Small Beginnings: Where Do I Start?

HB here for this week's Small Beginnings, a series on where to start a real food journey. Last week we heard from Laura Fiser. 

I am no expert in the realm of nutrition, but I do know what has worked for my sweet family of five.

The changes we've made below have taken some time and effort, but we all feel so much better and some of us even behave better.

Here's my list of baby steps:

• Take the plunge and get you some raw milk. It will change your life. Read about the benefits of raw milk here.
• Find a farmer with some chickens and buy the eggs. Then, eat the eggs. Enjoy the eggs. They will make you smile. Just ask Julia Child. She ate eggs, yolk and all, and lived to the ripe old age of 91.
• I made a promise to myself to only feed my twin girls organic and/or nitrate free meats. I read this article about staph infections caused by chickens and it did me in.
• Consult the dirty dozen list and don't break the bank on every single organic product you see at Whole Foods.
• Gradually begin soaking grains. I started by soaking my oatmeal before I went to bed. Then I moved on to brown rice. Now I soak freshly ground wheat flour for our bread. You can read a bit about grain soaking here.
• I gave up diet coke. It hurt. It hurt real bad. Whenever I drink diet coke (on some rare occasions) I get an upset tummy and usually a canker sore.
• I threw away any processed sweet in our pantry, including cereals (read this great article explaining why cereal is not our friend). I've not given up sugar entirely and still make cookies for my family regularly. I almost always substitute a natural sweetener, such as sucanat, maple syrup or honey in place of white sugar.
• Even if we cannot find or afford certain organic or locally grown products, I can still make nutrient dense choices for my family. This article encourages me.
• Last but not least, I try to feed my fam by the 80/20 principle. 80% of the time we are eating the best we can eat. We need the wiggle room of the other 20% at this stage in our journey. I want to enjoy food and not be in bondage to it. You can read about my motivation for making changes in our eating here.

Enjoy the day!