Why I Care - Part I

I remember quite specifically the day I started caring about food and cooking. My mom had bought a random magazine (something she never does) which just so happened to be Cooking Light. I was 17-years-old, had a job, a car, and some money, and decided I was going to get ingredients and make my family dinner. I mean, Mom had only cooked for us for seventeen plus years without a break. It was the least I could do.

I made Grilled Herb Chicken with Brushetta and a Fruit Salad. And it was a-maz-ing! I remember it took me close to an hour to shop for the ingredients. They were relatively simple things - balsamic vinegar, parsley, grape tomatoes. But I'd never really grocery shopped before and it was such a challenge! Then the cooking. I was in the kitchen most of the day. I even measured the fruit with a ruler to make sure I was cutting it into proper 1-inch cubes!

I was getting anxious by the time dinner rolled around. Would they like it? Had I just wasted $50 worth of groceries? Thankfully, everyone loved it! It was much "fancier" fare than my family had generally, but it went over well.

Mom even asked for the recipe. I hope she still has it - I lost it somwhere in one of my moves.

Since then, Mom and I have traded many recipes. I've bought many issues of Cooking Light (and Clean Eating and Food Network and Real Simple and the list goes on). I've wandered around many grocery stores - sometimes a woman-on-a-list-getting-mission, sometimes just meandering. I mean, I did ask to just walk around Whole Foods for my mother's day gift.

I just love food. The preparation, the planning, the anticipation, the research, the smell, the sight, the taste. And I'm learning how to use that food to my body's advatage.

The Beginning

I plan to chronicle my family's switch from the Standard American Diet to a fresh, whole foods diet. It's something I've been interested in for a while. It has constantly drawn me in. Whole foods. Fresh foods. Organic foods. But it's consistently been just out of my reach. Or rather, just outside of how far I chose to reach. But finally (and slowly) I have made the decision to transform our eating habits.

How, exactly, would I determine the beginning of that change?

Was it seven years who when I moved out on my own and had to cook if I wanted to eat?

Was it two years ago when I started working a desk job and my metabolism (and daily movement) plummeted?

Was it eighteens months ago when my stomach started hurting every.single.day?

Was it a year ago when I determined my stomach hurt every single time I ate out?

Was it two months ago when I read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan?

Was it a month ago when Dad had a heart transplant and I started viewing life differently?

In reality, each of these milestones has had an influence on how I eat. In a three steps forward, two steps back fashion, I have moved towards a healthy diet. But I've always found an excuse to not stick with it. Some excuses were even justifiable - though I will admit, I'm the queen of justification.

But this time - I want it to stick.