Our Food Plan {intro}

{Image from Jones Design Company}

If you know me, it's not a secret that I don't enjoy cooking. For example, if you have a baby, while I want to be the friend who shows up at your doorstep with a freshly cooked meal, I will more likely show up with a gift card to Jimmy John's. I can cook and I've never poisoned anyone and it generally turns out pretty well, but I don't enjoy it.

I've been coasting through life up to this point, getting away with cooking once, maybe twice a week. My family doesn't bat an eye if I pull out the cereal boxes for dinner or make them a PBJ and I love them for that.

As the kids get older (and there are more of them now!), I feel like a coherent dining plan might be a good idea. Life is getting busier and when life gets busy, if I don't have a plan in place, we don't always eat the most balanced meals. (I also end up eating a lot of my meals standing up.)

Food, as a topic, seems to be popping up everywhere I turn. Specialized diets like vegetarian and gluten-free are more mainstream now. People are starting to ponder where their food is actually coming from and phrases like cage-free, grass-fed, raw, whole, clean, and organic swirl around in conversations, on packaging, and via posts on Facebook.

I have been inspired by friends and family like Theresa and her goal of once-a-month clean cooking, Amy and her quest for natural living, Kara and her desire for real, organic food, and Hannah and her passion for honest, whole food (and many others...I'm surrounded by a lot of really great, really healthy people).

As a mom and a wife (and for my own sake), I'd love to be more mindful about what we're eating, but quite frankly it gets a little overwhelming. We're not the worst fed family in America (and yay us! we do do a lot of things right) - you won't find Doritos or Twinkies in our shopping cart - but there's a lot of room for improvement.

My plan then is to come up with a plan (HA!) I am going to take baby steps towards eating healthier and with more intention. For our family, that means more whole foods (including more fruits and veggies and better meat), less sugar and processed foods, and more actual sit-down meals.

I desire for us to take good care of the bodies God has given us, enjoy and be nourished by all the good stuff he has created for us here on earth, and feel better, healthier, and more energetic. Oh, and I want skin that positively glows. (I hope that's not too much to ask.)

This is a work in progress, and I want to take it one step at a time.  Matt and I did a 10-day cleanse a few weeks ago (no processed foods, unnatural sugars, gluten, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, etc.) and I made it precisely seven days and hated every minute. I found it a little overwhelming and too much to ask of my body all at once. I would like to ease into changing some of our habits because then I believe they'll actually stick.

Eventually I'll need to understand what motivates us to eat, explore where the find the best whole foods, figure out how to save some money while doing it, discover new and tasty recipes, and unearth my inner Martha Stewart. But that will all come in time.

Here's the disclaimer: I don't have a background in nutrition. I'm not an amazing chef. I'm not worried about doing this all perfectly. I don't even actually know what I'm getting myself into. I'm just a regular mom, ready to muddle my way through the food maze. I do know this: each small change will bring me a little bit closer to our family's goals.

When I first started running, I knew next to nothing. I just laced up my shoes and hit the sidewalks, one step at a time. Every couple of runs I tried to push myself to run a little faster or a little longer. I began reading blog posts, magazine articles, and tweets about running. I asked questions. I set mini-goals. I started to hang out with other runners. They shared their knowledge with me and encouraged me to keep going.

Today, I'm not the fastest runner out there. I haven't trained for a marathon. There is a lot of room for improvement. But I'm in a better place than I was when I first started.

I feel like this is kind of going to look like that.

First things first, and for the love of accountability, this blog post is my first thing. I hope you will come along for the ride. I hope you will keep me company. I hope we can inspire each other to keep moving in the right direction.

Hold on to your fork. Things are about to get interesting.

Please feel free to send suggestions, advice, questions, etc. to me at katie {dot} terpstra {at} gmail {dot} com.