{Guest Post} How I Gave Up Processed Foods Without Losing My Mind
If you read yesterday’s post, you know I’m keen on cutting out processed foods from my diet… but I’m kind of terrified. So I asked a friend who has successfully cleaned up her plate (so to speak) to share her best tips! Meet Penny!
Penny over at Pantomime Papers is a blogger/map artist who writes about her newest map projects, cooking, health, and how to run many miles without falling over. A reformed couch potato and junk food aficionado, she loves to encourage others to eat the best food in the grocery store. She may or may not still sneak a sip o’ Cherry Coke now and then, however.
It’s true. I really don’t eat many processed foods anymore. A few years ago, I set out to lose twenty pounds via Weight Watchers. What started out as pure vanity turned into a quest for a healthy body. I began my journey wanting only to scootch my booty into size 4 jeans, but I slowly evolved into something more – a person who wants to respect and honor my body… and that meant no more polydextrosecelluloseHFCSsulfateheebiejeebies. Also – no soda, but as a professed Coke addict… I have room for great improvement in that area. Which is where the “not losing my mind” comes in!
In my past life, my weekly menu was staffed by Ramen (not REAL ramen… the 10-cent, packaged sort), spaghetti and canned Ragu, and soda. Really, that’s mostly what I ate. Few veggies or fruits, definitely no fish. No wonder I felt disgusting! Surely you’ve heard all the recent ruckus about how Americans consume way too much sodium? Just take a look at your closest processed food, and it’s easy to see how that happened.
Weight Watchers was great for me personally because it taught me how to get enough water and fresh produce into my system, as well as how to start cooking. Five years ago, I was the worst cook in the universe; now… I’m pretty good at it! Once I lost my twenty pounds, I found that my tastes had changed. I no longer WANTED soda 24/7, nor did sugary foods taste good to me anymore. Somewhere along the line I became connected to my body in a brand new way. Perhaps the biggest change for me was that pre-packaged foods sent my body into a tailspin. My body knew better now – all those chemicals and preservatives weren’t welcome anymore.
I’m telling you my story to say that transitioning into a new attitude about food – learning to cook and eat fresh food – will change your life. That processed gunk will never taste good again – your tongue will start to crave savory foods… if you don’t get veggies into your body every day, you’ll feel that something’s missing. You’ll notice your skin and hair will start to look better – those dark under-eye circles will wane. You’ll rarely feel bloated, and energy will make a grand return. You will feel better than you’ve felt your entire life. Honest to blog.
OK, that’s my spiel, now for the practical stuff. It’s easy to let eliminating processed foods turn into crazysauce, and there is no need for that! This is supposed to be FUN and DELICIOUS. So let’s keep it that way, all right?
1) Don’t try too many new things at once.
For a great many Americans… cooking is a lost art. And guess what? If you want to eliminate processed foods, you ARE going to have to start cooking – but start slow, no need to stress yourself out about it. I -have evolved from a cooking-hater into a cooking-lover. Pick one night a week to cook a real, homemade, from scratch meal. Make a date out of it! Try a new recipe each week, and as you keep with it, you’ll learn all kinds of new skills. You may have a few meal duds at the beginning, but remember this is not a race, it’s a journey, and the only way to get better at something is to keep at it. Choose recipes that aren’t over-complicated… maybe a marinated piece of fish, wild rice, and asparagus with lemon and parmesan. See? That’s not too hard, and it’s scrumdillyumptious.
2) Change your attitude about how much food should cost, but no need to rob a bank.
The first time I went grocery shopping for the week’s meals, I about fell over. Instead of $20 for spaghetti, ramen, and Coke, I was plunking down $70 for fresh veggies and fruit, spices and herbs. Talk about sticker shock! For me, I have come to the conclusion that eating GOOD food is just going to be more expensive, and it’s what fuels this body I will have for many years, so…. that $70 is worth it. As you work up to preparing more meals yourself, rather than out of packages and boxes, you’ll learn good cost-cutting measures. For instance, local, seasonal foods aren’t just a hippie movement… it saves you bookoo bucks in the wallet department, too. Start hitting up your local farmers’ and mom n’ pop produce markets. They may not look as fancy as Whole Foods, but they are significantly more affordable. Processed foods are cheap because… they’re sub-par “food”.
3) Learn how to prepare food efficiently.
In my career, I often work unpredictable, long hours. I just can never count on time to cook at night, and usually I want to veg out by the time I get home! This means organizing my meals ahead of time. For me, I set aside Sunday afternoons for grocery shopping and cooking. I write up my shopping list and group my ingredients by section (produce, dry goods, meat, dairy, etc) – saves a lot of time at the store! Once I return home, I cook all my meal for the week. I’ll pick about 2-3 recipes and spend a couple hours cooking in my kitchen. THEN I box up the meals into single-serving Tupperware and freeze or refrigerate that shiz. I eat oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, a sandwich and veggies/fruit for lunch, then a Tupperware of whatever meal I’ve pre-prepared for dinner. I can just “grab and go”, and my health doesn’t suffer due to my high-octane lifestyle. In fact, eating my pre-prepared meals ensures that I make it through my stressful week feeling good! As a bonus, get yourself a cutie-pie lunchbox that can hold all your noms…
4) Learn to work your weekly nutrition on a spectrum, and always be nice to yourself.
We are ALL busy. Very few people aren’t. However, some weeks are inevitably busier than others. For me, on a great week, I’ll have made all my meals, including homemade bread for my sandwiches, tons of green, leafy veggies, fiber all over the place. Other weeks, my life is atomically ruined, and I just have to “make it work”! This might mean eating very simply… more sandwiches and oatmeal, and (gasp) a few boxed meals. I stick to Amy’s Organics Mexican or Indian meals when I just have no other choice. They actually taste pretty great, and my body doesn’t have a freakout afterwards. If you have to go processed, they aren’t terrible choices. Also, eating soups/gumbo made in-house from your local grocery or sushi can be other quick meals that you can just pick up, without going to the trouble of cooking. Most of all – don’t be down on yourself – nobody likes a bully, so don’t bully yourself. Just do what works for you, and take your time. This isn’t a race, and food is meant to be a joy, not an exercise in patience!
5) The Dirty Dozen: Quickfire Hints
To get you started, here is a list of twelve easy tips – some large, some small – that will get you going as you start to make changes in your own food life:
- Lemons and limes are a GREAT way to flavor pretty much anything in a healthy and delicious way. Squeeze that citrusy goodness over veggies, salad mixes, fish, chicken, fruits… really, anything is fair game!
- Get your lunchmeat sliced at the deli counter, not pre-packaged. It’s worth it just to cut out the high sodium levels and preservatives – tastes better, too!
- Eat only food prepared by humans, not by a machine. And make sure your great-grandmother would recognize everything on the ingredient list!
- It’s better to cook with a touch of real butter, sea salt, or olive oil, than with a ton of cooking spray or sodium that others have added. Butter, oil, and salt are nothing to be afraid of – people just tend to overuse and abuse them!
- Expand your diet to include Middle Eastern and East Indian foods. These recipes are often vegetarian, so healthy, affordable, and PACKED with flavor. Be careful, you may become addicted!
- Another good way to get started is to try eating unprocessed fruit and veggie foods for snack and dessert-time, rather than bagged chips and crackers.
- Buy your fish from the deli counter and marinate it yourself at home. The pre-prepared fish is double the price AND you don’t really know what extras have been added.
- Keep your food simple… Eggs, produce, grains, plain meats, spices, herbs, etc. Recipes with tons of ingredients or that are overly complicated often aren’t worth the effort, and can actually indicate an unpracticed hand. Great meals are often the simple ones with high-quality ingredients.
- Fresh herbs are MILES more effective than dried ones. Save money by planting a container garden with basil, oregano, rosemary, and dill. Your taste buds will thank you.
- Treat foods that say things like “tastes like” or “lite” or “low-fat” with skepticism – often they are full of weird things that aren’t real food. If you’re watching your waistline, stick to REAL foods in proper portions. Avoid food that pretends to be something else – for instance, fake chicken, margarine, etc. Those products go through a lot of processing. Just eat the real thing in proper portions!
- Eat foods that will rot at some point.
- For meats, buy free-range and grass-fed. More expensive, but tastes a lot better, is so much better for you, and is more ethical. To offset the cost, start to see veggies as a main course, with meats on the side. I am a meat-eater, but focusing more on produce has significantly improved the way I feel, as well as saving me moolah. I can afford the grass-fed, free range meat because I don’t eat it every night. Again, Middle Eastern and Indian foods are your friend here.
BONUS HINT: If you wiggle your toes into the world of non-processed foods and decide you like it, keep learning! Any Michael Pollan book is fantastic, especially In Defense of Food and Food Rules. Watch the movie Food, Inc if you need more convincing, AND I recently discovered the “crunchy” blog The Mommypotamus , which has many great day-to-day hints on how to lead a real food lifestyle, regardless of whether you’re a parent.
I hope this post has inspired you to explore the world of unprocessed foods! Do what you enjoy, take your time, choose what works for you and have fun with it – I guarantee that after a few months, you will wonder how you ever enjoyed food from a box. Food is a wonderful gift, so start eating it!
This sounds so great, and I want to believe it, but I have such a hard time! She says:
"That processed gunk will never taste good again – your tongue will start to crave savory foods… if you don’t get veggies into your body every day, you’ll feel that something’s missing. You’ll notice your skin and hair will start to look better – those dark under-eye circles will wane. You’ll rarely feel bloated, and energy will make a grand return. You will feel better than you’ve felt your entire life."
If you feel awful all the time, lack energy, are bloated and your skin and hair is gross, then that's great motivation to start eating better. But what if you don't feel awful all the time? What if I feel great, full of energy, not bloated, and my hair is fine? She says that processed gunk will no longer taste good as if it's an assurance…. but that just has not happened for me! Since I feel great, and I don't need to lose weight, and I enjoy eating processed food, and I'm able to do it for cheap, I just feel no motivation to change my habits…. why put myself through the torture of eating stuff I don't like if it doesn't improve my quality of life at all?
This sounds so great, and I want to believe it, but I have such a hard time! She says:
"That processed gunk will never taste good again – your tongue will start to crave savory foods… if you don’t get veggies into your body every day, you’ll feel that something’s missing. You’ll notice your skin and hair will start to look better – those dark under-eye circles will wane. You’ll rarely feel bloated, and energy will make a grand return. You will feel better than you’ve felt your entire life."
If you feel awful all the time, lack energy, are bloated and your skin and hair is gross, then that's great motivation to start eating better. But what if you don't feel awful all the time? What if I feel great, full of energy, not bloated, and my hair is fine? She says that processed gunk will no longer taste good as if it's an assurance…. but that just has not happened for me! Since I feel great, and I don't need to lose weight, and I enjoy eating processed food, and I'm able to do it for cheap, I just feel no motivation to change my habits…. why put myself through the torture of eating stuff I don't like if it doesn't improve my quality of life at all?
Everyone has different motivations for eating habits. It's not always just about how you feel, but choosing unprocessed foods, locally grown foods and seasonal items…is also a great way to help the environment, local businesses, etc. As well, even if in your day to day life you feel fine, the more I read about our food systems here in the US, the more worried (and grossed out) I got about the idea of eating all that beef filled with antibiotics and sitting in their own feces, eating chickens that are crammed in a coop with 1000s of others and peck the eyes out of others bc there's no room to move, eating fish that were being raised on corn (um! What fish eat corn in natural habitat?!)
Don't get me wrong – NONE of that was enough to make me go veggie. I love bacon more than I love most people in my life (ok, not really. but close). But it was enough to make me focused on farmer's markets, learning more about the farms where I'm buying my eggs/dairy, meat, poultry from…And yes, it does cost more. Which is a shame in this country that it costs so much more to eat healthy – when people can buy a full "meal" for $4 from McDonalds on the limited funds they have, why would they pay $12 for a salad?
Moving in with my hubby to be happened to coincide with my more healthy-eating kick, and I've become the cook of the house. In sort of traditional roles/sense, I tend to cook us dinner every week night (it also happens that I get home a lot earlier than he does) but I have really come to enjoy it – I actually look forward to going to the markets on the weekend, planning our weekly meals, and being able to put healthier meals on our table every night. We are no way perfect – we still go out for nachos and burgers on the weekend, and still love a good bag of sour cream and onion chips. But in general, it feels so nice to have a home cooked meal to sit down to, converse over, and also know that it's helping our community, the environment (even if in just a small way) and that we're trying to help our long term health.
Holy cow, this could have been my story! lol
Beth — It all depends on how you see the world and the choices you make in line with that view. Do you like supporting local businesses? You can start eating better by simply checking out localharvest.org or eatwild.com for small, family-owned farms/farmer's markets in your area. Do you feel that we ingest far too many pesticides/chemicals in our daily lives? Start by moving away from processed foods and into organic agriculture to limit your exposure to harmful chemicals (many of which the FDA has acknowledged are dangerous and potential carcinogens). Do you worry about the risk of health problems down the line — coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol — and don't want to become yet another overly medicated person in the US? Keep in mind that there is this stigma that only overweight people have heart problems, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. That is absolutely untrue — many thin people, who owe their body weight to genetics or crazy diets instead of healthy nutrition, are shocked to discover their blood pressure is 140/85 or their triglycerides are too high.
Also, fresh, homemade food is significantly better tasting than garbage in a can or box. Have you ever tried homemade granola bars? Has anyone ever made you a minestrone or vegetarian chili? Have you ever made your own pizza with fresh mozzarella and homemade pasta sauce? Holy cow. I don't know if I could believe someone who would tell me they'd rather go out to Long John Silvers and get their greasy, overly breaded fried fish over a cornmeal-encrusted, pan fried catfish with black bean, avocado and corn salsa and wild rice. Seriously, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Heck, I could make you a lasagna (with homemade noodles and sauce) that would blow any Italian restaurant out of the water.
And, everything I make will be 110% healthier and fresher than any processed or fast food on the market.
If you'd like a good book on the origins of our food, check out The Omnivore's Dilemma… it's a great resource for those wondering where our meals actually come from
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Jen – thanks for the responding comment… Fortunately, I have extremely good blood pressure and cholesterol, and no family history of any sorts of heart disease/other illnesses of that sort. I know that none of this means I won't get them in the future, but when the doctor tells me I'm incredibly healthy and I've never had a problem, it does make it hard to want to change.
The big part of the problem for me is, I believe, my over-sensitive taste buds. You said "I don't know if I could believe someone who would tell me…" Well, granola bars (either processed or non), minestrone, chili, and especially catfish, beans, avocados and salsa are all foods which make me gag just at the thought… I also would never eat Long John Silvers (I hate all seafood equally). So I guess my problem is less "I like all/only processed/fast food" and more "there are very few foods I actually like, and some of them happen to be processed".
WOW. These are great tips. My fiance and I have recently lost almost 30 lbs. (Originally through Atkins, which is NOT a healthy diet, haha). We pressed on and left Atkins behind…and started a similar quest for just healthy bodies..and more-over healthy lifestyles that we can pass on to our children…since our families lacked in that area. I've bookmared the post and can't wait to take you up on the plan…it seems like such an overbearing task to do all of that at once, so the breakdown is excellent!
For a little extra help on the advice above, here's what my fiance and I do to help us stick to the fresh food lifestyle. We always meal plan for the week – sound boring, I know. But, it has helped us reel in our grocery bill, as well as stay on top of a healthy eating habit. We print a spreadsheet we made at home on one side of an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. The spreadsheet includes all days of the week at the top (left to right), then rows for "Breakfast", "Snack", "Lunch", "Snack", and "Dinner" on the left side. This helps us plan something for each day, as well as healthy snacks in between. We usually front load our cooking on Sundays, as mentioned above. We use either a crockpot or cook one large meal that can be placed in tupperware, also as mentioned above.
On the other side of the spreadsheet page, we print a grocery list we grabbed here: http://www.grocerylists.org/ultimatest/
Looks like they recently added a vegetarian version of the list, too!
It is SO simple to make a grocery list, and all of the ingredients are already separated for you! It does take an initial change, but it gets easier and easier the more you do it. Best of luck to everyone!
This was a wonderful post. I am 100% on the no-processed bandwagon, and I can truly attest to the fact that it's a journey. It's a process. And no, I will never escape eating processed food on occasion, and that's okay. But like you, Penny, what started as a purely superficial urge to lose some pounds gradually turned into a quest to feel better. Over the past year I've really begun to notice just how my body reacts to certain foods, and I've slowly eliminated those foods from my diet because I simply don't want them anymore.
Thanks for the positive morning pick-me-up!
Hi, Beth! This is definitely food as I see it, and of course some (or all!) of it might not get you excited or seem like it's the best choice for you, which is totally cool, of course. Someone else said that there are many reasons people get into non-processed foods lifestyle whether it's health or environmental concerns, etc – for me it was feeling good and healthy. As someone who used to eat a very limited diet of foods (all processed), the fresh stuff is miles better (both in taste and in how I feel). It does take time though – at first, veggies did not taste good to me; two months later, I started to crave them. Crazy! It's definitely a journey, rather than a switch (for me anyhow!)
I have loved taking my time, too! It is definitely too big of a lifestyle change (going from processed foods to cooking fresh) to tackle all at once. And kudos to the weight loss! It's been kind of fun learning all kinds of new ways to eat and prepare foods. It's like crafting – that you can eat.
That website is so handy – I had never heard of it before! I love that it all fits on one page…
I was very successful on Weight Watchers many years ago, and did the same thing. Grocery shopping and cooking for the week on Sundays. I also packaged up my meals into correctly sized servings for the week. I woke up an hour earlier every day to get in a workout before I got ready for work. I lost the weight and felt great. I kept the weight off for about a year.
It became a lot (as in, too much) work for me to keep up when I had my first and then second child. I chose sleep over working out, and I coveted by weekends with my children over planning and cooking meals (I work during the week; weekends were precious to me).
Now that they're more self-sufficient, though, I am itching to get back into my health groove. I remember what it felt like to feel healthy, and I want that feeling again.
Bonus: my skin and hair were radiant from the vitamins and exercise.
Congratulations on your goal. I have been vegan for some time, and I have to tell you that every aspect of my life and health have improved. I don't miss anything processed, in fact when I eat anything processed I tend to get a funny taste on my tongue – it's just no longer appealing to me.
Great post! I’ve found that clean eating isn’t *always* more pricey, though… I never really bought junk food, but I did go out to eat an awful lot, and that way I never knew what I was actually consuming, or how much. The switch to making just about all of my meals and snacks at home using fresh ingredients actually saved me a few bucks over going out all the time.
I just finished reading "Real Food Has Curves" by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough which I thought was up there with the Michael Pollan books in terms of learning about healthy eating and real food. I highly recommend it!
I love these tips! Coincidentally, my name is Penny too – hah! I love all these recommendations and have recently started to clear up my and my family's diet as well. I definitely recommend going to the green market – it's saved me tons of money! And I always make extra when I cook that I freeze and eventually defrost for a quick dinner or lunch in case I run out of time. When I'm on the go, I usually eat ready-made meals that I buy at the supermarket. I found this Indian food brand called Tastybite that's preservative-free, all-natural, low sodium, fat, calorie, and only takes 90 seconds to heat up. Their stuff is a lifesaver, because when I don't have time to make dinner, I usually pop a few of these babies in the micro too. And my kids love their Madras Lentils. I would say it's a win-win with them. Otherwise these are great tips that I'll be implementing immediately! Thanks!
Great ideas and I have been meaning to do a similar thing for a long time. I have made the first step but have a long way to go. I just think I am hooked not to the food but to the convenience.
Penny, this is the BEST beginner's guide to eating well that I have ever seen. I have done every single thing you mentioned at least once . . . including the prepackaged Indian meals! All your tips are so genuinely helpful I cannot help but tweet this post despite how self-serving it will seem (since I am mentioned).
I’m glad to see my #1 recommendation is also your #1. You can’t go from Cheez Whiz to locavore in one step.
My other big suggestion for people just starting out is to not think about recipes in terms of ingredients but in terms of techniques. For instance, a pork roast is more like a beef roast than it is like a pork chop.
Great post! Another helpful resource on this subject is The Perfect 10 Diet. At 52, I've eased into a no processed food diet over the last year. Hint: when menopause hits and your hormones get whacked out from top to bottom, you learn A LOT about the benefits of keeping chemicals and weird ingredients out of your body. The change in my body has been gradual but substantial. Dropped 20 pounds, my hair and skin look great, energy has rebounded and lo and behold, I actually sleep 7-8 hours at night!
I love this post! Firstly because I'm cleaning up my food intake to live healthier and if I lose weight thats a bonus too. Secondly because I sell Tupperware and love the reference plus if anyone is interested we just came out w/ an herb grower so its perfect for this lifestyle change I am about to make!
If Penny or anyone else is interested feel free to look at it on my website: my.tupperware.com/jamietabb
Thank you for the Blog!
Jamie
My question is what about desserts? Our family is very big on desserts, what do we do so that we can have non processed desserts? I would like to have more information on this.
My question is what about desserts? Our family is very big on desserts, what do we do so that we can have non processed desserts? I would like to have more information on this.