100 DAYS OF REAL FOOD - Round 2

food  [food] n 1. something that nourishes, sustains, or supplies

real [ree-uhl, reel] adj 1. true and actual; not artificial

When I launched this blog 4 years ago my objective was to challenge myself to eat REAL food for 100 days which is why the website is called  http://100daychallenge-realfoodjourney.blogspot.com .  By my definition, REAL food followed 3 rules. 

1. All store bought food has to have 5 ingredients or less listed on the label. 

2. The food has to be something my great grandmother would recognize.

3. A third grader has to be able to read the ingredient list. 

           

As you might imagine rule #1 alone eliminates a large amount of the food we now see in the grocery stores but when rules #2 and #3 are added, REAL food is narrowed down dramatically. I quickly saw that REAL food was actually real food and not processed and manufactured food. 

It was definitely a bold challenge and I made it 99 days on my 100 day challenge. Yes, I missed completing my goal by one day. One day! We happened to be traveling on the 100^th day and I could not for the life of me find REAL food at the airport. Nothing. No fruit, no almonds, nothing. So, therefore I ended up with a 99 day challenge. Knowing that I missed finishing the challenge by a mere 24 hrs has always been a bit of a thorn in my side; so close and yet so far type of a thing. 

Now, four years later, I’m ready to try it again. I want to make it the entire 100 days. I am in a completely different place in my life now than I was four years ago. There have been numerous things that have changed, both physically and emotionally in me. I have lost my way a bit and I want (need!) to get back on the trail that makes me better.

 I look back at my beginning blog posts and I honestly don’t know how I did it but I hope to draw off those positive remarks and use them to meet this new challenge head on. 

With our gardens starting to produce wonderful vegetables and farmer’s markets in full swing, I feel this is the ideal time to give it another shot. It will obviously force me to really notice and be aware of the foods I’m eating. In the end REAL food is a gazillion times healthier for me because it’s actually food and not crap created in a laboratory somewhere. (Can you tell I harbor a few strong feelings about processed food?) 

So here I go. One hundred days of REAL food. Wish me luck.