Whole Foods Challenge

I have been thinking about devising a challenge for my blog readers for awhile now. I wanted to come up with something that was not too scary, not too threatening, but would definitely move people in a healthy direction. So here is the program:

For the entire month of September, we will only eat WHOLE foods!

I am announcing the challenge a little bit early so everyone can prepare. You have a couple of weeks to wrap your minds around the idea, clean out your cupboards and freezers, and get psyched!

For some of you, this might seem like a gigantic change in your eating habits. For others, you might just be yawning and thinking to yourself, "So what is new about that?" Because we are all starting this challenge from a different place, I am thinking that we can each define our whole foods in our own way.

For example, let's just pretend for a moment that you are a typical American eater. Let's say you chomp down on fast food at least once a week, maybe more. You eat dinner out quite frequently and when you eat at home, most of your meals come out of a can or a package. If this sounds like you, then you are in luck! It will be very easy to improve your diet by switching to more whole foods. All fast food restaurants have healthier options these days, so check out the menus and select choices that are full of whole foods, such as salads topped with grilled chicken, almonds, and berries. Or oatmeal topped with chopped apples and dried fruits. When you order out in fancier restaurants, choose whole foods like a piece of broiled fish, a roasted chicken breast, or a grilled steak with whole veggies on the side, like steamed broccoli, roasted carrots, sauteed zucchini, or a whole baked potato instead of fries.

Let's say that you already eat a pretty healthy diet. But there are a few processed foods still lurking in your cabinets: packaged whole grain cookies, baked potato chips, pretzels, Lean Pockets, cold cereals. Maybe you have some frozen yogurt in your freezer? Well, you can replace all of these "healthy" processed foods with whole foods! What are you going to snack on? How about mixed roasted nuts, fresh cherries, peaches, melon, hard-boiled eggs, slices of roasted chicken breast, baby carrots, roasted mixed vegetables, tomatoes, and fresh corn on the cob! (Maybe not all of those in one single snack...) Whole foods sometimes demand a little bit of preparation, so you may need to do some planning ahead in order to fill your fridge with snacks you can just grab.

How can you tell if something is a WHOLE food? Well, it looks exactly like it did before it was picked, processed, cooked, and prepared. Like a whole chicken still looks like a chicken. And an ear of corn still looks like an ear of corn. And a can of sardines still looks like little fishes. You get the idea. A bag of "veggie chips" is not a whole food. I don't care if you bought the bag of veggie chips at a store called Whole Foods! It is a processed food product. Another example: orange juice is not a whole food. An orange is.

As I said, since we are all in different places to begin, taking even a small step toward whole foods is better than nothing. Switching your sandwich bread to whole grain (check the label carefully for 100% whole grain flour) or switching your breakfast cereal from Honeynut Cheerios to Quaker Oats (just plain rolled oats) are examples of taking steps away from highly processed foods to less processed versions.

So who is with me? Who is ready to cast aside (maybe for just one month) their processed foods, their deep-fried friends, their convenience products, in favor of foods that are fresher, more nutritionally dense, still containing all their fiber, water, vitamins, and minerals? Who is on board? Let me know if you are in and keep me updated on your progress!