Diet. Low fat. Light. Fat free.
When you’re trying to lose weight, the no-brainer move is to switch from full fat to fat free right? Well…not quite. When you switch to lower calorie options, more often than not, you’re replacing those calories with lots of chemicals and additives. It might work to help you drop the pounds, but in the long run you’re filling your body with crap you could do without.
So where does this leave me? Turning to whole foods. I have decided to try to eat as much minimally processed foods as I can. I am going to shop from the perimeter of the grocery store as much as possible and really focus on reading food labels. Have you looked at some of those food labels lately? They are a mile long and contain so many words I don’t even know how to pronounce.
It’s going to be a work in progress though because I use Sweet-n-low in my coffee and enjoy the occasional Coke Zero. Baby steps, people.
To get things started, I went to the grocery store and think I did pretty good!
I ended up coming home with just a few things that weren’t considered “whole” foods. But to be fair, they are for Jeff. 
It’s berry season, so I stocked up! I’m planning on freezing some of these berries for future use.
Look at all that produce! Some of those items will be turned in to yummy baby food for the little guy!
Have you tried roasted cauliflower? I’m not a big fan of cauliflower, but I’ve heard roasting it makes it really delicious. I think I’ll try it!
Carolyn told me she loved the gyoza potstickers with the gyoza sauce from Trader Joe’s. I’m a huge fan of potstickers, so this purchase was a must!
I only have a small weakness for Chobani. And wine.
With all the produce I purchased, I wanted to try something I’d seen on Pinterest a while back. Have you seen the Salad in a Jar? I thought it was quite a concept. I love salads but am always running late for work, so I never have time to put them together. This way, I can just grab a jar out of the fridge and throw it in my lunch bag. We’ll see if this works…
I made three kinds:
Harvest Salad with Homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette,
Mixed Veggies with Asian Sesame dressing (store bought…boo!),
and Mixed Veggies with Ranch dressing (again, store bought. I forgot I had the stuff to make homemade until after I put the jar together…fail!).
I bought the pint sized Ball jars, but realized afterwards I should have grabbed the quart sized ones. Oh well. If you’re looking for another blog post in addition to this one, check out Lauren’s guest post on Lindsay’s blog:
After making my salads, I went to pick Jake up. I discovered it was time for him to eat, so I strapped him to the high chair and had him try peaches. The verdict? You be the judge.
OMG he loved them! He was actually asking for them by opening his sweet little mouth. (Watch the whole video for a really sweet interaction between the two of us. He’s so sweet!) Towards the end, he was starting to lose interest, but perked up again when I tried BLW (baby led weaning) with a banana.
I can’t decide which way Jake prefers his food, but we are going to keep trying both ways. No matter which way he chooses, it’s going to be as many whole foods as possible for this family for the foreseeable future!
Question: What’s your best tip for losing the pounds and getting healthy?
