Let’s Just Lay Our Cards on the Table

Lest anyone starts to think that,

1. I’m a health nut, or

2. I’m a hypocrite

I thought I should get something out in the open. None of this will come as a surprise to those who know me.

I love junk food. I drink a Coke Zero pretty much every day. I take the kids to McDonald’s once a week for lunch (and even if I didn’t have kids, I’d take myself there once a week). Occasionally, I send my husband to Dairy Queen to pick me up a Cappuccino Skor Blizzard. And if there is junk food (eg. chips) in the house, I will eat them. All of them.

I’ve been known to make something, oh, like the most amazing caramel corn in the world (of which none of the ingredients, by the way, are local), and polish it off, by myself, in 2 days. The first day I try to control myself, but by the second day, I give up, rationalizing that it’s better to just eat it all at once than to obsess all day about eating it.

So, I guess that makes me a hypocrite. But I’m OK with that.

It’s all about balance. If I think about giving up everything, and changing everything in our diet all at once, I feel completely overwhelmed and want to give up. If I can make small changes, one at a time, it feels much more manageable.

So, here are the things I’ve done so far. I try to:

1. Not buy anything in boxes. This includes packaged cookies & cakes, prepared side dishes, and snacks for the kids.
2. Buy foods that have been processed as little as possible. This means largely meats, fruits, veggies, grains, and local dairy.
3. Use as little processed, pre-salted ingredients as possible in my cooking. This means I try not to use pre-made salad dressings, bottled marinades or seasoning mixes (except for Epicure).
4. Cook food in a way that brings out the taste of the food, not cover it up (i.e. not frying it in tons of oil, or drowning it in creamy sauces).
5. Not buy ready-made meals (I do keep these sauces on hand, made in Surrey, BC, which are delicious).
6. Buy foods where I recognize all the ingredients as food.
7. Buy local whenever possible, and at the very least, know where my food comes from.
8. Buy meats that are raised ethically, and grass-fed.
9. Avoid soy wherever possible. Partly because producers use it as fillers for more expensive, nutritious ingredients, and partly because of the possible dangers of it). Avoiding packaged foods pretty much takes care of this.

This is just a start. There are lots of ways I could be better at local, ethical eating. And hopefully in a few years I’ll have added more items to my list.

How do you try to eat healthier at home?