Food Challenge! Please Join Us!

I have been following a blog called "100 Days of Real Food."  It is written by a normal American family of four that decided to cut out all processed  and refined foods for 100 days.  They made a lot of changes cold turkey with the idea of committing to the changes for 100 days.  They never gone back to their old diet. 

I like the recipes and information on their blog but haven't been inspired to make the same cold-turkey changes.  In the past they had challenged readers to take a 10 day pledge.  This would be much easier than 100 days but most likely wouldn't be permanent so I never joined them. 

Well, they recently wrote an article titled " 14 steps to Cut Out Processed Foods."

They are challenging readers to make one change in their diets each week.  Some are easy, some are hard.  We are going to do it!!  I am planning on having each week add upon the next (with a couple of exceptions) so by the end of 4 months we should have incorporated all the changes into our eating. 

I plan to take a break from the challenge for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas.   I am going to post a summary every Sunday with our success and failures from the past week.  I am quite excited about it and HOPE I can convince a few other families to join us in this journey! 

Here is the 14 week plan.....

14 Weeks of “Real Food” Mini-Pledges

• Week 1: Two fruits and/or vegetables per meal – Eat a minimum of two different fruits or vegetables (preferably organic) with every breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal.
• Week 2: “Real” beverages – Beverages will be limited to coffee, tea, water, and milk (only naturally sweetened with a little honey or 100% pure maple syrup). One cup of juice will be allowed throughout the week, and wine (preferably red) will be allowed in moderation (an average of one drink per day).
• Week 3: Meat – All meat consumed this week will be locally raised (within 100-miles of your hometown). Meat consumption will also be limited to 3 – 4 servings this week, and when it is eaten meat will not be presented as the “focal point” of the meal. Instead meat will be treated as a side item or simply used to help flavor a dish.
• Week 4: No fast food or deep-fried foods – No fast food or any foods that have been deep-fried in oil.
• Week 5: Try two new whole foods – Try a minimum of two new whole foods that you’ve never had before.
• Week 6: No low-fat, lite or nonfat food products – Do not eat any food products that are labeled as “low-fat,” “lite,” “light,” “reduced fat,” or “nonfat.”
• Week 7: 100% Whole grain – All grains consumed must be 100% whole-grain.
• Week 8: Stop eating when you feel full – Listen to your internal cues and stop eating when you feel full.
• Week 9: No refined sweeteners – No refined or artificial sweeteners including (but not limited to): white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, sucanat, splenda, stevia, agave, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, and cane juice. Foods and beverages can only be sweetened with a moderate amount of honey or maple syrup.
• Week 10: No refined oils – No refined or hydrogenated oils including (but not limited to): vegetable oil, organic vegetable oil, soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, organic canola oil, margarine, and grape seed oil.
• Week 11: Eat local foods – Eat at least 1 locally grown or raised food at each meal. This includes, but is not limited to: fruits, vegetables, eggs, grains, nuts, meats, and sweeteners like honey.
• Week 12: No sweeteners – Avoid all added sweeteners including, but not limited to: white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, honey, maple syrup, date sugar, maple sugar, sucanat, splenda, stevia, agave, fruit juice concentrate, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, and cane juice.
• Week 13: Nothing artificial – Avoid all artificial ingredients including, but not limited to: sweeteners, flavors and colors.
• Week 14: No more than 5-ingredients – Avoid any and all packaged food products that contain more than five ingredients no matter what ingredients

We are going to start this journey on Sunday November 6th!  Who is going to join us?!   If anyone else with a blog decides to participate I'd love to have you do weekly updates as well and I will put a link to your blog each week. 

Let me know what you think!