Often it’s small changes made one at a time that add up to a lifestyle shift! It’s less painful and is more likely to be something you continue with over the long haul too.
Here are some ideas from our Facebook page that are great baby steps!
We’ll start with the obvious:
- Get a Bountiful Basket Weekly and USE THE WHOLE THING! If you have a family of more than four get two baskets.
- At dinner serve 2 vegetables
- Serve sliced fruit for desert
- Remove the soda pop from your life
- Make eating out the treat it should be! Only do it once a week or less. Choose a sit down restaurant with delicious food.
- Try out some healthy freezer meals.
- Once a Month Mom – this website advocates for once a month cooking, but you can definitely take some principles from it and their recipes are great! The even have gluten free, whole foods, diet, and vegetarian menus available!
- Freezer Dinner – this website had some really fun recipes!
- Stolen Moments Cooking – loved these recipes. They looked fast and easy. Remember you can substitute in fresh produce par boiled for frozen!
- Smoothies for breakfast (Check out Green Smoothie Girl’s blog for more info)
- Make after school snacks fresh fruit! Go the extra mile; cut it up and arrange it nicely on a plate.
- Make a game out of not eating white food.
- Try lunches in Jars! Yes, that’s right… Jars…
- Salad in a jar – She covers techniques to increase shelf life, and has some fun “jar” recipes and regular recipes!
- Tina Nicoise salad in a jar – We couldn’t forget Martha.
- Instructions for laying any salad recipe in a jar.
- Make a larger meal a couple times a week and freeze the extras so that when you run into a rough patch and have a food emergency you can save the day by whipping out one of your pre-made meals!
- Do a pantry clean out. Donate/throw away all the foods that no longer fit with your healthful (or soon to be healthful diet)
- Eliminate MSG
- Wikipedia information on Excitotoxicity – This is not so reader friendly but gets into the nitty gritty science of things
- Printable list of all the different names of MSG – this will help you identify all the hidden MSG in your foods.
- Dr. Mercola explains why MSG is not your friend – much more reader friendly
- Incorperating more fiber via chia seeds, ground flax,sesame seeds, wheat germ. Keep a little sprinkle jar on the table with those mixed and sprinkle it on anything it will stick to!
- Portion Control. Serve yourself a reasonable size portion and don’t go back for more! If you are still hungry follow these steps:
- Drink an extra glass of water
- Wait 20 minutes
- Go on a brisk walk around the block (15 minutes or so)
- If after all that you are still hungry eat some celery raw, cucumber slices raw and plain, or half a green apple.
- Try two new recipes a week to keep all this change exciting and fun. Check out our pinterest boards for ideas, right here on this blog, or our Facebook page!
- Eliminate Corn Syrup
Melissa, is there a statewide Facebook page for your area? Or you can also ask on the main FB page. Some areas cap out really fast! Be online at right at participation time for your area. Don’t count on the participation e-mails to remind you! Set an alarm on your phone or a reminder in your e-mail program. They go out when Tanya and Sally have a moment to input them, but depending on popularity in your area or of particular offerings, they may be all gone by the time you get that e-mail.
Best of luck!
Just wondering …. am I missing a step in the “participate” process? Couldn’t find my county in the drop down list, so, I’m guessing that there weren’t any baskets available; but, checking my emails I noticed that I received an email hours after I tried to participate informing me of the order deadline. Did they re-open it or …?? I tried again, but my county is still not available. Is there a local contact for further questions? Bountiful Baskets sounds like a wonderful co-op but I have been unable to participate yet. Any suggestions? Looking forward to being able to participate!
These are great ideas! I picked up my first basket this week and was very happy with what I got. I posted about you guys on my blog! http://thefoodcharlatan.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/lentil-and-black-bean-soup/
I Love this area. There are a lot of ideas I will use in my meal plans. I know my husband and I use all the produce, and are great-full you two started this. You have made the rough time so much better for us. Thank you!!