I’ve pledged to October #Unprocessed

After reading Aimee’s post at Simple Bites this week and seeing a rush of #Unprocessed hashtags come through my twitter stream, I knew something impressionable was about to begin.

#Unprocessed is the work of @eatingrules, or Andrew Wilder.

A pledge to eat no processed foods for the entire month of October.

You can pledge for a week, two, three, or the entire month.  I have decided to pledge for the entire month of October.

Sounds easy enough.  I eat a whole, traditional diet, making, growing, and raising a good portion of my families food.

However, when it comes down to it, there are a variety of processed foods I still find in my home.  Most notably, a few condiments.

Also, as my teaching semester has begun along with a couple of new contributing positions, I’ve found myself grabbing for a few extra processed foods.

It’s been an entire 3 weeks since I’ve made homemade bread and my family misses it.  I’ve had to purchase store bought tortillas and while my sister was visiting from California she found a way to mangle in Doritos, or the blue chips as my children have been calling it.

Now, As most of my readers know I’m not a stickler about processed foods.  In my home, I do not like to have them.  It’s a temptation for my children and myself.  However, when we’re out and about and there happen to be Doritos or other things of that nature, I let it be.

I know when we get home, some homemade yogurt, fresh fruit, and vegetables will help the digestive track right along.

This challenge, for me, is to see how much dependance my family has on processed foods.

What defines processed?

What’s cool about this challenge is that not everything has to be home made.  Whew, I know how difficult that can be.

So, Andrew has come up with the kitchen test.

If you pick up something with a label (and if it doesn’t have a label, it’s probably unprocessed), and find an ingredient you’d never use in your kitchen and couldn’t possibly make yourself from the whole form, it’s processed.

He also goes into detail in this post about further defining unprocessed with ingredients like pasta, bread, soy sauce, flour, sugar, and milk.

What my plan looks like

• Planning. With working at home and outside of the home, I’ll have to write down my menu plan and strategy for homemade staples such as bread, tortillas, biscuits, granola, larabars and fruit leather.  By planning, I’ll also know if I will not have time to make one of these staples and purchase a pre-made unprocessed alternative.
• Simple Meals. That’s right.  I need to think simple.  Especially on the evenings that I work.  I’ll have to make sure to use my crock pot which will ensure a homemade meal for the family while I’m away.
• Have Fun! I think this is a perfect opportunity to finally start making my own cheese with my hubby.  I know we’ll have fun together and at the same time, make some awesome raw cheese!

You Can Join To

Does this sound like a challenge you would like to pledge to?  Here are some steps to get you started.

• Sign the pledge and join over 1,000 others.
• Follow #Unprocessed on twitter
• Follow Eating Rules for updates and guest posts to help you along on your challenge.

Make a goal and reach for it.  Whether it’s just a couple of days, an entire week or a month, make a plan.  It will be key to keeping you on track and focused on a healthy and #Unprocessed October.

I hope you join me.  If you decided to pledge, please leave a comment below on how you plan to to eat #unprocessed in October.

Throughout the month, let’s chat about it on facebook, motivate and encourage one another. I’m excited to see what we learn in the process.