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100 Days of Real Food
Good morning!
Has anyone seen this? www.100daysofrealfood.com
It's about a family of 4 with two young kids that for 100 days ate only "real foods", and then did it again for another 100 days on a budget of less than what people receive on food stamps.
They lost weight, they solved health problems, they made some freaking delicious sounding food ( whole wheat tortilla mini wraps with hummus, cheese and carrots - or with cream cheese and cucumber... drool.)
So, in my typical way of getting irrationally excited about these types of things, I pounced on poor DH this morning while he was still sleeping and told him all about it and that I wanted to try it.
He said that we go through too much bread to do something like that.
Then I said that we can get a breadmaker and make our own bread. He thinks I've lost it.
So I told him that aside from losing weight, the woman's sex drive increased dramatically. He saw right through that one.
I told him we should try it - he told me that if I don't get enough to eat I turn into a raging bear and he fears for the children.
My reluctant DH aside, I think that we might try it. It sounds like such a great cleansing thing to do and as vegetarians, we should really be paying attention to what we eat anyway.
There are only a few problems.
- I'm a terrible cook. Like, I used to regularly give myself food poisoning.
- I hate cooking. Or baking. I don't even like ordering.
- I have no time to cook or bake. I get home at 6:40. The kids need to eat pretty much when I walk in the door.
- DH is not yet totally on board. Even with other things we've tried, I still find junk food wrappers hidden under the car seats.
- I've also been known to hide junk food wrappers under the car seats.
So I'm trying to psych myself up to try it. DH agreed to check out the blog (though I think he was just trying to shut me up so he could go back to sleep.)
Have any of your guys tried this or heard anything about it ( good or bad? ) Have you done something similar?
HAS ANYONE TRIED THE HUMMUS/CHEESE/CARROT WRAPS????? ARE THEY AS AWESOME AS I AM IMAGINING???
Chronically hilarious - you'll split your stitches!
I wrote a book! Bucket list CHECK!
Re: 100 Days of Real Food
What do they mean by "real food"? So could you eat bread if it came from a bakery? Could you just eat chocolate but not like a snickers bar?
Those wraps sound yummy to me and are really not real cooking. If you can make a PB&J sandwich (you're Canadian so a vegemite sandwich), you can slather some cream cheese on a wrap and add cucumbers. In fact, I think I'm going to start doing this (not the challenge, just the wraps).
H and I occassionally make our own bread, it's quicker than you think. It takes about 15-20 minutes of real work, then you let it sit for a few hours while you do other things, then put it in bread pan to bake in the oven. All in all- it's about 22 minutes worth of work. if you can make several loaves on a weekend, they freeze well.
Chronically hilarious - you'll split your stitches!
I wrote a book! Bucket list CHECK!
http://notesfortheirtherapist.blogspot.co.uk
But everything is processed though. You can't grow a loaf of whole wheat bread, or flour for that matter. I am now very curious about this and am off to the website to investigate.
ETA: OK, I used eat a lot like this--tons of veg, lean proteins, whole grains, and hardly anything that is anything more than lightly processed. I felt noticeably better* and had a lot more energy. I've been eating more crap lately and I can tell. Well, if I didn't physically see the things I was putting in my mouth I'd be able to tell.
*I've gotten recurring migraines since middle school. I'm not sure exactly what triggers them, but it is some sort of overly processed food because when I was eating as described above I didn't get a single one and I had one earlier this week.
I'm dying laughing at: I hate cooking. Or baking. I don't even like ordering.
I've lost 8 pounds in the last few weeks through by skipping bad carbs. I think atkins is too severe or any diet that is protein only - plus it gives you bad breath. So I won't go carb free. Typical day is:
small bowl of home-constructed muesli (I like oats, dates, plenty of whole nuts) topped with a few spoons of yoghurt.
mid morning: small piece of cheese (babybel light)
lunch prawns, salad, maybe a brown pita and hummus
afternoon: piece of fruit
dinner: small dinner like a piece of chicken and steamed greens, a tomato. A sugar free jell-o for desert.
I avoid white bread like the plague, it makes you sluggish. I even find red meat is not processed easily so I prefer fish or chicken where possible. If you really stick to it, then it will work. It's okay to feel hungry too. If I am starving, I have a large glass of water or a piece of gum. Most of the time my mouth is just bored.
I took a quick look at the website.
I think you should just use common sense when you eat. I mean, I am going to use white rice when I make paella. I think I read that white bread/rice has the same number of calories as brown rice or wheat bread. I understand that it better for you but I wouldnt go out of my way to buy those products exclusively.
I try to cook everything I eat from scratch and limit processed food. Only in the last few years, you can finally see prepackaged food items in the supermarkets here. I never really buy them because it is way more expensive.
I think it's a good idea, but it basically just sounds like a variation of clean eating and choosing better starches (whole wheat over white bread and pasta, brown rice over white rice, sweet potato over a potato, etc.). I don't know if you need to do some 100 day challenge, which probably sounds more daunting to your DH. Start off by trying to eat 5 days a week like that and allow yourself some cheat meals here and there. I think that is more sustainable long term compared to a "challenge," which will make you feel like a failure if you slip up.
I agree with Publius that everything is somewhat processed. Tortillas are obviously manmade. I think the key is to see what ingredients they used - you should recognize all of them and ideally you want as little chemical sounding things. There are so many variations on the rules of thumb to use when buying boxed/ packaged things:
- no more than 5 products in something
- if your grandma wouldn't recognize any of the ingredients, don't buy it
- everything should be easy to pronounce
You get the idea. I think it's a good idea, but it's basically just eating healthy and more natural (ie, food close to it's original form).
I haven't looked at it properly but we kind of eat like that.
The first thing we did was to eliminate really processed foods a few years ago (ready meals, etc.) and we both lost a few kilos from that alone. I also used to feel bloated all the time and I hardly ever get that now. Now, I will have a burger & fries from a fast food place every so often but it's very rare and always the result of a heavy night out, so I guess I should avoid those too...
Which raises the question: is alcohol a processed "food"?
Also ITA with MrsP - in my opinion no carb is basically not worth living and though you lose weight fast on it I was pretty miserable and it's really a pain when going out for dinner, especially in winter!
H refuses to eat whole grain rice so we have white rice and pasta but in smaller quantities and less often, we also try to have less red meat and more fish.
Basically, we know what's really good/bad and 95% of the time we make the effort to make the right choice. I find that makes us deserve the 5%...
Yes and no. It's processed, but like I mentioned above, so is flour. Alcohol has minimal ingredients and they're all natural. I don't think it counts as what most people think of when they hear the word "processed", since none of its ingredients were created in a lab somewhere. If you really wanted to, you could make beer and/or wine in your home.
Re: alcohol, rather than a glass of wine, have a vodka and slim line tonic or better yet, vodka and pressed apple juice. We have one of those things where you chuck the apples in whole and the juice comes out. Pour it over ice and add a splash (fine, a slug) of vodka and it's very refreshing!
Or, if you must have wine, then have a wine and soda.
Honestly, I don't crave bread anymore. When I got a breadmaker I gained a TON of weight (15kg or so). I don't recommend them.
Oh, I could never give up bread. I love it too much!!! Do you eat sandwiches?
Yes, but not on a daily basis. If I eat one it will be granary bread or wholemeal bread. If white bread is the only choice, then I will not have a sandwich. I work from home mostly so I have access to the right foods all the time, but if I am out seeing clients then I will stop at M&S or Tesco and get their little packets of prawns and a serving of fruit salad to keep me going.
We use brown rice at home. The hubs wasn't keen at first, but I told him if he wouldn't eat it, then he just wasn't hungry enough. He prefers it now - says it has more chew.
I should get one of those apple press things: we're about to get 15 gazillion apples from our tree and apple vodka sounds a lot more interesting than just plain apple!
I also do not recommend a breadmaker: no matter what type of flour we put in, what setting it was on, etc. every bread we made came out like too wet sliced bread. It now lives in the cellar - I should put it on ebay really.
Oh, andplusalso! I love good bread but did actually find it easier to skip bread than rice/pasta as the only meal I'd have bread at is lunch. I'm cutting back on it again and am basically only having bread at lunch during the weekend (as of now, I'll let you know how that goes, lol).
I learned the hard way that if you want to lose weight sandwiches are the ennemy.
I loved "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral." Very inspiring.
I would say we eat very few "convenience" foods, because I cook from scratch. I grew up doing it, and it's just cheaper (and tastier). We don't eat much bread (love it, but it just makes me gain weight), but I've made bread using the "Artisan Bread in 5 Min a Day" method and it has come out beautifully.
If you don't enjoy cooking, you might want to ease your way into it. Try making one meal a day first or something. Or even one every other day (make double and have leftovers). Also, get yourself one really nice, really sharp chef's knife. It's the one piece of kitchen equipment I find indispensable and will make prep MUCH easier.
Okay, so here is the thing. I am apparently much, much different than most of you. I don't cook. I'd like to give it an honest try, though. Let's see what we've had for dinners this week:
Sunday - chinese, Monday - horrible, horrible ASDA pizza. Tuesday - proper take out pizza. Wednesday - Pre-packaged ravioli with pre-packaged sauce. Tonight - probably burgers.
Our girls eat better - but we do buy them pre-packaged toddler meals. I check that it's vegetarian, but I don't check anything else. They do chow down on an extraordinary amount of fresh fruit and veggies though, so I'm not so much worried about them as I am about us.
So for me, cooking meals is a big change. Not eating out is a big change. Not regularly eating bread is a big change.
Okay.... so what about the idea of spending a day on the weekend making a whole week's worth of healthy but filling freezer meals that DH can just pop into the oven while I'm still at work? Has anyone done this? What would be some good meals to do?
Chronically hilarious - you'll split your stitches!
I wrote a book! Bucket list CHECK!
http://notesfortheirtherapist.blogspot.co.uk
I think I found the problem. You gotta change this. Moderate it at first so it's not such a shock to the system.
Yeah, can you replace your Monday meal with something a bit better for you? And with the ravioli, can you start by adding veggies to that? When we buy pre-packaged ravioli (maybe once every month or six weeks), we try to add in some fresh veggies. It's really easy. Buy broccoli, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and put it in the same pot as the ravioli. Then add spinach once you've drained the pasta (stir it up--it will cook very quickly). Zucchini is also easy to add in and yummy, as is yellow squash. Red peppers can go into this too, depending on your sauce, as can peas. All very easy and good for you!
You can definitely do this. Talk to me about what kinds of protein you eat (eggs? Tofu? Cheese? Beans? Others?) and I will make you up a week's worth of make ahead (or semi make ahead - where you use stuff you already prepped and like fry up tofu last minute, you know?) that won't use too many varied ingredients (keeps time and cost down).
Do you know how to cook? I didnt know how to cook a few years ago so my brother who is chef bought me the book The Americans Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Maybe you should buy a few cookbooks or search some blogs for some ideas.
You probably wont want to spend one whole day on the weekend just cooking but I would make larger meals that you could eat as leftovers for the next day.
I agree with the other poster about making vegetable pasta. There are several easy pizza crust recipes on allrecipes.com. Sorry, I am not much help with vegetarian meals but if you roast chicken or pork you can use the meat the next day to make chicken salad or Rueben sandwiches.
Also Lentils also freeze well.
once you try this, get more adventurous and try recipes that sound like fun and you're comfortable trying.
It's a great step to take and cooking can be really fun.
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