch, working in her vegetable garden and functional training.

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