I’m thrilled to have my dear friend Tiffany at Don’t Waste the Crumbs join us to share some helpful insights about her real food journey. Through first-hand experience, she has learned, as so many of us have, that making the shift from processed foods to wholesome real foods is a gradual process that can only be achieved by taking small steps in the right direction.

by Tiffany, Don’t Waste the Crumbs

One of the most common pitfalls of starting a real food journey is believing it’s an all or nothing gig.

It starts innocently with a date night at home, browsing the latest releases on Netflix.  You decide on a documentary like “Food, Inc.” wanting to know why everyone is making a big fuss about food. Next thing you know, you’re laying on your pillow wide awake, thinking your only hope of not developing cancer or some other debilitating disease is to buy EVERYTHING organic … Or was that just me? 

Movies like this are important for waking us up to the growing dangers of the standard American diet. Yet their pitfall can be that they often make eating real, wholesome food sound like an easy magic trick – just buy this and you’re safe. Just buy that and you’ll be healthy. And at the beginning, I was excited and ready to do whatever it took, no matter the cost.

Jumping in with both feet, I ventured to the health food store instead of the usual grocery store that week and literally stocked my shopping cart with everything organic! It felt great to take charge of my family’s nutrition and to be so cautious about food we were eating… until the cashier read the total.  In the blink of an eye, I was defeated. There was no way in the world I could afford to spend this much in groceries every week!

During the drive home, my mind replayed the purchase and I started to second guess if eating real food is really worth the time, the effort and the money. I considered throwing in the towel on eating real food.

Thankfully, I realized that my frame of mind is what caused me to fail. I was looking for an overnight solution to a problem 30 plus years in the making. I felt like I had to buy everything organic, on top of having to know how to ferment milk AND sprout flour AND render lard AND make my own butter from raw milk (raw milk?!) when I was struggling to have dinner ready at a decent hour each night and stay within budget each month!

And to top it off, I really had no clue WHY I was doing it all in the first place!

Small Steps in the Right Direction …
Thankfully, my sister-in-law gave me the book “Nourishing Traditions” for Christmas, which helped me to put the pieces together. I soon realized that a real food journey is about putting one foot in front of the other and going in the direction of “better.” It’s not about doing it all at once – it’s about doing something – starting with one healthy eating goal and then continuing to make slow, steady forward progress.

That’s why I created the 22 Days to a Fresh Start series. I wanted others to learn from my mistakes and know that it IS possible to eat real food by making small strides in the right direction, and that it IS possible to do it without going broke!

Eating real, wholesome food is certainly not an overnight magic trick … It’s about making better choices, one at a time, based on your own family’s needs and budget. And this, of course, looks different for each one of us.

The key is to start with one healthy eating goal and work to accomplish it before moving on to the next goal. Here are just a few ideas to consider as you begin setting your own goals for eating healthier and saving money!

Make a commitment to eliminate processed sugar
and instead use healthier all-natural sweeteners to
make wholesome and economical homemade treats.

Save money and improve your gut health by making your own
homemade yogurt (it may sound intimidating,
but my heating pad method is fail proof!)

Save big bucks by carving whole chickens yourself
and making your own homemade bone broth.

Replace one meal each week with a healthy satisfying soup
like my tortilla soup or hearty minestrone.
(You’ll be amazed at how much money you save by
serving soup once a week, especially if you eat your leftovers.)

So I encourage you to set a goal to do your first something right now. Arm yourself with knowledge and read Kelly’s write up on what real food is and her tips on how to set healthy living goals and make a budget. Fill your pantry with one or two of these awesome real food essentials, instead of buying another pre-packaged, processed food. You can also sign-up for my free newsletter to learn more about how to prepare healthy nourishing food, while also maintaining a healthy budget.  And as a thank you, you’ll be able to download the entire 22 Days to a Fresh Start series in an easy-to-read PDF format.

Remember, even the smallest steps in the right direction are progress. Just start by doing something and soon you’ll find yourself making great strides with your healthy eating goals!

Meet Tiffany!
Tiffany is a newbie real food eater who is trying to master real foods and incorporate them into her kitchen without breaking the bank. She documents her baby-sized strides at Don’t Waste the Crumbs and Google.