In my family, we eat healthy, organic produce and groceries.....most of the time.....
We do enjoy occasionally going out to eat. Also, Saturday nights are junk food nights at our house. I had to install junk food night to get my guys to eat healthy the rest of the week. *WARNING* DO NOT COME TO MY HOUSE OR TRY TO DRAG ME AWAY FROM JUNK FOOD NIGHT ON SATURDAY!!!***
They are like rabid dogs, I kid you not! I have to drop junky food in front of them very quickly and then jump back so as not to lose a finger. or a hand. or an arm.
That being said, I decided a long time ago to implement a healthy eating program in my house. I want us all to live to be 130 years old. Honestly, you can't expect to do that if you eat Hamburger Helper and frozen pizzas from Wal-Mart. Nothing against Wal-Mart. Aside from the year I punished them by boycotting their store, I shop there regularly for dog food, toilet paper, and such. But, food-wise, beware. Its just not Wal-Mart either. All major grocery stores, and a lot of small town stores too (in Texas anyway. I don't know what those crazy liberals in California have in their stores. But, I bet its a heck of a lot healthier than the shelves upon shelves of different kinds of Ranch dressing that we have here for salad fare. But, again as usual, I digress) have the same basic, junky, hydrogenated, chemical laden food for your culinary pleasure.
Since I couldn't find a stupid taco shell without hydrogenated oils in the grocery store (Texas, remember?) I chose to drive an hour to the nearest health food store where I bought two bags of groceries and shot 3/4 of grocery budget wad! 'Oh My! What will we do?? We will all starve to death!!' I thought. I was about to have a major panic attack. Then, I calmed down and realized that no one was going to starve. They may be mildly unhappy with the lack of chips and cookies for awhile, but not starving. The reason they wouldn't starve, I reasoned, is because we're just trading chips and cookies for high quality, nutritient dense foods. So you know, no one really NEEDS chips and cookies. I know, I know! But, truly! Its true!!! You don't need them! And guess what? No one perished under my healthy regime! And then, everyone adapted. Yippee! I love it when no one is complaining about nothing to eat in the fridge.
Since then, I've told countless friends about our switch to organic eating. So many of them, say "I can't afford it" or "I'd love to feed my family that way, but we just can't afford it." or "I know Monavie is good for me, but I can't afford it". You know why you can't afford it? Because you THINK you can't afford it, so you don't even try. It's just like anything else you do in life. You just have to jump in and give it a shot! I'll tell you what will happen, because it always does. You WILL be able to afford it. Not only that, you'll probably have even more money. You'll spend less on medications. You'll be more productive at work because you'll feel good. You'll spend less time at the doctor's office. You won't be spending money going out to eat...as much.... You can still go out to eat. Just eat at home more. And your budget will adapt to the new addition.
I recently watched Food, Inc on dvd. You should definitely watch that if you haven't seen it. Food Matters too!!! But, on Food, Inc it shows a hispanic family going to Burger King because they can feed their whole family on $1 hamburgers. They would love to eat more produce and the mom feels guilty feeding her children fast food, but it's what they can afford. The children wanted to buy broccoli at the grocery store. (Can you imagine??? How much would you give if your child actually ASKED if you buy some broccoli? Honestly, I think I would think I'd just died. Lord? Is this heaven?? My child really wants broccoli? Thank you Jesus. Thank you!) But, anyway, the parents said, "Broccoli is $1.29/lb. We can't afford it." *sigh*
Sad, huh? The dad has to spend so much money on medication to control his diabetes that he can't afford good, healthy foods that would a) help control his diabetes without medication and b) prevent his children from suffering from the same fate. It's just an endless cycle that will never break until someone say "STOP! This is enough!!"
I guarantee that if they would just sit down together and create a family budget, see where they are spending the majority of their dollars, they would find that they CAN afford to eat good, quality foods.
Which means...........YOU can too!!!! Honestly. I didn't think we could either. But, we did. Also, and I know this is radical but instead of wondering where you can save to afford to eat better, why not see where you could make more money to eat better? That's what I do and a lot of other successful Americans are doing. The point is, if you just jump in and do it, you're budget will adjust itself to fit. I truly hope you give it a try. It's honestly the best thing you can do for your family. We want our children to live long, healthy, happy lives and we certainly want them to outlive us. That's precisely the reason I changed our diet. It was not because my husband has MS. Although, it was lucky that I had that process in place at that time. (As an aside, I think God puts things in front of us when we need it. We then either act on it or ignore it. I say ignore it at your peril. Act on it to your great benefit!!) The reason I changed our diet is because I read an article that this is the first generation of kids to not outlive their parents. Stop and think about that for just a minute.
Honestly, (and I don't say this lightly or smart-assy) Is your current budget and financial situation more important to you than your children? Because what I didn't tell you, is that those findings were all linked to diet. In fact, in a recent study of 14 year olds they found that they had arteries of 45 year olds. They are expected to have heart attacks in their 20s!!!!! As a mom, that scared the ever-loving crap out of me! Not only that in the 1960s the cancer rate was 1 in 300. Now, in 2010 its 1 in 2. That's reported by the CDC. Not only that, but all inflammatory diseases are on the rise. That includes MS, Parkinson's, Alzheimers, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Diabetes, etc. They are all linked to diet and its proven that eating 9-13 servings of fruits and vegetables can greatly prevent all these diseases. That's why we drink Monavie. 4 oz/day has the anti-oxidant equivalent to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables. We are also members of our local, organic co-op. You can also keep costs down by shopping at local farmer's markets and grow your own produce in a garden. But, even if you can't do all that, you should still bite the bullet and just go to the health food store and start buying the bulk of your groceries. It's for your health and that of your family. You CAN do it!!!!!!
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