The time it takes to switch to eating healthier

A lot of people feel like eating healthier is this huge monstrous mountain ahead of of them to conquer. Well, that's how I felt anyway. Maybe others are less intimidated by it than I was. At first the information overload was enough to do me in and I tried to sort my way through each thought as to what "healthy" is. Can you relate? Well, I want to encourage anyone else out there that feels this task is just too hard to accomplish and anyone that is plain old overwhelmed by it.

My journey to eating healthier began about 6 years ago. Yep, that's how slow this process has been for me. SIX long years and I'm still learning. So, 6 years ago I learned the concept of eating "whole foods". No, not that I only ate foods from the Whole Foods store but I learned what it meant to eat foods in their whole (complete) form. You can read this for a simple explanation of what whole foods are. And so, the journey began.

My biggest challenge was getting my whole family switched over. Switching myself was easy but alas I'm married with children. Thankfully I started this when my children were still very young and yet even then the transition was difficult. My son was 3 years old and was used to guzzling cows milk all day long, eating processed American cheese every day and his snacks were all processed foods that came out of a box in the pantry. Glorious was the day when I got him completely weened off of American cheese! And to think it was my fault to begin with.

You'd think that the kids were the hardest to switch over but no, my husband has proven to be the one most stuck in his eating habit ways. He's a typical guy (ie. is NOT that interested in seeking out the healthiest foods he can eat) and well, his habits are 37 years deep. Patience, patience, patience. I'll have you know that 2 years ago we became a soda free home! Yep, I won't buy it and he now drinks water or 100% organic juice. Now, he does get a soda when he's outside of the home from time to time but hey, I'll take what victory I can claim!

Whole foods naturally led into cooking from scratch more. That seemed to be the next big transformation during the 6 years of changing our family's eating. Cooking from scratch is a big adjustment. It means more time in the kitchen, planning, more time in the kitchen, more measuring, more time in the kitchen, and did I mention more time in the kitchen?

After discovering whole foods and starting to cook from scratch more the next phase happened....organics. I know, I know, what is all the hype about organics already??? If you don't know, you gotta start knowing. For a brief and very under stated explanation of what organic foods are you can read here. But then I'd encourage you to watch Food Inc. and/or The Future of Food.

Organic foods have not been at all hard for the family to switch over. In fact, they usually don't know the difference unless they are pleasantly surprised by how much better the organic foods taste. BUT, it has taken a long time to switch over to shopping for all organics. Again, this has taken patience on my part including diligence and research.

The last phase I went through which was recently was how foods heal. I read this book called Foods That Heal and was quite taken with it. If you like that book, you might like this blog also called Foods That Heal. Shortly after that book, I read this book, Nourishing Traditions, and well, the rest is history.

Now of course, we don't all end up at the same place when we search out healthier eating. This is just where my journey has taken me. The point of this post is that it takes time. If I had tried to make all the changes at once I would have quit in frustration. I just made little changes that seemed doable at the time. I bit off one bite of elephant at a time and am still slowly making my way through all the changes I'd like to implement into our family's normal eating habits. It's good to look back though and see some of the major victories, well, and even some of the small ones too. Six years and running. I do feel that I've reached a huge milestone recently....we are about 90% of the way switched over to healthier eating. If you had told me it would take 6 years I don't think I would have hung in there.

So, hang in there and if you are feeling overwhelmed by it, take it one step (one change) at a time, do what you can, and once you've gotten adjusted to that one change, then tackle another....you'll get there eventually and it's well worth the work, the time, the diligence, and the health of it!

Anyone else feel overwhelmed by the journey? How long has it taken you or is taking you so far?