Make your health a priority.

Everyday we are faced with many choices, of those choices is what to eat.  The more I observe carts at the grocery store and just what people are eating in general, the more I realize what a serious problem we have.  Convenience has taken a priority over wellness.

Does eating healthy mean putting in a little extra work? Yes, it does.  But I can assure you…the rewards (and there are many) are so worth it.

Just this past weekend my family had our annual “Early Thanksgiving” celebration.  We do this every year so that we can spend time with my grandparents before they head to Florida for the winter.  My mom put me in charge of stuffing….yikes.  Talk about a challenge.  I did not want my family to disown me, so I decided to NOT make my Paleo version of stuffing.  I mean…people love their breaded stuffing.  So I went through all my clean eating magazines and found a good one (can also be found on cleaneatingmag.com).   Off to the grocery store I went to get my ingredients…

As I was walking through the store, I did think to myself “Hmmm do I REALLY need to make something healthy?  Can’t I just pick up a boxed stuffing mix and call it a day?” GASP. How dare those thoughts cross my mind!!  SEE, I am human too people.

I actually had to laugh when I walked through the “processed-crap-that-will give-you-cancer” aisle.  What…you never read that aisle sign?  Anyways, I could not believe that a JUMBO box of stuffing that feeds 20 and takes 2 minutes to make….cost $1.99.  Of course.

Meanwhile in the “food-that-is-real-and-won’t-give-you-a-disease-10-years-from-now-aisle”… I gathered up all my ingredients for a total of $16.  Sigh.  Why must society make these decisions so hard for people.  Of course most would go for the box- who has the time or the money to cook real food anymore?   In the colder months I LOVE spending nights in my kitchen cooking with some wine and music blaring but sometimes I don’t.  Sometimes I want to do other things, sometimes I am frustrated by how much more I could save by NOT eating good food. But my health and my family’s health is a priority.  Period.  I was able to serve this awesome Mushroom and Leek stuffing, knowing I was doing something good.  Not to mention it was a fun night that Shain and I spent cooking and doing something together (he is the master vegetable cutter, you know).

 

I swear this tasted better than it looks, pictures on phones suck.

I know that you say your health is important to you, but take a stand and really make that true.  I know you have a million and one things you are trying to balance and sometimes boxed dinners just have to happen, it’s okay just try to make them happen less.  There is a cleaner, healthier option for EVERYTHING.  With the right planning, it doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t have to be time consuming.  I take 2o minutes each Saturday before I head to the grocery store to plan out what we will eat that week and what stores have different sales on what I need.  I will never be a coupon lady (although I do find that amazing) but I don’t need to spend 3 hours cutting out coupons so that I can buy 18 cases of pop for a dollar.  I get our basics at Aldi and then I shop around at other stores for our produce and miscellaneous items.  All of this combined takes me 2 hours a week at most.  We also keep ourselves on a pretty tight budget, no more than $75 a week.  So it IS possible.  You just have to make it a priority.

You have far too many goals to accomplish in this life, so give yourself the best life insurance to make sure you can reach those goals…eat real, clean, natural food.

Stay blessed in the mess 🙂