Real Friends and Real Food

Yesterday was an absolutely wonderful day! I got to eat lunch with my sweet friend and former roommate, Emily, who now lives very far away. It was so great to see her and catch up on her life. I also got to meet her one-year-old daughter, who is super, super, super cute! I am definitely going to have to plan a trip to visit both of them sometime soon.

One of the reasons I really wanted to start this blog was to document the "10 Days of Real Food Challenge" that I am about to begin. I got this idea from the 100 Days of Real Food blog. Lisa, the blog writer, and her husband and two kids decided to try and cut out all processed foods from their diet for 100 days. She loved it so much that she started a blog encouraging others to do the same. She recommends that people begin by taking the 10 day challenge, and I decided to try it. Since I had so much fun creating a numbered list yesterday, let's try another one for the reasons that I am doing this:

1. I have a terrible diet. I am doing well if I eat a piece of fruit or some veggies 2-3 times a week. Some of this stems from the fact that I am a picky eater and don't really like vegetables, and some of it stems from the fact that I am lazy. Heating up an unhealthy meal is much easier than spending time cooking a nutritious one. Also, since I am only feeding one person, it has hard for me to buy fresh fruits and veggies because they normally go bad before I can make myself eat them. So I hope that over the next 10 days I will discover how delicious real food is, and that I really do have the time to make healthy meals for myself.
2. I have been feeling really terrible this summer--stomach aches, heartburn, random stomach pains, exhaustion. I hope that by cutting out processed foods some of these symptoms will go away and I will start to feel like myself again.
3. I want to take better care of my temple. I really do think that item #1 on this list is causing item #2, which means that my body is not functioning at its best. Recently, I have become re-convicted about the importance of taking care of my body so that the Lord will be able to use me without my body hindering the task He has for me. 
4. I want this 10 day challenge to be the start of a new healthy lifestyle--complete with eating well and exercising. And as an added bonus, I would love to lose some/a lot of weight along the way.
5. I think this actually sounds like a lot of fun! I'm not sure why I think it will be fun, maybe because I hope to have more energy/feel better or maybe I am just up for a good challenge in my life. Either way, I am excited and ready to get started.

My co-worker, Laura, and I will start the challenge on Tuesday. So yesterday, today, and tomorrow have been/will be preparation days. Yesterday I made a meal plan for every single meal over the next 10 days. I also made a grocery list of all the things I will need, and boy was that a long list. Today I went to the grocery because I wanted to check some prices so hopefully I won't break the bank over the next 10 days (organic/healthy food is expensive!). I ended up buying some items, including all of the items I needed to make my own granola. Right now it is baking in the oven and it smells absolutely delicious! My whole apartment smells like honey and cinnamon. Yum! You can find the recipe on the blog I listed earlier.

I guess that's enough for today. Tomorrow I'll be posting about the final stages of preparation and I will give you the rules I have to follow during the 10 days. Have a happy Sunday!