Real Food Update II

It's been more than six months since we made our ten day commitment to real food and this has changed our diets in a significant way.  As a working mom I thought it would be challenging to maintain this change in our lifestyle but really it hasn't.  I still pack the girls lunches every day for school and while that is some days more challenging than others (especially since the daycare they attend is a nut free facility) it works out quite well and girls enjoy what we send.  

This is not to say that we NEVER eat processed foods, we do.  The girls still love a certain fast food chicken place and we still have crazy nights where we don't have a plan and end up there.  However, we do really well about 75-80% of the time and that is just fine with me. 

We've reached a good routine with our grocery shopping.  We know what stores have foods that qualify (have 5 identifiable ingredients or less) as real food  and we frequent them.  We were excited to hear that a big wholesale store that carries a lot of organics will be going in nearby.  We'd let our membership lapse because Greg no longer worked near the one that was closest to us and we can't wait till they open next summer!

We've planted a couple of raised garden beds next to the house.  We got them going a little late so most of our harvest will be towards the end of August but we are good with that.  There are plenty of farmer's markets around here where we can pick up lots of fruits and veggies and there is always our veggie delivery service. 

I think honestly our biggest challenge is balance.  How do we balance our desire to make sure the girls eat a real food diet with the reality of our society?  They are in a class of 20 kids and that comes out to a birthday treat every couple weeks.  Combine that with Easter, St. Pattie's Day, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc and all of a sudden the occasional treat is not so occasional anymore... How as parents do we balance that?  We don't want the girls to feel left out but we don't want them to take in so many refined sugars and junk.  We haven't really quite figured out the balance yet.  We've talked the girls a lot about what foods are good for them and what foods we should have occasionally and that seems to help a lot.  

The girls have a preference for fruits and veggies over these foods so that helps a lot.  I bought donuts for them for breakfast on the 4th of July and they each ate about a quarter of the donut and then we tossed them.  L followed that up by eating a ginormous bowl of raspberries we'd picked the day before.  So for now we don't have a hard and fast rule for what treats are allowed and what is not, the real goal is to keep teaching them about where food comes from so that in time they will learn moderation and how to make the decisions for themselves.