HOW do I start?!

[peaceful_mama]

I just finished reading Nina Planck's book Real Food.

I have a copy of Nourishing Traditions that I got last year when I paid my CSA before "x" date (they give you a freebie gift, I chose the gift cert. for a cookbook at the health food store)

I have read *part* of NT.

DH actually does more of the cooking than I do. I have really not a lot of experience with cooking that doesn't come from boxes. I like baking. (From 'scratch' I make um, tacos and chicken fajitas, and lasagna...if you consider a can of tomato paste as a sauce base scratch, and I do.) My main issue is I've got to hit the right time and mood to cook and in the evening when DH is working, I'd so rather just hit the park with the kids, come home exhausted from that and just eat leftovers or Subway or whatever. I guess I have it in my head that this will be a really labor-intensive endeavor.

His cooking is fairly TF but he does use some things I don't know if I can switch him off of, like veg. oil. (I have a giant bottle of cold-pressed EVOO on the counter right now. He doesn't use it. I don't know why.) He is African and spent many years in India, grew up watching his mom cook from scratch in the kitchen, and is genuinely shocked that the only thing I ever saw my mom cook "from scratch" was pot roast. Or hamburgers.

"Real Food" has made me want to run out of town and buy a piece of land big enough for milking goats (the milk DH and the kids can drink) make our own butter and all that, and some chickens for our own eggs and meat use, and a GIANT garden.
I know this will not really happen soon.

I also know that if I go too crazy on this, I'll give up. And my family just is NOT going to do some things. Like I can get away with whole-wheat pancakes with berries in them and honey or pure maple syrup, but they are NOT going to give up candy, cookies, and Cheetos. Daddy will still buy them if I don't. (they would however be happy with my baking. )

So where did you start to make changes?

[Magelet]

I would start by talking to DH.

I personally feel that if your going to eat huge amounts of sugar and junk food, to an extent, the sugar does way more damage that you can possible make up in benefit. It's good, but the sugar does SO much damage.

That said, you can do a lot better by having everything else in the diet be healthy. It would be much better to get DH on board and cut down on sugar and junk food, however still worth it.

If DH does the cooking, it will be pretty hard to reform your diet without his help.

If his cooking heritage is African and Indian, then it's possible that ghee would be a better substitute than olive oil. It might be more familiar/go better with his food. It's also better for high heat cooking.

The first thing I did, in my path to this diet, is cut out of my diet all corn that was not in a recognizable form. (like corn on the cob, or cornmeal). I'd say about.... 50% of the unrecognizeable words on processed food were corn derivatives, so that basically meant I stopped eating processed food. I got so much healthier. (lost weight, cholesterol back to normal levels, less depression, looked and felt healthier)

I switched to lots of healthy fats (particularly butter!!). I started to eat more yogurt, and tried making sourkraut. I've made a lot of other changes since then, but that's where I started.

really, talk to your DH. It sounds like he loves food. You may be able to convince him/show him evidence that convinces him, or you may be able to get him to try a little step, and once he sees how much healthier your whole family is, you can keep going. (or do it yourself. Cut out all the sugar and junk, and maybe when they see how much healthier you are, you can talk DH around.)

[cristeen]

I also started by cutting out 1 thing, but for me that thing was soy. Like corn, it's in virtually all processed foods. I even cut out second-hand soy in the form of CAFO meat - I only buy pastured meat now. I didn't see the drastic changes that Magelet did, but I have underlying health issues that did improve dramatically when I did this. And for the first time in my adult life, my weight stabilized (I stopped gaining).

The place I would start, given the info you've presented is in talking to your DH and asking why he doesn't use the olive oil. He may have a very easily dealt with issue with it, and you may be able to come to some sort of understanding on that front. I know in our house, oo is not used for cooking - it is raw only, or he may not like the expense, or the taste, or whatever. It might be as simple as keeping ghee or refined CO or lard in the house for him to use instead of the veg oil.

Do you think he'd be willing to read Real Food? Or how about handpicked excerpts? I know my DH wouldn't read it, but then he also leaves all shopping and food decisions up to me.

[peaceful_mama]

I know he won't sit down and read a book. He works a hard job and that's just not what he wants to do when he comes home. (Plus, it's not a "leisure activity" the way it is for me, *I* am not reading in a non-native language.)

I asked him about the olive oil today, he *is* using it for salad dressing but is not using it for cooking because of the expense. (*I* do not think it is a drastic difference...but maybe i would once i saw exactly how much we would use?)

Ghee could not really be a staple cooking fat here, it's 7 bucks for a fairly small jar. (not TINY, but certainly not big) We use it raw with some things. (like dh introduced me to chickpeas topped with ghee, the imported cumin (only stuff we buy now) and maybe a little onion....it's divine.)

I'm not sure how I could/would get him to see why veg. oil is bad. I've gotten him into Subway over McD's though. (i take pride in the small things)

plus he loves to buy 'treats' for the kids and they love cheetos....*sigh* And I have fought this battle and lost many times over--he does not see the problem with an "occasional treat".

Neither do i---but it's when you're buying it like it is a STAPLE...

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by peaceful_mama

I'm not sure how I could/would get him to see why veg. oil is bad. I've gotten him into Subway over McD's though. (i take pride in the small things)

plus he loves to buy 'treats' for the kids and they love cheetos....*sigh* And I have fought this battle and lost many times over--he does not see the problem with an "occasional treat".

Neither do i---but it's when you're buying it like it is a STAPLE...

For the oil... who does the grocery shopping? If he's doing it, then you'll have to have a talk about trying something different. If you do it, then how about just buying something different, and when you get home tell him you'd like him to try using this and see how it works out. Specifically I'm thinking about refined CO, but IMO, even sunflower is a better choice than soy or canola (you could make sunflower at home if you needed to, same can't be said of soy or canola). If you have to have a talk about it, I'd just tell him you've been reading this really interesting book and have read how X is so much healthier than Y, so why don't we give it a try and see how it works for us...

For the cheetos, I'd honestly have that talk again, and get him to agree to a definition for "occasional" - whether that's one bag a week or one bag a month, whatever works for both of you, so that you're not feeling resentful about it. Because you obviously have different ideas of what "occasional" means. I know my DH and I have had to have this conversation a few times about certain things, and his idea of occasional is once a week, while for me occasional is less often.

HTH

[ltlmrs]

If the expense is a problem, would he use lard? We buy lard from a farmer and it costs us $8 for a huge tub that lasts for a couple of months.

Also, with DH, I just let him do what he wants. It's not my place to try to change him or tell him how I want him to cook, so when he cooks he uses things like Teflon and white pasta. But, aside from that and direct requests from him (I have a teflon pan just for him, he loves spicy ramen from the Asian store because he lived in Asia for a while, it has MSG and goodness knows what, but he requests that I get it every once in a while, stuff like that) I do everything I can to make sure we eat well. And over time, he has started honoring my requests. In fact, he even told his parents that we don't want Ladybug eating sugar while we were over there.

[peaceful_mama]

Originally Posted by ltlmrs

If the expense is a problem, would he use lard? We buy lard from a farmer and it costs us $8 for a huge tub that lasts for a couple of months.

Also, with DH, I just let him do what he wants. It's not my place to try to change him or tell him how I want him to cook, so when he cooks he uses things like Teflon and white pasta. But, aside from that and direct requests from him (I have a teflon pan just for him, he loves spicy ramen from the Asian store because he lived in Asia for a while, it has MSG and goodness knows what, but he requests that I get it every once in a while, stuff like that) I do everything I can to make sure we eat well. And over time, he has started honoring my requests. In fact, he even told his parents that we don't want Ladybug eating sugar while we were over there.

nope, we don't eat pork.

like I said he *is* coming to see the light. (Subway vs. McD's being one example) And because *I* haven't been handing out the cheetos, and they've been outside PLAYING rather than inside eating and watching TV (It was well below zero most of this winter) the Cheeto supply has lasted longer and he doesn't buy more if we already have some.

We have a LONG LONG way to go...

[MindfulBirth]

Originally Posted by peaceful_mama

I guess I have it in my head that this will be a really labor-intensive endeavor.

Me, too. I am also just starting out (I'm actually still waiting for my copy of NT to arrive in the mail!). Here is what I have done while waiting.. I have made a list of things I feel that I can or WANT TO make from scratch and have labeled them Easy, Moderate, or Hard as to my own perception of the time and labor that I would need to put into making that item. I then circled the things I have already made from scratch in the past, such as bread.

I then made a list of items that I DONT'T WANT TO make from scratch. For me, that is things like catsup and mayo. I know that some of the things on my list are fairly easy to make and may be full of stuff that is bad for me, but this is just a list to get my perception on things. I then wrote down WHY I didn't want to make these things. For some it was because I just really liked the flavor of a certain brand and didn't think I would be able to replicate it, for some it was because I thought it was to time consuming or complicated, etc.

I can now see what items would be easy for me to begin with in making changes to our diet. I put the WANT TO - EASY items on a 3x5 card and tacked it to my fridge. Once I tackle that list and they become routine for me, I will add in some other harder items until I have worked through my entire WANT TO list. Then, I will be able to sit down and re-think my DON'T WANT TO list.

[onetrumpeter]

Just wanted to encourage you - for us, it's baby steps all the time, and sometimes regression lol. Like today when we had Skippy PB on store-bought potato bread. Oy. I just have to remember that it's going to be (for us) a slow transition, and have patience w/ myself (and DH, and my kids). I thought it'd be pretty easy on my kids to transition to no sugar/processed foods, but for some reason(!?!?!) they LOVE all things sugary. Seriously, DD stands on her junior chair and pokes around the cabinet for anything in a wrapper that resembles junk food.

Will have to start another thread for this - what's the TF take on peanuts/PB? And in a different vein, green smoothies?! sorry that's OT...

[peaceful_mama]

Originally Posted by MindfulBirth

I then made a list of items that I DONT'T WANT TO make from scratch. For me, that is things like catsup and mayo. I know that some of the things on my list are fairly easy to make and may be full of stuff that is bad for me, but this is just a list to get my perception on things. I then wrote down WHY I didn't want to make these things. For some it was because I just really liked the flavor of a certain brand and didn't think I would be able to replicate it, for some it was because I thought it was to time consuming or complicated, etc.

I can now see what items would be easy for me to begin with in making changes to our diet. I put the WANT TO - EASY items on a 3x5 card and tacked it to my fridge. Once I tackle that list and they become routine for me, I will add in some other harder items until I have worked through my entire WANT TO list. Then, I will be able to sit down and re-think my DON'T WANT TO list.

I actually buy Kraft "Real Mayo" and as far as I'm concerned it's OK--unlike other brands, no HFCS, stuff like that.

I *might* start making ketchup just because I can't find a brand that is both inexpensive and where the first or second ing. is NOT HFCS followed by plain CS. But I'll have to save a ketchup bottle and put it in there. I've tried it before though and not cared for my results.