Back on the Saddle

Whoa. It has been a crazy time in the Johnson house lately-thus the deviation from my usual blog posting schedule. I find that when I am able to blog, I feel more on top of our nutrition and health-almost an imaginary accountability system. It's good to be back.

So, we made it through our first "organic" month. As many of you may remember, we are taking it slow by adding one food group a month throughout the year until we are 90% organic eaters. To give you an idea of where we were before this lifestyle change, we had already taken the 3 big danger substances out of our diet: artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils. We also aimed to buy most of our meat and eggs as hormone-free, anti-biotic free, etc. We drank organic milk, ate organic yogurt and fed Carter a 100% organic diet (minus his formula). While we like processed food as much as the next person, we have tried to buy less of that and more "real" food over the past year, but we aren't as successful at that as we'd like to be.

Anyway, January was "dairy" month. It was an easy food group to start with since we were already used to buying organic milk and yogurt. The main things that were new purchases were the organic cheese and eggs. From what I can tell, it seems that these items generally run 1.5 times more in price than the non-organic brands. When you're paying $4.00 for a block of cheese, you go through it a LOT slower! I think that I have uncovered what will come to be a common trend: When you have to shell out more money for an item, you tend to savor it and make it last-especially when it is a non-staple, such as cheese. I can't really tell how, or if, our grocery bill changed because we spent the month cleaning out our fridge and pantry and eating on food we had, in order to save money. I'll be able to let you know what our total grocery bill was at the end of February though. I am still a supporter of organic milk, yogurt, cheese, etc; however, I haven't had time to do much research on the egg debate I brought up a few weeks back. I am still going to look into that and report back what I find :) Part of my desire to go "non-organic" with the eggs is that we have a local farmer friend who sells his eggs-they aren't organic, but they are free-range chickens and eat a good diet. Again-I will be looking more into this area as it is of definite interest to me.

February is "meat" month. This will be a big change I think. We don't eat a whole lot of meat as it is, but still, the cost of organic meat seems pretty steep. I also want to research the difference between "grass-fed" beef and organic as well as free-range, all-natural, chickens vs. organic. I want to do what is best for my family, but also what makes the most sense money and convenience-wise. I know that I will have a much easier time buying local meat if I'm open to the "non-organic" grass-fed beef, so I want to really dissect the differences and make a good choice.  We also eat a fair amount of fish and have transitioned from the farm-raised fish to the wild caught fish-definitely a price difference, but well worth the health benefits.

After Carter wakes up from his nap, we are off to EarthFare and Trader Joe's for our first real grocery trip since Jan 1st! How great it will be to have food in the house again! Just a preview of the next few posts to come:

• Information on Jude's and my new exercise challenge
• Starting the "Nutritional Typing" diet
• A breakdown of the cost and health benefits of making your own organic baby food (I just want to educate parents and explain how easy it is, so that moms can decide for themselves if it's worth it!!).

Hope this finds you all doing well!!

Until next time :)