Oh, it's definitely going to be a challenge....

So I as I said, I'm taking part of the 28 day real food challenge - from The Nourished Kitchen.

Well, I received my first challenge today. It's much more than a challenge....it's an impossible challenge.

It's not that I don't want to meet this challenge head on, believe me, I do. This is going to be more challenging for us than most of the participants in the challenge. Why, you ask? Why is my family different? My husband, son and I live with my mom and step-dad. So, we have roommates. Those in the challenge who are living with roommates can probably empathize with us!

So, I'm sure you're holding your breath waiting to find out what the challenge is. Here is the gist of it:

Your first assignment is to take an inventory of your pantry, fridge and cupboards. Remove all processed foods and foods containing those ingredients from your kitchen. That means you'll toss all refined oils, white flour, sugar and low- and skimmed-milk products. Ditch the boxed cereals, margarines, shortenings, frozen pizzas, sodas, lemonades and juice drinks, packaged crackers and cookies, processed cheeses, dried pastas, iodized and refined salts. Toss them and don't look back. No, it doesn't matter if the foods are organic or not: toss them anyway. You may well have paid good money for the food at one time, but remember real health comes from real food and real food never comes from a box.

I actually think this is the perfect first step! And if we were back home, it would be actually a lot of fun to do! I'm not really sure how we're going to do this. I guess if we get through this month with all of the "convenience" packaged foods (mainly cereals) around, then we're much stronger than we think! There is just no way my mother will allow me to toss all of the things from the pantry. It is her house after all and I do not have control over the entire kitchen!

Also, here is what I ate today:

Breakfast - a banana, one egg (fried), cup of milk, coffee (sweetened with agave - which I read I have to give up). Now, I just realized as typing this, that I used Pam spray to fry my egg in. I'll start using real butter from now on!

Snack - orange

Lunch - leftovers from last night - turkey breast, corn, collard greens, mashed white potatoes (yes, I know, white...my mom made them!)

Dinner - Chili and grilled cheese (my mom made the chili, so I'm certain she used salt)

Snack - banana

I think I did fairly well. I do want a nice glass of sweet tea though and I'm really, really craving it. I guess I'll drink a big glass of water, blah.