one of my new year resolutions (which has turned in to an obsession) is eating healthier. even though i haven’t read the michael pollan books yet, i did buy them and the ideas in his books (and others like them) have gotten a lot of attention lately. the big concepts i picked up on are: not eating anything that i don’t know what went in to it, not eating anything pre-packaged with more than 5 ingredients, and not eating anything that “doesn’t rot”.

all of this seems reasonable. if it doesn’t spoil, then its likely so saturated with chemicals and all sorts of nasty stuff. if it’s got more than 5 ingredients, it probably has a lot of additives and things i can’t pronounce or, worse, something that is so complicated they only refer to it as a acronym. and, with some exceptions, if i’m eating something and i don’t know what went in to it, then i probably don’t want to know what went in to it and shouldn’t be eating it.

so, now we’re almost a month in to it, and i have some observations:

1. it’s hard to find food that passes the filter. doing the grocery shopping, i look at the ingredients of everything now. this actually started last year, but i’m getting progressively more picky. and not only about the chemicals in the food, but about things like the salt content. it’s crazy how much stuff has added salt. canned vegetables? salt. and sugar? if its low sugar, then it’s got some chemical substitute. awesome! 

2. food that passes the filter is more expensive.  want the low sodium version of those canned vegetables? pay more. want something with less chemicals that’s labeled “organic”? pay more.  or…

3. it takes more work. i’m finding that if i want to know what’s in something, i have to make it. or watch it being made. that’s part of the trade-off, i think. you either pay more for the good stuff, or you make it yourself.  case in point, we bought a bread machine. even the “fresh” bread from the grocery store bakery has way too many ingredients. when i made bread, it had 2 kinds of flour, water, salt, an egg, and yeast. that’s it. and that’s all it needed. sure, it wasn’t conveniently cut in to sandwich slices, but it tasted great, will actually wind up being cheaper in the long run (once the costs of the bread machine are covered), and it really wasn’t THAT hard to make. there was an incident with the recipe i used and how big the loaf turned out to be (it reached the top…oops). but we also made a cinnamon swirl bread that required a little extra work but was worth it. see below for the giant bread…

i’m really trying to not go too overboard with any of this, but it’s in my nature to go overboard on just this sort of thing. i’ll obsess, and go to extremes. i think that’s part of the reason i haven’t read the books yet. i know what they are going to do to me, and i’m trying to prep myself and brace myself and get that tattoo of “everything is okay in moderation”, which is (mostly) true.

 i have made some exceptions to the rules. i will never read the ingredients of e.l. fudge. i don’t want to know, because i know if i did know, i know that i wouldn’t be able eat them. and as the name implies, everyone loves fudge!  

 even with the rules and the restrictions, it’s really not that bad. i’m finding new recipes that taste awesome. we’re even finding 15 minute meals that are healthy and tasty, instead of buying the skillet meals that are loaded with all kinds of garbage. i’m getting better about buying things in in larger portions and freezing leftovers.  there is a sense of accomplishment with making things from scratch. over the weekend, i made lasagna (mostly) from scratch. handmade noodles, homemade sauce. enough for lunches, and frozen leftovers for a quick meal. the effort of making that one meal turns in to providing at least 4 meals. 

i think we’ve even better so far this year than we have in a long time. we have total control over carbs, and fat, and every ingredient going in to what we eat.  my body likes it, and i like the feeling that we’re living better, and it’s providing motivation to work out and do more active things.  

sure, the vegetables we’re using were sprayed with pesticides. 2 dinosaurs were killed to provide the fuel it took for my tomato to get to the grocery store. the chicken was cruelly treated and genetically altered. the milk we’re drinking isn’t fit for a calf with all the hormones that are in it. but that is a problem to be solved by next year’s resolution.