This is a shot of my grocery cart earlier this week.
This view has come a long way. My cart once was full of bread, ice cream, frozen pizza (still an occasional purchase for Tommy), frozen all-in-one meals, cereal boxes (and boxes!), milk, lots of cheese, and more.
Improving our diet (and lifestyle) has been a slow but steady progress. Here are some of the small changes we've made over the past few years:
- Replacing all white flour foods with wheat options
- Replacing bread with tortilla wraps
- Choosing fruit as dessert versus baked goods (of course baked goods are always a fun treat on occasion!)
- Shopping in the outside aisles of the grocery store, with the exception of wandering up and down the Natural Foods aisles
- Swapping spices for sauces (or marinades) on meats (I made this change as soon as I realized how many marinades out there are made with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup)
- Avoiding pasta
- If we do have pasta during a meal, it is a side dish instead of a main dish and made with whole grain pasta
- Avoiding casseroles and creamy soups/sauces
- Regularly reading and educating ourselves about nutrition
- Choosing to go on a hike instead of to the movie theater
- Along the same idea, going on a long walk instead of renting a DVD
- Replacing unhealthy instant lunches with protein-packed green smoothies
- Learning to LOVE sweet potatoes!
- Replacing all processed sugar/syrups with one of the following: 100% pure maple syrup, liquid stevia and/or honey
- Replacing vegetable/canola/corn oil with coconut oil or applesauce in baked good recipes
- I'm currently working on teaching myself to drink coffee black... but it's a long process. ;)
- Using exclusively coconut oil or olive oil
I am a fan of doing things slow and steady. Instead of an overnight change that may fail quickly, we're tackling this issue in our lives one small step at a time. Every now and then I look up and realize... we've come a long way. And earlier this week I stopped to capture one of those moments with my camera phone. :)
Here's to the journey! We still have so much to learn.