Spring Clean Your Eating Habits

Real food.  Slow food.  Eating the rainbow.  Hormone-free.  Clean eating.  Ditching processed food.  Going organic.  Whole foods.  Eating local.  Raw.  Nitrate-free.  Natural.  Grain-free.  

Do any of those words sound familiar?  If you've done any sort of research into cleaning up your diet, you've probably bumped into those phrases more than once.  It seems to me that eating healthy is getting more complicated all the time.  There's so much (often conflicting) information to sift through, and so many choices to make.  Whatever happened to "an apple a day"?

This topic is fascinating to me, but sometimes frustrating as well.  I love food.  I don't want to have to think so hard about what goes into my mouth.  I'd rather make my food choices based on which item tastes better instead of which item is healthier.  But I know that's not wise.  

Over the past few years, my family's eating habits have (slowly but surely) been changing.  We're eating healthier than we used to...but I know we still have a long ways to go.  No one in our household is trying to lose weight, and we're not going gluten-free or vegetarian.  It's simply a matter of making healthier choices on a regular basis.  We don't do everything right, and there's always more to learn.  But we're making progress, and that's what's important.

So, what does "eating healthy" mean for our family?  That's what I'll be posting about for the month of April.  I'm gradually becoming more educated about this topic, but I'm certainly no expert...which is why I'll mostly be talking about what works for my family (and what doesn't!).  In addition, I'll be using this month as an opportunity to try some new (healthier!) habits and recipes...because I know we can do better.  The articles in this series will be based on my family's experiences and opinions...and your family is certainly not identical to mine.  Some of you have no interest in changing up your diet; others of you are probably much more knowledgeable about this than I am.  Wherever you are on the healthy eating spectrum, I hope that you'll find a few helpful ideas here this month.  

All of this to say...we eat moderately healthy around here, so if you'd like to learn more about the how and why, stay tuned during the month of April!  I'll be posting tips, tricks, and recipes to help you Spring Clean Your Eating Habits.  

Footnotes:  
1.  This series is partially a response to some requests I've received for "healthy recipes" and to questions like "do you really eat all those desserts you post?".
2.  This series won't be as extensive as "31 Days of Saving Money in the Kitchen", but I'll be posting more often than just on the weekends.
3.  I'm running this series in April because it's a busy time of year around here!  (Makes a lot of sense, right?)  What I mean is, I can write most of this stuff ahead and set it on auto-post, instead of being tied to posting on the weekends when the Meijer ad comes out.  Therefore, I may or may not post new "sale" recipes and/or the Recipe Round-up this month.
4.  As I said above, I'm certainly not an expert in this field.  That's why, in addition to telling you what's worked for our family, I'll also be pointing you to some really great articles and recipes that I've found on other blogs.
5.  If you just can't wait a few more days, you can check out my "Healthier Eats" Pinterest board for some inspiration.