• Common mistakes when approaching picky eaters
• Tips and advice for overcoming these mistakes
• How to encourage healthy eating habits without obsessing over food or allowing food to become a battle
• The impact language has on kids and their relationship with food
• How to make new foods a positive experience for everyone in the family
• How to ditch control and worry associated with kids and food
• The importance of meal routines
• Tips for simplifying school lunch

• Healthy Lunches 5-Day Guide
• Kids Eat In Color Website
• Follow Jennifer Anderson on Instagram
• Better Bites: Jennifer’s 4-week program for picky eaters
• The Best Lunchbox Gear for Kids

The post Podcast Episode 055: How to Raise Kids Who Have a Healthy Relationship with Food appeared first on Live Simply.

Everyone has an opinion about how to eat and what to eat. That, my friend, is why I believe so strongly in getting back to something called: real food. Let me explain…

In the past 80 years, our food system has gone through a change like never before. Granted, many changes are amazing. I love my electric oven and fridge. As Michael Pollan says in Cooked, “Industrialization isn’t bad. But when we cut corners and forget why we did something for so long, we end up hurting ourselves.”

For thousands of years, (healthy) people have prepared foods in certain ways, and for certain reasons. Over the past 80 years, we’ve cut big corners and listened to advertisers and lobbyists tell us what to eat (versus tradition) and how to eat. As a result, we’re now confused about food and incredibly sick.

Maybe our ancestors knew what they were doing? Maybe tradition is important?

This, my friend, is what real food is all about. It’s about returning to a traditional way of eating. To a way of eating (the only way of eating) that nourished healthy families for thousands and thousands of years.

Listen to Real Food 101 Podcast Episode

Want to listen instead of read? That’s cool! Just pop your earbuds in and hit play.

What’s Wrong With Ultra Processed Food?

Let’s start at the very beginning and take a look at what food is. I think the best place to turn is the dictionary.

In his book, Food Rules, Michael Pollan offers us a few facts to consider when thinking about the food we put in our bodies. The first fact concerns the Western diet. The Western diet, also referred to as a Standard American Diet (SAD), usually consists of a lot of processed food, processed meat, lots of added sugars (and many times artificial sugars) and added fats (which are far from their natural state), along with refined grains (white flour, etc).

He writes that societies that have adopted such a way of eating“invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Virtually all of the obesity and type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of the cardiovascular disease, and more than a third of all cancers can be linked to this diet. Four of the top ten killers in America are chronic diseases linked to this diet.”

Pollan also writes “Populations eating a remarkably wide range of traditional diets generally don’t suffer from these chronic diseases. Traditional diets run the gamut from ones very high in fat (the Inuit in Greenland are an example which subsists largely on seal blubber) to ones high in carbohydrate (example: Central Indians have a diet largely made up of maize and beans) to the ones high in protein (the Masai tribe in Africa live off cattle blood, meat, and milk.)”.

Pollan points out that these are extreme examples. But these serve a point. The new western diet, a diet that’s made up mostly of highly processed food, is making us sick.

Real food makes you feel good. This isn’t to say that we won’t get sick when consuming real food. We don’t live in a perfect world and illness happens.

But real food supports the body; it nourishes the body. Real food contains vital nutrients, like vitamins and minerals and naturally-occurring fats, that our bodies need for support and to function in a healthy way. Processed food doesn’t offer this. It leaves the body undernourished, and lacking the basic nutrients needed to thrive.

I know that some folks argue that we live longer today than traditional cultures, but I would point out, as Pollan does in his book, that this is due to improved infant mortality rates, as well as improved modern hygiene advancements (<–which I love and appreciate).

What Is Real Food?

1. Real food is traditional.

Real food is about food that has withstood traditions. In the past, people didn’t rely on profit-driven companies to tell them what to eat or how much to eat. As Pollan says, “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” Looking at traditional societies, we know that historically, we are omnivores, eating both meat and plants.

2. Real food is intuitive.

Our ancestors ate when they were hungry, and stopped when they were full. Food that isn’t full of additives, but rather is full of beneficial nourishment that our bodies recognize, allows us to eat intuitively. There isn’t anything added to real food–like trans fat (there is naturally-occurring fat that satisfies and nourishes), or sugars that are altered from their original state by food scientists in a lab to make us addicted to the taste of the food.

Real food also allows us to be in-tune with how the body reacts to food. Eating real food teaches us to listen to our bodies versus marketing.

3. Real food is ingredients.

Ingredients that are as close to their natural state as possible. Jamie Oliver says, “Real food doesn’t have ingredients, real food is ingredients.” Oats, almonds (almond flour), grains, yogurt, cheese, meat are all ingredients, used to create meals or, at times, enjoyed on their own.

4. Real food is full of variety and tastes amazing and different. 

Highly processed food is engineered to always taste the same. For example: A Big Mac is specifically formulated to always taste the exact same, with no variation.

Real food, on the other hand, tastes different depending on the variety, the season, and how it’s grown or where it’s grown. All beef doesn’t taste the same, neither does milk (it actually changes with the seasons, as the diet of a grazing cow changes), cheese changes based on how it’s cultured (a beautiful fermentation process that transforms milk into a beneficial, bacteria-rich food), and tomatoes and lettuce vary in flavor.

5. Real food is seasonal.

Broccoli and peaches aren’t grown year-round, instead there’s a specific season in which broccoli and peaches are grown. This is true for all real food. And this is a beautiful thing, because it means that we were intended to eat variety. Our body needs a variety of nutrients, and the seasonal shift in food provides us with this variety in a very natural way.

6. Real food has a face and name.

Real food is grown by someone, raised by someone, cared for by someone. Food is not just a substance. Real food has a story.

7. Real food is nourishment and should make you feel good.

One of the dangers of highly processed food is the lack of variety in the ingredients consumed. Flip over most packaged foods and you’ll find the same “ingredients” repeated over and over: soybean oil, enriched flour, vegetable oil, sugar of some sort, etc. Where are the nutrients? How can the body thrive?

When we enjoy real food, which changes with the seasons, we are getting all the nourishment we need, throughout a wide variety of foods that are constantly changing throughout the year.

What Does Real Food Look Like?

Here’s the foundation of what real food looks like.

• Grass Fed, Pastured Meats: Animals that have been raised and fed as they were intended when created, with grass underneath and the sun overhead. We use all parts of the animal, including the bones for nourishing broth. Chicken, beef, lamb, pork, and wild game.
• Eggs: From chickens that have been raised on pasture, roaming free with lots of sunlight.
• Fats: Naturally-occurring fats that have nourished healthy families for thousands of years, such as: butter from grass-fed cows, coconut oil, ghee, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, tallow, and lard. Learn more about fats and oils 101.
• Grains, Nuts, and Seeds: Whole grains and minimally-processed with an emphasis on ancient grains and variety: spelt, kamut, einkorn, even whole wheat. Also, ancient practices, such as sourdough bread, if possible. Also: beans, nuts, and seeds.
• Fruits and Veggies: Preferably in season and grown as local as possible, using organic practices. Including lots of fresh herbs. Cooked, raw, and fermented. While organic produce is encouraged, I don’t always buy organic produce. I use the EWG list when shopping at the store. And if purchasing from a local farm or market, many farms aren’t “certified organic” but use organic practices.
• Dairy: Raw or pasteurized and full fat from grass-fed cows, or goats or sheep. I only recommend purchasing raw milk if you know the source and have checked out the farm for cleanliness and safety. Pasteurized milk can be found in the store. I recommend avoiding ultra-pasteurized milk, since this milk has been heated to such a high degree that it kills everything. Anytime you see the words low-fat or fat-free you know a lot of junk has been added to compensate for the loss of nourishing fat. Dairy includes: milk, cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, kefir (a fermented yogurt drink), cottage cheese.
• Salt: Real, unrefined salt that hasn’t been stripped of its nourishing minerals. I use Real Salt.
• Seafood: Raised in the wild versus a fish farm.
• Sweeteners: As close to the natural state as possible, such as: raw honey, pure maple syrup, and minimally-processed sugars. Learn more about Sweeteners 101.
• Beverages: Water and beverages made with real ingredients: tea, coffee, kombucha (a fermented tea), milk (from nuts, seeds, or dairy). Even wine and beer, and cocktails–just watch the ingredients and stick with crafting your own cocktails using simple liquors and fresh ingredients.

What Real Food Is Not

1. Real food is not a trend or fad. 

While we may be hearing more about real food due to the internet, books, and documentaries, real food isn’t new. It’s not a trend that will be popular for a few years and then replaced with a new fad. Real food has always been around, since the dawn of time. It’s the way generations before us ate, and the way of eating that future generations will hopefully return to. Highly processed food, which lacks nutrients and is made with manipulated ingredients, hasn’t always been around. If anything, processed food is the new kid on the block.

Now, there are certainly trendy real foods. Kale has been having a spotlight moment, along with chia seeds, cassava, almonds, and cauliflower (cauliflower pizza). While blogs may be making these particular foods trendy, they are simply real ingredients that have been around for ages.

2. Real food is not a restrictive diet, or even a diet at all.

A real food lifestyle is not about limiting food. It’s about saying yes to actual food (ingredients) versus something that’s trying to look and act like food. And here’s the thing, once you begin eating real food, your palate changes and you realize just how amazing real food tastes and how good you feel.

3. Real food is not about depriving yourself.

As Harry Blazer, a food and beverage trends researcher says, “Eat anything you want, just cook it yourself.” Highly processed food has made it easy for us to effortlessly grab chips, cookies, muffins, and other foods that should require spending a fair amount of time in the kitchen to make. Making food yourself means you’re probably not consuming cookies at every meal–it lends us to eat more variety.

There is a rise in real food companies, making convenient options that are made with real ingredients. This is a blessing and curse. I believe the majority of our diet should come from home-cooked foods, made with simple ingredients. These real food convenience options are amazing and can be sprinkled in to help us simplify, when needed.

But we shouldn’t exchange processed food for more boxes and packages, just because we can. Real food is about taking responsibility for our food, and learning how to prepare food so we can nourish our bodies with simple ingredients.

4. Real food is not about counting calories or eliminating naturally-occurring fats.

Calories naturally occur in food, along with fat. We need calories and fat to thrive. Since we’re eating a lot of variety when consuming real food, we don’t have to worry about consuming too much.

5. Real food is not keto, paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegetarian.

These are variations of a real food lifestyle and, therefore, shouldn’t be seen as the only way to enjoy a real food lifestyle.

How to Make the Switch From Ultra Processed Food to Real Food

1. Change your mindset about food.

When it comes to food, many of us have been influenced by marketing, food packages, food company slogans and commercials. Companies spend billions every year on marketing for a good reason.

Before we make any physical changes to what we purchase or how we eat, we must first change our mindset. This was the greatest struggle I faced when first thinking about a real food lifestyle. Still, to do this day, I find it’s so easy for negative mindsets–based on past influences from marketing–to creep in.

Stop looking at food negatively with a fear mindset. Food is about more than just fat and calories. And remember, fat and calories are good for you–they are vital and essential. Also, stop thinking: Ugh, I have to cook. Start thinking: I get to cook, I get to nourish my family and care for myself.

Start thinking about food in a positive light: food is nourishment, food is a celebration, food is delicious, food is fuel and makes me feel good.

2. Focus on making changes to one meal at a time. 

Focus on making over one meal at at time versus tackling all meals. Maybe this is breakfast or dinner, or lunch.

Focus on preparing 1 or 2 real food breakfasts in a week. Weekends tend to be easier for our family, since they’re less hectic. Based on this, I would focus on preparing a homemade breakfast on Saturday or Sunday. This will give you time to learn how to cook a homemade breakfast. And for some foods, you may find that you have leftovers, like: pancakes, waffles, muffins, granola, or hard boiled eggs.  The leftovers can roll over to another breakfast on a different day.

Slowly, when you feel ready, add an additional day where you serve real food versus relying on a box of Pop Tarts. Slowly build up your real food cooking muscles.

In the beginning, everything is hard. When I first started working out and doing push-ups, I could only do one. I wanted to do 50. Slowly, over time, I’ve worked my way up to 5, then 10, and now I can do 50 pushups. Transitioning away from relying on boxes and packages for every meal is the same way.

You won’t start out eating real food for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. Just thinking that way feels exhausting. But 1 meal a week? Now that’s doable. And slowly build on that success.

Your palate will also change during this time. And your family won’t feel like you’re taking away all the processed food at once–which generally makes the transition smoother.

Transitioning from a mostly processed food diet to real food is a journey. It’s about a long-term lifestyle. Focus on the small step you can make right now.

3. Focus on learning to cook, particularly basic recipes you can rely on over and over again.

Real food is about taking responsibility for our food, and learning how to prepare food so we can nourish our bodies with simple ingredients. You can’t enjoy a real food lifestyle without learning how to cook. In fact, learning to cook is the very foundation real food is built on.

People say, “I don’t have time to cook.” But we all find time for what matters most to us. If nourishing our family is important, we will find the time.

While individual and very unique recipes are great, I recommend focusing on basic recipes that you can rely on over and over again. Also, think about the highly processed food that your family currently loves and how you can remake that food with real ingredients.

Does your family love pancakes? Focus on finding an amazing pancake recipe that you can use every single week. Master that and then focus on a good muffin recipe. And then a great salad dressing, mac and cheese, or how to cook a whole chicken.

As I mentioned before, build your muscles in the kitchen and slowly build a list of recipes you can confidently cook and rotate.

Now, to do this, you’re going to need to gather real food recipes. Keep a list of recipes that are made with real, simple ingredients. Avoid recipes calling for things like: canned biscuits, condensed creamed soups, or anything that isn’t a single ingredient or a condiment (like mustard).

Keep a list of your favorite recipes and your family’s favorite recipes. You don’t need to know how to cook a million different dishes, or have 30 cookbooks or 100’s of recipes at your disposal. As you learn to cook, and slowly build up your real food muscles, take note of the recipes your family loves and the recipes you love cooking. Keep this list somewhere safe so you can refer back to this list. Or, keep a Pinterest board, or a note in your Notes app on your phone.

4. Shop the outer aisles of the grocery store.

The outer aisles of the grocery store, whether you’re shopping at a regular grocery store or Whole Foods, is where the bulk of your food should slowly begin to come from. You’ll find this is a natural transition as the recipes you’re beginning to try should keep you in these aisles.

This will also be a slow transition; one that may feel scary at first. As you build your real food muscles, you’ll find those outer aisles are your go-to source for food and you’ll feel comfortable shopping the outer section of the store.

The inner aisles aren’t evil, they also have real ingredients, like: oats, flour, barley, beans, rice, canned tomatoes, frozen fruits and veggies.

And what about organic?

In the beginning, I wouldn’t even worry about organic, or pastured meat or eggs. If you can find this stuff right now, great! If so, make the switch to the pastured eggs or grass-fed meat. Many stores are now carrying these options.

I didn’t start out purchasing these options. I started purchasing meat that wasn’t pastured or grass-fed. It took years, of sourcing and figuring out a grocery budget, to get to that point. My point is, don’t feel like you’re not doing a good job, or you’re not doing enough, just because you’re not purchasing a certain kind of meat or organic veggies. This all comes with time.

In the beginning, focus on ingredients and learning to cook versus packaged, boxed, overly-processed food. Slowly, you’ll start finding sources for pastured meats and eggs.

As you continue on your journey, and you’re cooking and preparing more meals, you may find that shopping at the same conventional grocery store for real food ingredients can be limiting and expensive. That was my experience. Of course, this will depend on your area and your store selections.

While many conventional chains are beginning to carry more real food options, the vast majority of food is still highly processed, and it can be particularly challenging to find quality dairy and meats and eggs from some of these conventional stores. Here are a few of my favorite options for expanding your shopping horizons and sourcing real food ingredients:

• Health/Natural Food Store: Small, locally-owned stores or Whole Foods (yes, can be expensive, but not always compared to regular stores). These stores specialize in real ingredients and packaged foods made with these ingredients. Health food store variations: Earth Fare, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s.
• Farmer’s Market/Produce Stand: Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, pastured eggs and meat, and locally-made foods (like sourdough bread).
• Local Food Co-op: A co-op is made up of people that come together to purchase real food. To find a co-op, use Google, ask around at a health food store, or ask your friends on social media. For example: A gal who works with me said the other day, “I’m going to stop on my way to pick up my son and get our raw milk.” What?! I had no idea she knew of a source for raw milk in our area. #score
• Online Shops, like Amazon and Vitacost: Vitacost is amazing! Free shipping over $49 on real food pantry items, like: pasta, canned tomatoes, snack bars and chips, etc.
• Befriend a Farmer: Visit a farmer’s market. Get to know the face and name behind food. These connections many times lead to other connections for food. Also, many times this food is cheaper because you’re cutting out the middleman and you’re buying in season.
• Start a Garden

5. Clean out and replenish.

Slowly, as you’re cooking, build up the real food ingredients needed to make your favorite meals. This will be a natural transition as you learn to cook, start building your real food muscles in the kitchen, and start relying more on those favorite recipes.

I’ve created a PDF that includes the real food I keep stocked in my fridge, freezer, and pantry.

Take the Next Step…Get Started with a Real Food Lifestyle

I’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you get started with real food. Grab your guide here. This PDF guide walks you step-by-step through ditching ultra processed food to enjoying real food.

The post What is Real Food? A Simplified Guide appeared first on Live Simply.

Today, on the podcast, I’m talking to Jenny from Nourished Kitchen all about looking to the past to determine what we should eat today.

We talk about:

• traditional eating and what exactly it looks like to eat like our ancestors
• the work of Dr. Weston A. Price and why his research is important when considering traditional eating
• seasonal eating

We also talk about how looking at traditional eating can end the confusion around dairy, grains, and other currently-controversial foods. And what exactly it looks like to eat these traditional foods in our modern day culture.

Listen On iTunesListen On Stitcher Listen On Spotify

• Nourished Kitchen (website)
• Follow Jenny on Instagram
• Jenny’s Cookbook: The Nourished Kitchen
• Jenny’s Cookbook: Broth and Stock 
• Kristin’s story (my story mentioned in the intro, from veganism to traditional food)
• Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
• Weston A. Price
• Kefir Grains: Cultures for Health or Kombucha Kamp
• Homemade sauerkraut recipe
• Homemade kefir ranch recipe

Q1: Tell us about yourself. 

Q2: What does a real food lifestyle look like for your family?

Q3: What’s the food philosophy or mantra you live by?

Q4: When you talk about traditional foods, what exactly does this mean? And why does tradition matter when it comes to thinking about the way we eat?

Q5: How did we get so far from a traditional way of eating? How did we go from a traditional foods diet to a processed food diet?

Q6: I think a lot of people are confused about what to eat. In a world with many diets and fads, how can looking at our culinary heritage and traditional eating help end the confusion about what we should be eating? 

Q7: In your book and on your blog, you talk about Dr. Weston A. Price. Can you share more about Dr. Price and his impact on the traditional foods movement?

Q8: How do you get back to traditional foods and culinary heritage, particularly in our day and age when everything is processed and everyone is so busy?

Q9: Making the switch to a traditional (real) food lifestyle/diet can feel daunting, particularly when all you’ve ever known is processed food. If you had to choose just one thing/one change a person could make, where/what would you recommend focusing first?

Q10: What are some of the foods you believe everyone should learn to cook from scratch? The foundations or basic foods or techniques everyone should learn to cook or master in the kitchen?

Q13: What role does seasonal eating play into a traditional foods diet?

Q14: Talk to us about fermentation. What part did fermented foods have in traditional diets? Why should we get back to consuming fermented foods? What are the benefits of consuming fermented foods? How can we add fermented foods to our diet?

Q15: Talk to us about dairy. What part did dairy have in traditional diets? Are there benefits to consuming dairy? What should we be looking for when consuming dairy?  

Q16: And what about grains. What does it look like to consume grains (and flours) from a traditional standpoint? What role has souring and sprouting played in the consumption of grains?

The post Podcast 040: Why Tradition Should Guide What and How We Eat with Jenny from Nourished Kitchen appeared first on Live Simply.

Listen On iTunesListen On Stitcher Listen On Spotify

• Podcast Episode: What Real Food Is and What Real Food Is Not 
• Podcast Episode: Hormone Health 101 with Dena from Back to the Book Nutrition 
• Podcast Episode: Navigating Non-Toxic Skincare Products and Marketing Labels, Aging Skincare, and Natural Hair Care

I’ve watched over the past year how perfectionism has crept its way into the real food and wellness movement. I’ve watched people nitpick over things on Instagram with comments like, “You shouldn’t use that!” or “I can’t believe you do this…” I’ve watched this trend play out with what and how people share posts on Instagram, too.

It’s become all too much. So much so that people are stressed out and sabotaging the health benefits of this lifestyle, not to mention in the process destroying relationships and trying to live up to a standard that’s impossible.

Perfectionism is…

• A turn off from this lifestyle (or any lifestyle choice).
• Will keep you from actually making changes and moving forward.
• Brings on unneeded stress.
• Makes this lifestyle feel judgmental and elitist.

We need to view our life as a marathon; not a sprint. And this lifestyle as a journey.

When I first learned about real food I didn’t know about local food, pastured meat, fermented food, or what the heck organic even meant. I didn’t know the difference between the brown eggs and white eggs in the store (spoiler: just different chicken breeds).

And you know what?

That’s okay!

That’s a beautiful thing!

Because it proves that we don’t have to know it all to make choices that build a long-term lifestyle. We don’t have to know it all to begin to change. We simply need the desire to do better. To learn. To take small actions toward a different way of living and eating.

I’m 10 years in now. It’s been 10 years since we learned about this thing called real food. It’s been 10 years and I’m just now learning about things like gut health and microbiome and holistic skincare (aside from just product). And I still have so much to learn…

I have no idea what my son will use for deodorant in a few years, or how to get my husband to switch from Suave to a non-toxic product. I also don’t know much about EMFs (I know enough to know about them) and I still use plastic for certain things. I also make choices today, like my lash extensions, that aren’t the most natural option.

So why do I bring this up and talk about this today?

To encourage you!

You don’t need to do it all or know it all or learn it all, or make all the changes you want to make right now. There is no perfection; don’t let Instagram or anyone else fool you into thinking so or make you think that they have “it all together.” <—including myself!

Perfection will sabotage your lifestyle and joy, and may hurt relationships in the process. Perfection will also make you think that if you can’t do it all, you’re failing or you can’t do anything at all. Do the best you can right now. Take small steps at a time—make a salad dressing instead of buying the same bottle you’ve turned to for years and celebrate that small step! Enjoy the process.

Step by step you’ll learn more and you can take action on what you’re learning. Just now, right now, and throughout your journey, know that you don’t have to know it all or do it all to make changes or live a healthy lifestyle.

Looking back over the past 10 years, I see the ripple effect of small choices. I also see how I’ve grown as a mom and woman. I see how our family has grown in the decisions we’ve made, and are currently making, and what our lifestyle looks like. I also see our outings for pizza (to the place that doesn’t serve organic or “real food”) and ice cream, and the joy that we’ve experienced together by letting go of some kind of perfectionism.

It’s important to have values and to be passionate about things, and as you can tell I’m passionate about real food and getting back to eating traditionally, farmer’s market and supporting local food, and also non-toxic skincare and using safe ingredients to clean my home. I’m also passionate about getting plenty of rest at night and other choices that fit into a wellness lifestyle. It’s so good to have values and passion. But it’s important to not let those values and passion become a standard of perfection–to suck the joy out of living–to the point that we become legalistic and rigid.

Today’s episode is just a reminder: This lifestyle is not about perfection. It’s also an encouragement: You don’t have to do it all or know it all. And it’s also a warning: Be careful not to let perfectionism creep in to your lifestyle; it’s all too easy to let this happen. I continually need to remind myself of this.

Perfectionism, friend, is overrated.

The post Podcast 037: Perfectionism Will Sabotage Your Healthy Lifestyle and Steal Your Joy appeared first on Live Simply.

In today’s podcast episode, Renee shares her real food journey and how she found healing through a real food lifestyle, the importance of gut health in her healing journey and the steps she takes to support her children’s gut health, how to encourage body and food awareness within our children, how mothers can support each other and spread the message of real food without condemnation or judgment, and the importance of self-care for mothers and teaching self-care to our children.

Listen Here

You can listen to the podcast episodes here on the blog, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Leave a Review

Leave a Review

Reviews are critically important for a new podcast. Reviews tell iTunes that people are listening and also helps new people find the podcast. To leave a review, click on the button above and then click “Write a Review” (you’ll have to scroll down to see this option). Also, while you’re over in iTunes, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified when new episodes launch.

Show Notes

• Renee’s website: Raising Generation Nourished 
• Renee’s Cookbook: Nourished Beginnings
• Instagram: @raisinggenerationnourished
• Weston A. Price Foundation
• Live Simply, The Podcast Episode 5 with Taesha from The Natural Nurturer

Renee is a mom, wife, and the voice behind the blog, Raising Generation Nourished. On her blog, Renee shares her passion to raise a nourished generation, by sharing practical tips and real food recipes. She is the author of the popular book, Nourished Beginnings–a simple, no fuss approach to feeding babies and growing children a wide variety of real food, without spending all day in the kitchen.

Q1: Tell us about yourself and your story. 

Q2: What was your greatest struggle in the beginning, when you first started making the transition to real food? How did you overcome this struggle?

Q3: You share on your blog that you had a variety of issues that were of concern before transitioning to a real food lifestyle–weight loss, inability to concentrate (brain fog), feeling sluggish, etc. And that many of these issues were solved after focusing on gut healing. Why did you focus on healing your gut? And what did this look like for you?

Q4: Gut healing is such an important part of your story. How do you support your gut today? And your children’s guts?

Q5: Your mission is to raise a nourished generation. What does this mean?  

Q6: Your mission is to raise a nourished generation, but you also talk a lot about nourishing ourselves as mothers. It’s so easy to put ourselves last. How do you nourish yourself as a momma? 

The post Podcast 014: Finding healing through real food Renee From Raising Generation Nourished appeared first on Live Simply.

Listen Here

You can listen to the podcast episodes here on the blog, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Leave a Review

Leave a Review

Reviews are critically important for a new podcast. Reviews tell iTunes that people are listening and also helps new people find the podcast. To leave a review, click on the button above and then click “Write a Review” (you’ll have to scroll down to see this option). Also, while you’re over in iTunes, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified when new episodes launch.

Show Notes

• Episode 003:  What Real Food Is, What Real Food Is Not, and What Real Food Looks Like (Real Food 101)
• Episode 009: Reader Question, “How Do I Get Started with Real Food When My Family Loves Processed Food?”
• Real Food Planning Challenge
• @livesimplymom
• Homemade Veggie Spaghetti Sauce
• Simplified School Lunch Kit Use Coupon Code: simplelunch at checkout for 25% off
• Episode 007: Organic Produce 101 with Little Pond Farm: Farming, Organic Certification, Pesticides, GMO’s, and Keeping Organic Produce Affordable
• Episode 008: Seasonal Eating, Community Supported Agriculture, and Organic Produce Q & A with Little Pond Farm

The journey away from processed food to a real food lifestyle looks different for each family, some families went cold turkey with cutting all processed food, while others took it slowly. But everyone had the same goal: enjoying real food and getting away from a Standard Western Diet of overly-processed foods. For some families, allergies or dietary restrictions are at play, which has made the switch look different than other families who didn’t have the same allergy restrictions. I think this shows just how unique this real food journey is for each family.

Before I share the responses, which I’m going to try to do without messing up on everyone’s Instagram user profile–some profile names aren’t easy to pronounce–I want to remind you that you can learn more about what real food is and what it looks like by listening to episode 3. And you can hear my answer to this question by listening to episode 9.

I hope listening to the community’s response inspires you along your own real food journey.

The post Podcast 010: Community Response, “How Do I get Started with Real Food When My Family Loves Processed Food?” appeared first on Live Simply.

Listen Here

You can listen to the podcast episodes here on the blog, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Leave a Review 

Leave a Review

Reviews are critically important for a new podcast. Reviews tell iTunes that people are listening and also helps new people find the podcast. To leave a review, click on the button above and then click “Write a Review” (you’ll have to scroll down to see this option). Also, while you’re over in iTunes, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified when new episodes launch.

Show Notes

• Episode 002: My Wellness Story, From Kool-Aid and Velveeta Cheese to Natural Wellness
• Episode 003: What Real Food Is, What Real Food Is Not, and What Real Food Looks Like 
• Food INC
• Cooked
• In Defense of Food
• Fed Up
• Sustainable
• My Must-See Food Documentaries
• Chicken Nuggets
• Chicken Tenders
• Skillet Lasagna
• Slow-Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken and Veggie Noodle Soup
• Stove-Top Mac and Cheese
• Homemade Granola Bars
• Made Good Bars
• One Degree Brand Cereal
• Episode 006: Practical Steps That Will Help You Make The Transition from Processed Food to a Real Food Lifestyle
• Episode 004: Making Real Food Work with Taesha from The Natural Nurturer
• Episode 005: Raising Kids Who Eat a Variety of Real Food, Picky Eaters, and School Lunch with Taesha from The Natural Nurturer
• Green Smoothie
• My Favorite Containers for Storing Real Food in the Fridge
• Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Crispy Treats

What’s your greatest challenge when it comes to creating a real food lifestyle?

The food budget?

Stocking the pantry?

Time?

For many families, family members are the greatest challenge.  While the budget can be tackled and kitchen time reduced and conquered, changing the minds and taste buds of a family used to the addictive pleasures of processed food can be difficult and frustrating.

At the time of our lifestyle change, Piper (my oldest child) was a toddler. Yes, we ate “healthy” before he was born (if you remember from my story, I was actually a vegan), but much of our healthier eating revolved around processed soy products and nicely packaged organic food. I’m not sure if my constant paranoia over food (mainly animal-based foods) caused his pickiness at such a young age, or he was just naturally a “picky” eater due to texture issues. Whatever it was, he would turn his nose up at most of the new foods I wanted to incorporate into our real food lifestyle. And as a new mom, new to real food, I usually gave up on these foods and offered him bunnies or something that seemed more “kid-friendly.”

I knew cooking separate meals was not sustainable, so I decided to take a more creative and hands-on approach. I had to figure out how to make real food work with a husband that was used to processed food and a child that seemed so picky.

Now, let’s talk about practical tips you can start using on your own journey. These tips are gentle ways you can nudge your family toward loving real food, even if they’re really into processed food right now.

1. Communicate what real food is and is not with your family.

2. Talk about favorite meals.

3. Recreate favorite foods with real ingredients.

4. Make food enjoyable.

5. Introduce new food experiences alongside favorite foods.

6. Don’t give up! Be creative.

7. Model by example and encourage a one-bite rule.

8.  Be prepared and make real food accessible.

9.  Encourage participation.

10. Don’t stock processed food.

11. Realize that we live in a processed food world.

The post Podcast 009: Reader Question, “How Do I Get Started with Real Food When My Family Loves Processed Food?” appeared first on Live Simply.

Listen Here

You can listen to the podcast episodes here on the blog, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Leave a Review

Leave a Review

Reviews are critically important for a new podcast. Reviews tell iTunes that people are listening and also helps new people find the podcast. To leave a review, click on the button above and then click “Write a Review” (you’ll have to scroll down to see this option). Also, while you’re over in iTunes, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified when new episodes launch.

Show Notes

• Episode 002: My Wellness Journey, From Kool-Aid and Velveeta Cheese to Natural Wellness 
• Episode 003: What Real Food Is, What Real Food Is Not, and What Real Food Looks Like
• Favorite Live Simply pancake recipe
• Favorite Live Simply muffin recipe
• Favorite Live Simply salad dressing recipes: Ranch, vinaigrette
• How to Cook a Whole Chicken: spatchcock, Slow cooker, Instant Pot
• Live Simply chicken salad recipe
• Live Simply chicken broth/stock recipes: Instant Pot or slow cooker
• Live Simply recipes
• The Natural Nurturer: Taesha for sheet pan, slow-cooker, Instant Pot real food meals
• Real Food Whole Life: Robyn for easy real food recipes
• Raising Generation Nourished: Renee for allergy-friendly, dairy-free, family-friendly, and gluten-free recipes
• Back the Book Nutrition: Dena for family-friendly breakfast and dinner recipes
• Cookie and Kate: Katherine for easy real food recipes with a vegetarian twist
• Book: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
• Real Food Planning Challenge
• Vitacost: online “health food store” with free shipping over $49
• Made Good Bars
• Jackson’s Honest Chips

First, before we talk about practical steps, I want to say thank you so much! Thank you for subscribing to the podcast, and joining me for another episode. Last week was the official launch of Live Simply, The Podcast. Your response to the launch has been so incredible–thank you for messaging me, sharing the podcast with your friends and family, and leaving a review on iTunes.

We’re talking a lot about food during these first few podcasts. Food is where many people begin their natural wellness journey.  

If you’ve been on a real food journey for a number of years now, some of these episodes may be more review for you. I would encourage you, share these episodes with family and friends. If you’re just getting started with a real food lifestyle, or you’re struggling with feeling overwhelmed on this journey, I hope these episodes are a source of encouragement and practical guidance.

Before recording today’s episode, I thought back to my own wellness journey and asked myself, “How exactly did my family make the transition from a lifestyle of overly processed and drive-thru “food” to one of real food? What small steps did we take that made the greatest impact on our journey so far? As you heard in Episode 2, we didn’t start out purchasing pastured meat from a farm or shopping at a farmer’s market, or making homemade meals.

We started with what we knew: shopping at Publix, the grocery store down the street from our apartment, and my limited cooking knowledge and skills. We knew one thing: what we had been eating wasn’t what we wanted our future to look like, so we took small steps to replace the processed food.

Looking back I didn’t know we were taking these steps, but now, I can see that each step got us closer to where we are today. These small steps didn’t seem significant at the time, but they have certainly added up over the years to long-term lifestyle changes. Many of these steps took months and years to navigate; they certainly didn’t take place overnight. 

Now, let’s talk practical steps you can take to live out a real food lifestyle: 

1. Change your mindset about food.

When it comes to food, many of us have been influenced by marketing, food packages, food company slogans and commercials. Before we make any physical changes to what we purchase or how we eat, we must first change our mindset. This was the greatest struggle I faced when first thinking about a real food lifestyle. Still, to do this day, I find it’s so easy for negative mindsets–based on past influences from marketing–to creep into my head. 

Stop looking at food negatively with a fear mindset. Food is about more than just fat and calories. And remember, fat and calories are good for you–they are vital and essential. Also, stop thinking: Ugh, I have to cook. Start thinking: I get to cook, I get to nourish my family and care for myself.

Start thinking about food in a positive light: food is nourishment, food is a celebration, food is delicious, food is fuel and makes me feel good.

I recommend going back after this podcast and listening to episode 3. In that episode, I share what exactly real food is, what it is not, and what real food looks like.

2. Focus on making changes to one meal at a time versus focusing on everything you eat.

Focus on making over one meal at at time versus tackling all meals. Maybe this is breakfast or dinner, or lunch.  

Focus on preparing one or two of real food breakfasts in a week. Weekends tend to be easier for our family, since they’re less hectic. So based on this, I would focus on preparing a homemade breakfast on Saturday or Sunday. This will give you time to learn how to cook a homemade breakfast. And for some foods, you may find that you have leftovers–like pancakes, waffles, muffins, granola, or hard boiled.  The leftovers can roll over to another breakfast on a different day. During this time see what your family loves and responds to–keep notes of this.

Slowly, when you feel ready, add an additional day where you serve real food versus relying on a box of Pop Tarts. Slowly build up your real food cooking muscles.

Here’s the thing. In the beginning, everything is hard. When I first started working out and doing push-ups I could only do one. I wanted to do fifty. Slowly, over time, I’ve worked my way up to five, then ten, and now I can do fifty pushups. Transitioning away from relying on boxes and packages for every meal is the same way. You won’t start out eating real food for three meals a day, seven days a week. Just thinking that way feels exhausting. But one meal a week, now that’s doable. And slowly build on that success.

Your palate will also change during this time. And your family won’t feel like you’re taking all your former processed food away at once–which generally makes the transition smoother. 

Remember this is a journey–it’s about a long-term lifestyle. Focus on the small step you can make right now!

3. Focus on learning to cook, particularly basic recipes you can rely on over and over again.

As we talked about in episode 3, real food is about taking responsibility for our food, and learning how to prepare food so we can nourish our bodies with simple ingredients. You can’t enjoy a real food lifestyle without learning how to cook. In fact, learning to cook is the very foundation real food is built on. Both simple ingredients and learning to cook go hand and hand to create a real food lifestyle.

People say, “I don’t have time to cook.” But we all find time for what matters most to us. If nourishing our family is important, we will find the time. This doesn’t mean you need to spend all day in the kitchen. Food prep, doubling recipes, etc. 

Now, as I mentioned in episode 3, there is a rise in real food companies who are making convenient options that are made with real ingredients. This is a blessing and curse. I believe the majority of our diet should come from home-cooked foods, made with simple ingredients. These real food convenience options are amazing and can be sprinkled in to help us simplify and reduce overall cook and prep times, when needed. But we shouldn’t exchange processed food for more boxes and packages, just because we can.

While individual and very unique recipes are great, I recommend focusing on basic recipes that you can rely on over and over again. And as you think about these basic recipes, think about the food your family currently loves. Does your family love pancakes? Focus on finding an amazing pancake recipe you can use every single week. Master that and then focus on a good muffin recipe. And then a great salad dressing or how to cook a whole chicken or burgers or how to roast veggies. As I mentioned before, build your muscles in the kitchen and slowly build a list of recipes you can confidently cook, rotate, and your family loves.

Now, to do this, you’re going to need to gather real food recipes: keep a list of recipes you find that are made with real, simple ingredients. Avoid recipes calling for things like: canned biscuits, condensed creamed soups, or anything that isn’t a single ingredient or a condiment (like mustard) that is made with single, recognizable ingredients you would use in your own kitchen.

• Lots of recipes on Live Simply
• The Natural Nurturer–Taesha.
• Cookie and Kate (vegetarian)–Kathryn
• Real Food Whole Life–Robyn
• Raising Generation Nourished–Renee
• Back to the Book Nutrition–Dena
• Book: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat 

Keep a list of your favorite recipes, and your family’s favorite recipes. You don’t need to know how to cook a million different dishes, or have 30 cookbooks or 100’s of recipe at your disposal. As you learn to cook, and slowly build up your real food muscles, take note of the recipes your family loves and the recipes you love cooking. Keep this list somewhere safe so you can refer back to this list. Or, keep a Pinterest board, or a note in your Notes app on your phone.

4. Shop the outer aisles of the grocery store.

The outer aisles of the grocery store, whether you’re shopping at a conventional grocery store or Whole Foods, is where the bulk of your food should slowly should begin to come from–you’ll find this a natural transition as the recipes you’re beginning to try will/should keep you in these aisles. Remember, this is a journey–this will be a slow transition. One that may feel scary at first, but you’ll build those muscles and soon you’ll find those outer aisles are your go-to source for food.

Now, the inner aisles aren’t evil, they also have real ingredients: oats, flour, barley, beans, rice, canned tomatoes, frozen fruits and veggies.

And what about organic?

In the beginning, I wouldn’t even worry about organic, or pastured meat or eggs. If you can find this stuff right now, great, make the switch to the pastured eggs or the grass-fed meat. Many stores are now carrying these options. I didn’t start out purchasing these options. I started purchasing meat that wasn’t pastured or grass-fed. It took years, of sourcing and figuring out a grocery budget, to get to that point. My point is don’t feel like you’re not doing a good job, or you’re not doing enough, just because you’re not purchasing a certain kind of meat or organic veggies. This all comes with time.

In the beginning, focus on ingredients and learning to cook versus packaged, boxed, overly-processed food. Slowly, you’ll start finding sources for pastured meats and eggs. 

As you continue on your journey, and you’re cooking and preparing more meals, you may find that shopping at the same conventional grocery store for real food ingredients can be limiting and expensive. That was my experience. Of course, this will depend on your area and your store selections.

While many conventional chains are beginning to carry more real food options, the vast majority of food is still highly processed, and it can be particularly challenging to find quality dairy and meats and eggs from some of these conventional stores. Here are a few of my favorite options for expanding your shopping horizons and sourcing real food ingredients:

• Health/Natural Food Store: Small, locally-owned stores or Whole Foods (yes, can be expensive, but not always compared to conventional stores). These stores specialize in real ingredients foods. Also, health food store variations: Earth Fare, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s.
• Farmer’s Market/Produce Stand: Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, sometimes local foods. Our local produce stand sell local goodies made by food vendors in the area. 
• Local Food Co-op: Google, ask around at a health food store, or FB example: A gal who works with me said the other day, “I’m going to stop on my way to pick up my son and get our raw milk.” What?! I had no idea she knew of a source for raw milk in our area.
• Amazon and Vitacost: Vitacost is amazing! Free shipping over $49–pasta, canned tomatoes, cleaner snack bars and chips, etc.
• Befriend a Farmer: Visit a farmer’s market–get to know the face and name behind food. These connections many times lead to other connections for food. Also, many times this food is cheaper because you’re cutting out the middleman and you’re buying in season.
• Start a Garden

5. Clean out and replenish.

Slowly, as you’re cooking, build up the real food ingredients needed to make your favorite meals. You’ll probably already have been buying these ingredients. This will be a natural transition as you learn to cook, start building your real food muscles in the kitchen, and start relying more on those favorite recipes you’re keeping.

6. Find real food alternatives for the processed food your family loves and just can’t ditch.

The post Podcast 006: Practical Steps That Will Help You Make The Transition from Processed Food to a Real Food Lifestyle appeared first on Live Simply.

Listen Here

You can listen to the podcast episodes here on the blog, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Leave a Review

Leave a Review

Reviews are critically important for a new podcast. Reviews tell iTunes that people are listening and also helps new people find the podcast. To leave a review, click on the button above and then click “Write a Review” (you’ll have to scroll down to see this option). Also, while you’re over in iTunes, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified when new episodes launch.

Show Notes

• Michael Pollan, Food Rules
• Real Food Fats 101 
• Real Food Sweeteners 101 
• Environmental Working Group 
• Printable Chart (available in the free Real Food Crash Course)
• How to make your own yogurt
• Subscribe to Live Simply

What’s Wrong With Food Today? 

First, let’s consider what exactly food is. I think the best place to turn is the dictionary. Food: Something that nourishes, sustains, or supplies, used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.

In his book, Food Rules, Michael Pollan offers us a few facts to consider when thinking about the food we put in our bodies. The first fact concerns the Western diet. The Western diet, also referred to as a Standard American Diet (SAD), usually consists of a lot of processed food, processed meat, lots of added sugars and added fats which are found in processed food, along with refined grains (white flour, etc).

He writes that societies that have adopted such a way of eating “invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Virtually all of the obesity and type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of the cardiovascular disease, and more than a third of all cancers can be linked to this diet. Four of the top ten killers in America are chronic diseases linked to this diet.”

In fact two, presented in the book, he writes “Populations eating a remarkably wide range of traditional diets generally don’t suffer from these chronic diseases. Traditional diets run the gamut from ones very high in fat (the Inuit in Greenland are an example which subsists largely on seal blubber) to ones high in carbohydrate (example: Central Indians have a diet largely made up of maize and beans) to the ones high in protein (the Masai tribe in Africa live off cattle blood, meat, and milk.)”.

Pollan points out that these are extreme examples. But these serve a point. This new western diet, a diet that’s made up mostly today of highly processed food is making us sick.

Real food makes you feel good. At least that’s been my experience, my families experience, and the experience of so many other people–from the guests I talk to on the podcast to readers who write me and share their journey. This isn’t to say that we won’t get sick even when consuming real food. We don’t live in a perfect world, and illness happens. But real food supports our bodies, it nourishes our bodies and supports our hormones and growth. Real food contains vital nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, that our bodies need to support it and keep it going and functioning in a healthy way. Processed food doesn’t offer us this. It leaves us undernourished, and lacking the basic nutrients we need to thrive.

I know that some folks argue that we live longer today than traditional cultures but I would point out, as Pollan does in his book, that this is due to improved infant mortality rates, as well as improved modern hygiene advancements.

What Real Food Is Not…

1. Real food is not a trend or fad.

While we may be hearing more about real food due to the internet, books, and documentaries, real food isn’t new. It’s not a trend that will be popular for a few years and then replaced with a new fad. Real food has always been around, since the dawn of time. It’s the way generations before us ate, and the way of eating that future generations will hopefully return to. Overly-processed food, which lacks nutrients and is made with manipulated ingredients, hasn’t always been around. If anything, processed food is the new kid on the block.

Now, there are certainly trendy real foods. Kale has been having a spotlight moment, along with chia seeds, cassava, almonds, and cauliflower (cauliflower pizza). While blogs may be making these particular foods trendy, they are simply real ingredients that have been around for ages.

2. Real food is not a restrictive diet, or even a diet at all.

A real food lifestyle is not about limiting food. It’s about saying yes to actual food (ingredients) versus something that’s trying to look and act like food. And here’s the thing, once you begin eating real food, your palate changes and you realize just how amazing real food tastes and how good you feel.

3. Real food is not about depriving yourself.

As Harry Blazer, a food and beverage trends researcher says, “Eat anything you want, just cook it yourself.” Processed food has made it easy for us to effortlessly grab chips, cookies, muffins, and other foods that should require spending a fair amount of time in the kitchen to make. Making food yourself means you’re probably not consuming cookies at every meal–it lends us to eat more variety.

There is a rise in real food companies who are making convenient options that are made with real ingredients. This is a blessing and curse. I believe the majority of our diet should come from home-cooked foods, made with simple ingredients. These real food convenience options are amazing and can be sprinkled in to help us simplify and reduce overall cook and prep times, when needed. But we shouldn’t exchange processed food for more boxes and packages, just because we can. Real food is about taking responsibility for our food, and learning how to prepare food so we can nourish our bodies with simple ingredients.

4. Real food is not about counting calories or eliminating naturally-occurring fats.

Calories naturally occur in food, along with fat. We need calories and fats to thrive. Since we’re eating a lot of variety when consuming real food, we don’t have to worry about consuming too much.

5. Real food is not keto, paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegetarian.

There are variations of a real food lifestyle. Sometimes certain foods need to be avoided due to healing a leaky gut, a food allergy or intolerance, the way you personally feel after consuming an ingredient, or a lack of a source for something like dairy, or another reason. But real food isn’t a labeled diet. Real food is the foundation on which these modified lifestyle choices come from.

6. Real food is not an elitist lifestyle. Real food is for everyone, not just people who make a certain amount of money or can shop at a certain store, or have a certain size kitchen. Real food can be found in just about every store if you know what to look for, and can work for any budget. It’s easy for people to get the idea that real food is an elitist and expensive lifestyle. That in order to enjoy good, nourishing you have to buy fancy ingredients: special powder options, collagen, quinoa, “superfoods”, and speciality nut milks. That’s simply not true. Real food is about getting back to the to the basics–simple, nourishing ingredients.

What Real Food Is…

1. Real food is traditional.

Real food is about food that has withstood traditions. Food which previous generations ate and enjoyed in their unprocessed state. In the past, people didn’t rely on big companies to tell them what to eat, or how much to eat. As Pollan says, “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” Looking at traditional societies, we know that historically, we are omnivores, eating both meat and plants. We’ll talk about the specifics of consuming plants and animals in a few minutes.

2. Real food is intuitive.

Our ancestors ate when they were hungry, and stopped when they were full. Food that isn’t full of additives, but rather is full of beneficial nourishment that our bodies recognize, allows us to eat intuitively. There isn’t anything added to real food–like added fat (there is naturally-occurring fat that fills us up) or sugars that are altered from their original state by food scientists in a lab– to make us addicted to the taste of the food or tricks our body into think that we’re still hungry.

Real food also allows us to become in-tune with how our bodies react to food. You may notice that you don’t feel good after eating a particular food, like dairy or gluten or a particular vegetable. Eating real food teaches us to listen to our bodies versus marketing.

3. Real food is ingredients.

Ingredients that are as close to their natural state as possible. Jamie Oliver says, “Real food doesn’t have ingredients, real food is ingredients.” Oats, almonds (almond flour), yogurt, cheese, meat are all ingredients, used to create meals or at times enjoyed on their own.

4. Real food is full of variety and tastes amazing and different. 

5. Real food is seasonal.

6. Real food has a face and name.

Real food is grown by someone, raised by someone, cared for by someone. Food is not just a substance. Real food has a story.

7. Real food is nourishment and should make you feel good.

What Does Real Food Look Like? 

While everyone defines “real” in various ways–there are variations of real food, like paleo, vegetarians, pescetarians, dairy-free, gluten-free due to personal beliefs, allergies, or maybe an intolerance–here’s the foundation of what real food looks like…

• Grass Fed, Pastured Meats: Animals that have been raised and fed as they were intended when created, with grass underneath and the sun overhead. We use all parts of the animal, including the bones for nourishing stock. Chicken, beef, lamb, pork, and wild game.
• Eggs: From chickens that have been raised on pasture, roaming free with lots of sunlight.
• Fats: Such as: butter from grass-fed cows, coconut oil, ghee, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, tallow, and lard.
• Grains, Nuts, and Seeds: Whole grains and minimally-processed with an emphasis on ancient grains and variety: spelt, kamut, einkorn, even whole wheat. Also, ancient practices, such as: sourdough and sprouting grains, if possible. Also: beans, nuts, and seeds.
• Fruits and Veggies: Preferably in season and grown as local as possible, using organic practices. Including lots of fresh herbs. While organic produce is encouraged, I don’t always buy organic produce. I use the EWG list when shopping at the store. And if purchasing from a local farm or market, many farms aren’t “certified organic” but use organic practices.
• Dairy: Raw or pasteurized and full fat from grass-fed cows, or goats or sheep. Anytime you see the words low-fat or fat-free you know a lot of junk has been added to compensate for the loss of nourishing fat. This includes: milk, cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, kefir (a fermented milk-based drink), cottage cheese.
• Salt: Real, unrefined salt that hasn’t been stripped of its nourishing minerals.
• Seafood: Raised in the wild versus a fish farm.
• Sweeteners: As close to the natural state as possible, such as: raw honey, pure maple syrup, and minimally-processed sugars.
• Beverages: Water, and beverages that come from basic ingredients: teas, coffee, kombucha (a fermented tea), milk (from nuts, seeds, or dairy). Even wine and beer and cocktails–just watch the ingredients and stick with crafting your own cocktails using simple liquors and fresh ingredients.

To grab a handy printable chart of what real food looks like (pictured above), along with a downloadable and printable crash course to get started with a real food lifestyle, go to livesimply.me/subscribe.

The post Podcast 003: What Real Food Is, What Real Food Is Not, and What Real Food Looks Like (Real Food 101) appeared first on Live Simply.

Listen Here

You can listen to the podcast episodes here on the blog, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Leave a Review

Leave a Review

Reviews are critically important for a new podcast. Reviews tell iTunes that people are listening and also helps new people find the podcast. To leave a review, click on the button above and then click “Write a Review” (you’ll have to scroll down to see this option). Also, while you’re over in iTunes, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified when new episodes launch.

Show Notes

• Food INC
• Joel Salatin 
• Michael Pollan
• Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions
• Weston A. Price Foundation
• EWG Dirty Dozen List
• Peach Cobbler Post: original, first post on Live Simply
• Real Food Planning Challenge

I think it’s so important to hear other people’s wellness stories, because it reminds us that this lifestyle is something we must actively pursue, by taking one small baby step at a time. Lifestyle changes don’t take place overnight. You’re going to hear this echoed throughout the future guest episodes in this podcast.

Whether you’re just starting to think about things like real food, natural cleaning, simplifying your home life, or natural body-care, or you’ve been on your own journey for several years now, my hope is that my story encourages and inspires you.

I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s– a time of Kool-Aid, freezer meals, margarine, Velveeta cheese, and packaged chocolate chip cookies. And a time when fat and cholesterol were feared, which meant that we grew up with a fear of food. Packaged food was commonplace in our homes, along with some home-cooked meals.

Growing up, I dealt with crippling headaches when I’d eat certain foods. At the time we never associated food with having any consequence on our bodies.

As a teenager, my family moved to Ghana, West Africa. It was the first time in my life that I was exposed to open-air farmers markets, and also the idea of cooking from scratch. We brought a few cookbooks along with us: Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker, and an old Amish cookbook. For the first time, I learned how to make a few recipes “from scratch” using these cookbooks.

After Ghana, I returned back to college. Due to a lack of time and knowledge on how to cook, college turned my taste buds toward a heavily processed diet of fast food and packaged snacks.

Dustin and I got married during my last year of college. He had just graduated. I told him that I wanted to assume the role of cooking. I wanted to serve healthy meals, I was just confused as to what exactly healthy was. My knowledge of healthy came from marketing–what I saw on Oprah, read in Magazines, and what the labels on boxed food told me. Lean cuisine? 100 calorie packs? Heart healthy granola bars? Yep, must be healthy! If a company can put these words on a package food, they must truly mean something.

Our typical meal consisted of chicken breasts, rice (from a box), and a veggie (usually from a microwave package). That was pretty much all I knew how to cook without relying on a box. Due to boredom from eating the same home-cooked meals, we would quickly turn to ready-made dinners to add more “variety.”

In 2008, Food INC was released. I highly anticipated watching this documentary. One night, Dustin and I went down to Blockbuster to check it out. Remember those days? When you visited the video store instead of turning to a Netflix account?

For the first time ever, Dustin and I were challenged to think about the food we consume. We had never thought about food before, or if the food we consumed was even food. The idea of real food intrigued me, but after watching the movie I didn’t know what to do next. I felt crippled to act on this new knowledge. I lacked the basic knowledge about how to cook, where to source simple ingredients, and how exactly to do this within a budget.

A few weeks after watching the documentary, Dustin issued a challenge during dinner, “I bet you can’t shop, cook and eat from just the produce department for one week.” I’m not one to turn down a good challenge so I responded, “Sure, I got this!”

The next week was difficult. Beyond difficult. We survived. I don’t remember what we ate that week, and I’m pretty sure pasta and rice were part of our meals–the kind of rice that you microwave in a plastic pouch. But we did it!

We started eating from the produce department regularly, and within a few weeks embraced veganism. Being vegan means I didn’t eat any animal products. I didn’t know there were options; alternatives to the processed and industrialized meat and eggs shown in Food INC. I also brought with me a fear of fat and calories, which made for a very unhealthy mix. Processed food crept back into our diet at this time, in the form of fake meat products, soy milks and alternative cheese products, and highly processed “organic” junk food.

Dustin still ate meat and dairy when out with friends for work lunches, but at home we were strictly vegan. Processed food vegans sprinkled with a side of veggies and fruits.

Due to our lifestyle change, I began to dabble in meal planning. I realized that planning our meals was the only way to successfully follow a special diet. But meal planning didn’t come naturally for me. I struggled with meal planning, thumbing through my limited supply of wedding present cookbooks (this was before Pinterest and most blogs) for hours each weekend.

In 2009, I found out I was expecting our first child, a baby boy. After an exactly 40 week pregnancy, Piper was born.

Since we were following a vegan diet at this time, when it came time for solid food, I decided to feed him strictly vegan as well.

At two, I began to notice issues with Piper’s language development. He just wasn’t blossoming with new words and sounds like the other kids his age. This raised a flag of concern for me.

Free speech screening-> therapist > nutritionist. I started doing my own research and discovered the Weston A. Price Foundation and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. The idea of eating traditionally made so much sense. For the first time ever, I felt a sense of food freedom. I didn’t need to fear food, or count calories or stay away from fat. Food was nourishment, and the fat and calories found in naturally-occurring, naturally-raised and grown food, was vital for my body and my growing child’s body.

I also found out around this time that I was pregnant with our second child, Londyn. I began sourcing pastured meat and eggs from local farms. The only grocery story option I knew about at this time was Publix, a conventional store in our area, and the selection was limited or non-existent. I had to begin sourcing food outside the grocery store.

I found pastured meat and eggs, although it wasn’t easy. I met farmers in parking lots, purchasing meat and eggs, and even milk, from the back of vehicles. And even found a co-op for local fruit and veggies, along with meats and eggs and cheese and raw milk that met in the room of a bowling alley twice a month. One of the members owned the alley.

Our diet slowly changed, as I began to learn how to prepare grass-fed beef, cook whole chickens and even make broth, how to prepare eggs in various ways, and consume raw dairy. I also began to learn how to cook basic recipes during this time, like muffins and pancakes, roasted veggies, and soups. Foods that I never once thought I could make with my own two hands. More and more of our meals came from basic ingredients that were combined to make nourishing meals.

As we added fat and other vital nutrients to Piper’s diet, along with cod liver oil, we saw significant language growth. A testament to the impact our diet can have on our health. I also began to feel better, as I had felt sluggish, had put on weight, and experienced crippling headaches for the past few years.

My knowledge of real food deepened during this time. But I quickly realized that I was spending way too much on food.

Our grocery bill was way over budget at this time, so once again I had to learn a new skill on this journey: how to make real food work on a single-income budget. Quality food, particularly pastured meat, eggs, and dairy were priorities, so we made cuts in other areas, like entertainment and clothes. But we still needed to work on getting the budget down, so I started to learn how to use ingredients to make multiple meals within a week, like rolled oats for oatmeal and then blended up to pancakes. And using meat more for flavoring or pairing the meat with fruits, veggies, grains, or beans to stretch that pricey meat over multiple meals. And this meant that my meal planning skills, through a ton of trial and error, were tweaked and modified to work for our family.

During this time, I also learned about farmer’s markets and using seasonal veggies and fruits to build our meals instead of purchasing expensive produce from the store that was out of season. I also cut back from buying all things organic, and began prioritizing what to buy organic based on the dirty dozen list from the Environmental Working Group, when shopping at a grocery story, in order to enjoy real food on a budget.

With new changes happening in the kitchen and healthier meals being served at our table, I began to dabble with making my own household products– from cleaners to makeup. As a stay-at-home mom, I had more time on my hands to dabble with making stuff. There weren’t a lot of options on the market at this time.

I was so excited about the changes happening in our family, with our diet and what I was learning, that I was constantly sharing information and recipes on my personal Facebook account. Friends were asking for recipes and noticing the changes we were making in our life, including family. People began suggesting that I start a blog. I honestly hadn’t read blogs before this time.

Finally, one weekend in 2013, after visiting a local peach farm, I asked Dustin, ‘Will you make me a blog?” He set up a free Wordpress theme for me, we purchased LiveSimply.me (not knowing how popular this name would become years later…good thing we trademarked this name!), and created a menu and about page. I stayed up half the night writing my first post, a post about my mission and heart behind my new passion project. I came out with a second post just a couple of days later, sharing about our peach farm visit and a peach cobbler recipe. The photos were shot with my iPhone 3 under my very-yellow kitchen light, at odd angles.

The blog was created to be an online space that helps families embrace real food and natural living with a simplified, practical approach. I’ll link to my first ever post (see Show Notes, above)–yep, you can still find it online, although it’s hard to find without a direct link.

I poured my heart and soul into Live Simply, sharing everything I could to help other families eat real food and learn about natural alternatives for cleaning and body-care. I also thought it would be fun to talk about motherhood, but I soon realized that I didn’t have much to say about being a mom. I was just learning as I was going, and had no advice to offer people when it came to potty training or co-sleeping or anything like that. The blog slowly grew, and by the end of the first year thousands of people were reading the blog, and by the second year, hundreds of thousands were reading. And just like that, the blog grew and grew.

The goal was never to make money from the blog. We didn’t even know that was an option with a blog. After a couple of years in, we began to realize that blogging to a large audience wasn’t cheap–food had to be purchased to test recipes multiple times, we purchased a real camera to improve the photos on the blog (because I wanted food to be appealing and aesthetically-pleasing), we had to pay for an email service to connect with readers through email, we had to upgrade servers multiple times due to how many people read the blog, and I was spending the equivalent of a part-time job working on the blog. We put ads on the site, and I also created a paid resource to help families who wanted to start living a real food lifestyle.

Fast forward to today, 2018, the blog is now my full-time job, along with freelance food photography. I have a few amazing moms who work with me part-time helping with recipe work, social media, photo shoot cleanups and photographing recipes, and editing photos and blog posts. Running a blog isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m incredibly thankful for where Live Simply is today–for the opportunity to interact and share in this journey with so many other moms, parents, caregivers, and families from all over the world. Live Simply is still a passion project for me.

As I’ve learned how to run a business, and be a mom to growing children who are now in school, and also find time for myself and my husband, I’ve been on a journey to simplify life over the past few years. This has meant decluttering and embracing more of a minimalist attitude (not in a own-nothing way, but more in an intentional about life and things way), and learning to take care of myself. I’ve also been learning how to simplify our real food lifestyle by embracing food prep, strategically meal planning with rotating meal plans, and creating routines in our home.

My journey has been exactly that, a journey. Small baby steps over a long period of time. This is a journey I’m still on, a journey that I get to share with you through the blog, Instagram and Instagram Story, and now this podcast.

I want to remind you of that. Slowly, over the past 10 years (and even before that) my family started making small changes to lead us to where we are today. One small change at a time.

My hope is for this podcast to be an encouragement to you as you live out your own journey, as well as a source for practical tips to help you live out this lifestyle.

The post Podcast 002: My Wellness Story, From Kool-Aid and Velveeta Cheese to Natural Wellness appeared first on Live Simply.

My mom prepared home-cooked meals, but even those were prepared with creamed soups, fake cheese, and other processed “ingredients.” We never thought about what was actually in our food, because we were too focused on calorie counting and avoiding fat and cholesterol.

In 2009, I sat down with my husband to watch a new documentary called,  Food Inc. That documentary opened my eyes to the idea of eating real ingredients. Ingredients that are whole (or minimally processed in a way that’s natural to consume the ingredient), nourishing, wholesome, and nutrient dense. It was at this time that I decided to become a vegan.

Long story short, in just a few years, I transitioned from a diet full of processed food (I didn’t know how to prepare or cook actual ingredients) to a diet that eliminated all animal products, and then eventually to a more balanced “real food” approach. It’s been an interesting journey. A journey that’s been guided by knowledgable authors, like Michael Pollan, and my own research.

Today’s post isn’t about my real food journey. If you’re interested in my full story, you can read the details over here. Today’s chat is about the books that helped guide me on this journey. Books that cover everything from the basics of real food to issues with our current food system to how to make a meal with real ingredients (a lost skill in our current fast food, processed-everything society).

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

I let a friend borrow my copy of this book recently so I don’t have a photo of the actual book. I grew up in a society that was afraid of fat, cholesterol, and calories. When I started reading about “real food” I was confused about where these fear-inducing words fit. This book was just the answer I needed to stop fearing these essential components in real ingredients.

I don’t soak most of my grains anymore (as taught in the book) or purchase raw milk (due to the new pick up location in our area and my lack of time to get there), but I still adhere to many of the recommendations: consuming good fat, enjoying sourdough and incorporating fermented foods into our diet, etc.

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

If you’re new to the idea of eating real food then you must start with a Michael Pollan book. Mr. Pollan’s approach is balanced and practical. Food Rules is a short book that lists the “rules” of eating real food. Here are a few examples of the rules found in this book…

Rule 3: Avoid Food Products Containing Ingredients That No Ordinary Human Would Keep in the Pantry

Rule 7: Avoid Food Products Containing Ingredients That a Third-Grader Cannot Pronounce

Rule 49: Regard Nontraditional Foods with Skepticism

Rule 51: Enjoy Drinks That Have Been Caffeinated By Nature, Not Food Science

Each rule is followed by a short commentary.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

This book was recently made into a documentary, so if you don’t have time to read a full book right now, you can also watch this book on Netflix. Mr. Pollan’s premise for this book is: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become. The book then explores what we should eat and how to find real food.

Before we move on from Mr. Pollan, it’s worth noting that he’s also written two more books about real food. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a long, thorough look at where our food comes from and the issues surrounding our current food culture. It’s a good read, but I find his other two books (mentioned above) to be more enjoyable. I haven’t read his recent book Cooked because I watched the four-part documentary on Netflix.

Food Matters by Mark Bittman

This book is a great follow-up to Pollan’s In Defense of Food. Mr. Bittman explores government policy regarding food and big business marketing. He also includes 75 recipes in the book.

Real Food by Nina Planck

Nina Planck has published several books about real food, including a real food cookbook. Her book Real Food was one of the first real food books on the market (before Pollan’s first book, I believe). The book is divided into very specific food chapters. For example:

Chapter 2: Real Milk, Butter, and Cheese

Chapter 3: Real Meat

Chapter 4: Real Fish

Chapter 5: Real Fruit and Vegetables

Chapter 6: Real Fats

Chapter 7: Industrial Fats

If you’re looking for a book that explores specific foods (along with how to find good sources for such food), this is the book.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle

Okay, I’m going to preface this choice by saying that this is my least favorite of the options on this list. This is only because I find Ms. Nestle’s book to be very long, but just because I don’t care for super long books doesn’t make this book “bad.”  I recommend starting with Pollan, Planck, and/or Fallon’s books (discussed above) and then if you still want to read more about real food, move on to Ms. Nestle’s book.

In this book, Ms. Nestle walks the reader through the grocery store and shares “what to eat” from each section. It’s very detailed (hence my long comment).

Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner

A block of indestructible cheese was all Ms. Warner needed to convince her that something isn’t right with our food. She started to investigate what we’re actually eating. This book is a result of her investigations. Ms. Warner focuses on processed food and the real price we’re paying when purchasing this food.

It’s Not About the Broccoli by Dina Rose

Let’s move on to the topic of kids and real food. This book is such a breath of fresh air for parents. I first learned about this book from Taesha, the blogger behind Natural Nurturer. The focus of this book is on fostering good habits versus focusing solely on nutrients.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

If you want to learn how to cook real ingredients, without relying on a recipe, this book is for you. I think everyone should read this book. It’s not a fancy chef book; instead, it’s written for people just like you and me: home-cooks wanting to nourish our families with good food.

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page

Unlike the previous cooking book, this book isn’t for everyone. If you want to get creative in the kitchen, without a recipe, this book is your guide. The book lists ingredients (such as: sweet potatoes, cinnamon, turnips) and then offers a list of cooking recommendations: spices to use, cooking methods, etc. I turn to this book often when I’m developing a recipe.

The post Must-Read Real Food Books: A Reading List For Eating Real Food, Cooking Real Food, and Cutting Out Processed Food appeared first on Live Simply.

I’m pretty picky about the movies I watch, just because I don’t have a ton of patience for television. If I’m going to watch something, it must be good and worthy of my precious time. We don’t have cable, just Netflix and Amazon, so the selection is already narrowed down for me.

Over the years, I’ve become a huge fan of food documentaries. And over the years, there have been quite a few binge-worthy documentaries made about real food and the concerns with our current food production methods. Anyone who has the ability to watch these documentaries, should do so.

It can be difficult to know which documentaries are actually worthy of an hour or two of time, and which are not. Today, let’s narrow down the choices. I’m going to share my favorite food documentaries that I believe are in the “must-see” category.

I skipped my favorite things in May (because we’ve been traveling), so this post is a substitute with a movie-specific focus.

Most of the documentaries listed below are available on Netflix, Amazon (Prime), or can be rented from store rental kiosks. I’ve linked to the Amazon option below, just to give you an idea of what the documentary looks like.

1. Food, INC

Food, INC is the documentary that initially made me question everything I knew about food. Food, INC is an older documentary at this point (2009), but it’s still making a tremendous impact on people.

2. Fresh 

Fresh takes a look at our current food production methods and the alternative actions some farmers are taking to produce “better” food.

3. Fed Up

Narrated by Katie Couric, Fed Up focuses on the consequences of consuming sugar and processed food. This documentary is available for streaming on Netflix.

4. Farmageddon

Farmageddon is a documentary all about milk, touching on the current milk production methods and raw milk.

5. Cooked (YouTube Trailer)

This is a Netflix exclusive series created and narrated by Michael Pollan (my real food hero). The four-part series explores how cooking transforms food. This series, based on Pollan’s book, is incredibly inspiring and beautifully filmed.

6. In Defense of Food (YouTube Trailer)

Also based on a Michael Pollan book, this documentary explores what exactly real food looks like. I absolutely love Pollan’s practical and realistic approach to eating real food. This documentary was originally a PBS special and appears to only be available on Netflix.

7. Sustainable

Sustainable is a new documentary that explores how to eat real food in the midst of a processed, overly-industrialized food system. This documentary even takes a look at ancient grains, like einkorn and spelt.

Do you have a favorite food documentary? I want to hear about your favorite.

The post Must-See (Real) Food Documentaries That Challenge and Inspire appeared first on Live Simply.