Let's do this!

Meal planning: done
Pantry: purged
Shopping: done
Fridge: cleaned out and organized
Temptations: eliminated (barring Olive's potty treats)
Regrets: none
Morale: we are so pumped!

The question I keep asking myself is: "What took us so long to make the change?" It got me thinking about other areas of my life that lack purpose and intention. It is so easy to go with the flow and respond rather than initiate (I'll stop there because a I feel a sermon coming on).

I have to tell you about an excellent resource that Judie Busch (the wife of Greg Busch, a stud elder at GBC) passed on to Kelsey; the book is titled, "Good Food, Great Medicine." It was written by a doctor from Portland. Kelsey loves it. Another good resource, Kelsey Willard. She is the queen of granola. Oh, and one more, The Nourishing Gourmet. We like their site so much that we've added it to our favorites list.

Here is a quick update on our food cost. Keep in mind our goal is to stay under $350 each month for all food and household items. But we recognize that we may spend more the first month.

• $62 for everything at Winco, shout out to their Bob's Red Mill bulk section!
• $10 at Great Harvest
• $92 at Costco
• $89 at Trader Joe's
• $36 at New Seasons

We should be solid for the next 2 1/2 -3 weeks.

Tonight we're having: whole roasted chicken, grilled asparagus, and french potato salad. Bon appetit.

Shop til we drop

So most of the feedback we've gotten so far has been, "It (eating only unprocessed foods) is going to be so expensive!" While it's true whole unprocessed foods cost more and processed foods cost less (due to their longer shelf life), we're not expecting to spend a ton more money. Presently, our food, eating out, coffee, and household items budget is $275 per month. With our new eating plan we are budgeting for $350 per month. Although initially we think we'll spend more stocking our cupboards with the essentials. The additional $75 is for more fresh produce and the premium you pay for things like pure maple syrup and uncooked raw honey. We'll keep you posted on the food budget. We're going for as much transparency as possible.

We had a good time shopping last night. We went to Trader Joe's (cheap), Costco (awesome), and New Seasons Market (great service). We love all three stores. Kelsey has the first two weeks of meals all planned out. In future post we'll rate our meals and import pictures of the visually appetizing ones. And we'll probably tell you about the duds too : ) Kelsey is excited to cook and I'm excited to eat and we're both excited to feel better and lose weight. We keep telling each other how excited we are. Dr. Drake, Kelsey's OB went all-natural and he has lost over 50 lbs! Go Dr. Drake!

Purging the Pantry

We knew the day would come--the day when we would have to purge our home of all processed foods. Let me explain what that entails:

• Good-bye cheetos
• See you later Captain Crunch
• So long Dr. Peeper
• Adios frozen pizzas
• Hasta luego Haagan-dazs
• Bon voyage canned soups
  
• Ciao Mrs. Buttersworth
  
• Farewell Cheddar Goldfish (one of Olive's snacks that became a house favorite)

We were able to donate most our food to a family in need from McCarty; they were extremely grateful.

Enjoy the before and after pictures.

Getting 'it' out of our system

So... It's 2 days before Christmas and 8 days before we go granola. I had Chinese twice this week. We're having Mexican tomorrow. Lots of sugar on Christmas (ummm egg nog lattes). We'll have Boccelis alfredo on Sunday. And Round Table and Bugerville sometime next week. It's kinda like a Fat Tuesday except over the course of a week. Psychologically it may help. Probably not, but so what. Oh yea, a trip to Popeyes too. Although we may enjoy the foods we'll eat over the next week, we're convinced our lifestyle change will be worth sacrificing the greasy goodness of takeout. Cheers!