Before I get started, I need to tell you that while I was given a free .pdf version of Trina’s book, “Your Real Food Journey”, all opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.
If you were to answer a survey question of if you eat healthy, what would your answer be? Several years ago, I would have made a resounding yes, of course we eat healthy! That is, until I started learning about what real food really is compared to what we were eating. I suddenly wanted to change everything in our cupboards. And I did.
I grabbed boxes and bags and went through our cupboards eliminating anything and everything that wouldn’t be classified as real food. I started cooking differently, healthier meals. I stopped buying our typical processed products like crackers, candy, breaded foods and pastries.
And I became overwhelmed with it all. I became so overwhelmed with trying to do it all at once instead of taking steps like Trina has outlined in her new book, “Your Real Food Journey”, that I failed and we added some processed foods again… Which led me to feel like a failure on top of failing.
Just as changing your eating habits takes time, the fruit of those changes also takes time. Don’t let short-term setbacks distract you from the long-term goal. Continue to learn what you can, grow when you can, and build habits that build strong bodies in the long run.
When you become overwhelmed, even with a good thing, you tend to fail or at least I do. It’s not realistic to think you can go from being a non-runner to running a 5K overnight. You have to work up to that. In much the same way, you have to work on changing the way you eat and I appreciate Trina’s perspective on making real food a journey rather than the overnight switch that I tried to do.
Our goal is to eat as healthy as we can when we’re at home, so we don’t have to stress about food when we’re out and about. Some call this the 80/20 rule-eating as well as you can 80% of the time, so you don’t have to stress about the 20% you have no control over.
In “Your Real Food Journey”, Trina breaks things down. She gives you the where to start, how to get there, ideas to make it happen and stepping stones to sum it up.
How I wish I had read a book like this before going through my cupboards originally. I would have realized that while some things could have gone immediately, I didn’t have to go to the extreme and dive completely into changing everything overnight. And, I don’t need to feel guilty that my cupboards hold some things like white flour and sugar.
There will be days when you will struggle to please both parties-the voice in your head that is full of your accumulated real food knowledge, and the voice of reality that says you only have so much time or money or energy-they will be at odds with each other. You will have to make a choice that is a nod to both your ideals and your reality. You will have to compromise. And you know what? It will be okay. You will live. You will not die from one white flour/white sugar pound cake. Life will be full and rich and sweet. Stress need not flavor every meal you make.
So where are we at in the journey? Trina has re-inspired me, but honestly, we’re compromising. I mill our whole wheat and make our bread, but I have white flour on hand for treats. We’re using maple syrup and honey for some things, but I have sugar on hand for other things.
Be intentional in your food choices for your family, realizing that compromise will be a regular part of the process.
Our budget is tight so we might not be able to afford all the real food items that I would like to have on hand (honey and maple syrup are really pricey) but we’re trying with what we have and are back to thinking about what we eat.
“Your Real Food Journey” is only 144 pages so it can easily be read in one sitting. And it contains over 50 recipes to help one get started. You can purchase a copy of Your Real Food Journey by clicking one of these links: Buy PDF version; Buy Kindle version; Buy Paperback version.
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