Step One: Diet/Purge Pantry Plan

When coming up with a plan of action, I decided I am not going to plunge the entire family headfirst into a 100% raw diet. This would not be realistic for us. I need to come up with a transitional type of diet - one that will move them into a better level of health, that their systems can adjust to, and then gradually (and continuously) move them forward. I listened to Wendi Dee’s interview on www.rawfu.com yesterday and liked her idea of giving the family a raw dessert as an all-raw meal. Smoothies as a meal should work, too. I’ll incorporate these ideas to get them eating more raw foods.

A long time ago, my husband purchased a series of audio tapes (yes, it’s very old) put out by a nutrition counselor by the name of Dr. Broer. My husband liked the program Dr. Broer prescribed, and better yet, followed it and easily melted off about 40 lbs. As I type, he reminds me that he only had 100 lbs. to loose then, and now he needs to loose 140 lbs. This diet contains healthy fruits and vegetables, high quality, low fat animal products, beans and whole grains. These are primarily the guidelines I’ll follow for the children. This may seem like a sissified version of making a change - but if you knew how badly my family currently eats, you would see what a vast improvement this is. What I have outlined for my husband is a “raw-er” course of action – much less animal protein, some whole grains, mostly fresh fruits and vegetables. We’ve spoken, and right now he is quite open to any help I can give him. I do have to say, we both love the idea of a totally 100% raw diet in theory, while we speak in hushed tones as the sun rises, and we’re about to squeeze into our jeans. But when our day is in full swing and we’re in the kitchen or the car deciding what to eat, it can be a different story (especially if we’ve changed into the elastic band comfort of our sweats). For this reason, I need to be armed and ready with healthy choices available.

I need to address the situation in the pantry. I have some very unhealthy items left over from the restaurant we recently closed; heaps of white bread flour, white pastas, and chocolate chips, to name just a few. These items need to find new homes or make their way to a dumpster. So number one on the “to do” list is The Pantry Purge.