7 Day Real Food Challenge

Do you think you can eat only real food for 7 days straight?

To some of you this might sound nearly impossible and some of you may be thinking – I already do. This challenge is designed to help those of you who really want to live the real food lifestyle but might need a little guidance to get started. This challenge is also for all of you who have already figured it out, but you have fallen off the bandwagon. Sometimes life gets hectic and our diets seem to suffer. It's never too late to get back into the healthy food routine!

So, What is the 7 Day Real Food Challenge?

There is a big group of us following this challenge. Everyone who joins this challenge is making a pact to eat only real food for 7 days – specifically on April 21st - 27th. Already there are 28 bloggers who have committed to this challenge and are here as a support team for everyone who joins us. Here is your support team:

Todd Dosenberry from Primal Toad
Amanda from Natural Living Mama
Erin Odom from The Humbled Homemaker
Janey McKeever from Consistantly Sporadic
Jaime Reid from Jaime Reids Kitchen
Anne Simpson from Authentic Simplicity
Laura Broach from Mama Making Changes
Mike Lamitola from MikeLamitola.com
Alix from Blessed in Homemaking
Stacy Karen from A Delightful Home
Nina Nelson from Shalom Mama
Melissa Joulwan from Well Fed
Kimball Young from Heavy on Wholesome
Laura Prevost from Head over heels in Health
Victoria Moore from Yogi Mami
Carol Lovett from Ditch the Wheat
Katie Stanley from Nourishing Simplicity
Jami Leigh from Young Wifes Guide
Andrea from Homemade for Elle
Sara Warren from Unorthadox Momma
Amanda Anderson from Chef Amanda Anderson.com
Sara Roylance from Sara Roylance.com
Sara Shay from Your Thriving family
Jennifer from Hybrid Rasta Mama
Marillyn Beard from Just Making Noise
Nichi from My Healthy Beginning
Michelle Elnycky from The Crooked House Blog

So... for those of you who think this might be way too hard to do – you have all these experts here to back you up and help you meet the challenge. It’s not only these bloggers that will be doing the challenge but many of our readers will be following along. We will have a special Facebook group for discussions about the challenge and a place to reach out to everyone for help and support. There are two ways you can participate in the challenge:

Option # 1 (Free)

Join us and make the commitment to eat only real food for 7 days starting on April 21 – April 27, 2013. You will receive:

• An e-guidebook on “What is Real Food?”
• A chance to win one of our fabulous real food prizes

To enter this challenge for free click here

Option # 2 ($29)

If you want to get really serious about this challenge and take full advantage of the support you can get from this group – this is for you. Making a big lifestyle change can be difficult on your own but with a huge group of people doing it along with you it is a lot easier – and a lot more fun! As a member of this challenge you will receive:

• An e-guidebook on “What is Real Food?”
• A full real food Paleo meal plan for 7 days – three meals a day and snacks
• Recipes for all of the items in the meal plan (37 Delicious recipes!!)
• A shopping list to help you prepare for the challenge
• Tips on how to prepare your kitchen for this event
• Membership to our private Facebook group which is a place to reach out for help and ask questions
• A chance to win one of our fabulous real food prizes - worth over $600+

PLUS these fabulous Bonuses (worth over $40+) for everyone who buys this package...

• A copy of "Your Grocery Budget Toolbox eBook" ($7.99 value). This eBook is the perfect guide for anyone new to eating healthy, learn how to save time and money with a few simple strategies. Follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
• A copy of Health Coach, Mike Lamitola's music album, "Fitting Out," ($7.00 value). Mike's music is inspired by real life experiences, dreams and some very random thoughts. Follow Mike on Facebook
• A 20% discount to Natural Living Mama's Product shop. Natural Living Mamma offers herbal body and skin care, salves, and teas made from only natural ingredients. Click here to visit her shop or follow her on Facebook
• A copy of The Holistic Mama's Audio Class,"How to Eat Real Food on a Budget" ($29.00 value) Follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
• A 15% discount to Blessed in Homemaking Etsy shop. Blessed In Homemaking offers organic and all natural body care products, gentle baby care products, herbal products, crocheted items, and more, for your healthy lifestyle. Follow on Facebook

The meal plan for this challenge is a Paleo menu! This means that all the recipes are grain-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free. If you have ever thought about trying the Paleo / Primal diet and thought it was too hard this is the perfect chance to try it out. All of these done for you planning items and the built in support are designed to make this challenge much less of a challenge to complete. What do you think – are you ready to take the 7 Day Real Food Challenge?

Click here to join us and get the plan, recipes, and support now!

The plan and recipes require basic kitchen tools. A good set of knives is the best thing you can splurge on in my opinion - even better you may win some in the giveaways that go along with this challenge! Speaking of giveaways...Don’t forget about all of the fabulous prizes from our amazing sponsors!! We are giving away $600 worth of products! The Giveaways (over $600+ value)...


  Ergo Chef Knife Company, makers of ergonomically-designed professional chef knives, is giving one participant of our challenge their Pro-Series 7” Santoku knife, Come Apart Kitchen Shears and a 9” & 12” Duo Tongs (Retail value $132) Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

  Taza Chocolate company, makers of traditional stone ground Mexican Chocolate, is giving one of our participants a package of their salted almond discs, their chipotle chili discs, a jar of chocolate covered hazelnuts and their 87% chocolate bar. Taza chocolate has a direct trade cacao program that cultivates face-to-face relationships with farmers. (Retail value $ 30.47) Follow them on Facebook and Twitter


  Kaya Foods, superfoods for delicious living, is giving one participant 5 bags of their delicious Kale and Veggie Chips, great for healthy snacking and a few $1.00 coupons (Retail value $ 10) Follow them on Facebook






   Yogi Tea, products inspired by Ayurveda is giving one participant of our challenge 4 boxes of a variety of our top selling teas and a Yogi tea mug. (Retail value $40)Yogi tea is committed to providing healthy, natural teas that are accessible to as many people as possible. Follow them on Facebook.





   Applegate, Organic & Natural Meats, is giving away a gift pack of products. (Retail value $ 25) Applegate meats are free of anti-biotics, growth hormones, nitrates, artificial ingredients and fillers which makes them far surpass the quality of conventional sliced sandwich meats. When buying Applegate products you can be confident you are eating a high quality product. Follow them on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter



  Trilight Health, makers of fast-acting, great tasting liquid herbal supplements, is giving one participant a $50 gift certificate to order products on their website! For over 20 years now, TriLight Health have supplied their customers nationwide with their high quality line of liquid herbal products. They specialize in great tasting, alcohol and sugar free, liquid herbal formulas for pregnancy, children, and the family. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter



  Eco Lunch Gear, eco friendly reusable lunch gear, is giving one participant a a reusable sandwich wrap (Retail value $10.50). Eco Lunch Gear was started by a Mom who saw a need for an alternative to plastic and aluminum foil, her products can be washed and reused over and over to save money and our environment. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  

Erin Odom from The Humbled Homemaker and creator of Real Food, Real Easy the eBook is giving one participant a copy of her eBook to help you continue with your Real Food journey (Retail value $$9.95) Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

Health Coach, Mike Lamitola, is giving one participant free entry to his Tele-seminar on Cravings. Do you have a sugar habit you've been trying to beat? In this tele-seminar, Mike will explain how. (Retail value $25.00) Follow Mike on Facebook and Twitter    

Alix from Blessed In Homemaking offers organic and all natural body care products, gentle baby care products, herbal products, crocheted items, and more, for your healthy lifestyle in her Etsy Shop. She is giving two participants a one ounce bag of loose chamomile tea (Retail value $8.00) Follow her on Facebook

Stacy Karen from A Delightful Home is giving one participant of this challenge a copy of her eBook, Simple Scrubs to Make and Give. Start making your own scrubs at home for yourself and others (Retail value $3.99) Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

Nina Nelson of Shalom Mama, is giving one participant of the challenge a healing balm and lavender mint lip balm from her etsy shop (Retail value $19.50) Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

 

Melissa Joulwan from The Clothes Make the Girl, is giving one participant a copy of her Paleo eBook called Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Like to Eat (Retail value $14.95). This is a great resource for anyone interested in Paleo diet, whether you are just getting started or you are just looking for some new recipes to try. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter

Health Coach, Laura Prevost is giving 10 lucky participants one of her Dynamite Coaching sessions. If you are looking for some support around breaking a bad habit, or getting yourself motivated, Laura will work through it with you in this session (Retail value $20.00/session) Follow Laura on Facebook or Twitter

Jami from Young Wife's Guide, is giving one participant a copy of her eBook, Apartment Gardening, which is a great resource for getting started growing food in small spaces (Retail value $2.99) Follow Jami on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

 

Jennifer from Hybrid Rasta Mama has also offered to give away two copies of her eBook, Cooking with Coconut Oil (Retail value $19.95). The 68 recipes in this eBook are all simple to make and the ingredients in the recipes are all readily available. This eBook is a great way to start getting more coconut oil in your diet to get all the amazing health benefits. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

You will have the chance to win all of these prizes by joining is the challenge with either Option # 1 or Option # 2 detailed above!

Do you have questions about this event? Please feel free to comment on this post with any questions or concerns.

F is for Food

Food...BIG subject. I could write a book I feel so strongly about many issues involving food. Don't worry! Not tonight and not here! This will be brief!

About a year ago, I started making more effort to eat healthier and to know more about what I eat, not just me but my family too. I've made a ton of changes since then and learned so much. I've also lost about thirty pounds in that time without being hungry! We rarely eat corn now, we buy locally grown, organic vegetables and free-range natural meat. I have given up pasta and rice. I buy local raw milk from grass fed cows. I could go on. I won't go into all of the whys in this post - after all I promised not to write a book tonight. I'll list a few links at the bottom of this post if you want to learn more.

I think we can all agree, however, that a diet of "real food" only is healthier than a diet of highly processed foods like potato chips, crackers, frozen dinners and the like. In January, I participated in the 7 Day Real Food Challenge from Holistic Mama. I got a 7 day menu plan, complete with recipes for everything on the menu and shopping list. My family and I agreed to do the Challenge together and it was a great experience! We were able to give up some of those highly processed foods that were remaining in our diet. In fact, separating our food into what was allowed and not allowed during the challenge, we realized how many unhealthy foods were still in our kitchen.


Holistic Mama is bringing back the 7 Day Real Food Challenge at the end of April! I'm so excited! I will be posting details since this time I am a contributing blogger, but you can head over to read about the challenge now by clicking here. Hope you'll join us when sign-ups open soon!

For more info on why we've made so many changes to our diet, try some of these links:

http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009/
http://www.localharvest.org/buylocal.jsp
http://www.fixfood.org/
http://www.mamamakingchanges.com/2012/04/new-facts-draw-your-own-conclusions.html
http://robertkennerfilms.com/food_inc_return.html
http://www.transferofhealth.com/healthy-eating/why-eat-healthy/corn-facts/
http://www.mamamakingchanges.com/2012/07/summer-blog-challenge-day-49.html
http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/resources/grass-fed-beef-grain-fed-beef-00412000070712/
http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2007/05/the-difficult-lives-and-deaths-of-factory-farmed-chickens/
http://worldtruth.tv/how-monsanto-big-ag-are-killing-us-planet-earth/
http://theholisticmama.com/store-7/?ap_id=lrbroach1973




Click here for a full list of my posts and a list of participating blogs in the 2013 A to Z Challenge!

Summer Blog Challenge: Day 5

Today's Challenge: What are your short term goals for this month and why those goals


My goals for this month are pretty simple, actually.

1. I want to make sure to set aside some quality time with my children each day now that school is out and they have so much free time. They don't always understand that my free time is more limited than theirs. I want to make sure they feel like they are a priority for me every day. 
2. I want to keep up with my garden, which is actually harder than it may sound. Having a bigger garden means more work and I haven't found more time.
3. I want to post on my blog every day. I don't want the summertime fun in the sun to distract me from my blog. It's my getaway, my "me time", and my accountability for my continued progress as a green mom. 
4. I want to continue losing weight. I am making great progress with my weight loss and I don't want ice cream and other temptations ruin it. I just have to remind myself that things like frozen watermelon balls are yummy summer treats, too. 
5. I want to eat out less. This is a part of getting greener that my family still needs to work on. I want to get into the habit of taking my lunch to work, packing a cooler of snacks for the car, and cooking dinner at home every day. We will eat healthier and save money, as well as knowing where our food comes from.

If you liked this post and others on Mama Making Changes, please clickhere to go to Circle of Moms and vote for me as one of the top eco-friendly mom blogs. Just click here, then click the thumb to vote. You can come back to vote every 24 hours. Thanks for the support!

Whole Foods Mama

Today I had my first experience with Whole Foods Market. We don't have one here in Florence, or anywhere nearby for that matter. I had the pleasure of spending today with my son in Greenville and he took me to the grocery store because he knew I'd love this place. He knows his Mama!

In general, I am not a fan of large supermarkets or any other large chain. I prefer frequenting locally owned and operated stores whenever possible and growing what I can at home. Sometimes, though, the world being what it is and my family still in the process of becoming greener, the supermarket is just where we end up, even if it's only to buy staples. And if I have to end up in a supermarket, I sure wish it could always be Whole Foods Market.

The selection of organic items was amazing and they had so many local items, too. The produce department was beautiful, with less variety but more quality than what I'm used to seeing in grocery stores. There was a large quantity of meat substitutes and other vegetarian and vegan options. Walking down the aisles, I may as well have been in Wonderland. I was ogling the boxes and bags and bins of whole grains and nuts and more. The cheese varieties seemed endless and the bakery had a giant selection of gorgeous cakes and tarts and more, including many gluten free options. There was even a healthy and beauty department with tons of eco-friendly options.

Their were restaurants within the store, too. The hot bar was like being at a gourmet buffet and you could eat in or take out. The pizza parlor smelled delicious. And the ice cream bar featured fresh lemon sorbet with curls of real lemon on top and several flavors of gelato.

After I snapped out of my dreamlike state of wonder, we made a few purchases and re-entered the real world of asphalt parking lots full of cars. I wish we had an oasis of these proportions in my town! I see so many more options at my local grocer than I used to see, but Whole Foods Market really was a green mom's supermarket paradise!

If you like this post, please vote for Mama Making Changes as a top eco-friendly mom blog on Circle of Moms by clicking here and then clicking the thumb. Thanks for your support!