In case you haven’t noticed we not only took a 100-Day Real Food Pledge (two of them actually), but we’re also inviting readers to join the fun by taking a 10-day pledge. More than 800 people from around the world have signed up so far (yea!) by pledging
to follow our very same food rules for a shorter amount of time. We developed the 10-day pledge because it is such an eye opening experience to live like this even if it is only for a week and a half. It forces you to read ingredient labels and reevaluate every single ounce of food that you put into your body. Our hope is that people will use their valuable 10-day pledge experience to help them decide what changes to make long term. Living by the rules is just to teach a lesson…our intention is not for people to follow them for life because, thankfully, eating the “bad stuff” in moderation is okay!
So anyway, I have a ton of feedback that pledges have written on their “graduate” forms, and I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to share what they are saying. It’s about time you had a chance to hear how all this real food business is affecting someone other than my family members. Reading some of these comments seriously gave me chills, and I hope you enjoy them just as much as I did. And I also hope they make you think about taking the 10-day pledge yourself, or at the very least carefully consider what you are buying the next time you shop for food.
Without further ado, and in no particular order, here is some of the very cool feedback that we’ve received from our pledges so far….
- “This was the best ‘diet’ I have ever done and the only one where I haven’t cheated. But now I don’t really think of it as a diet, so much as a lifestyle. This is how I’m going to be eating from now on. I had a mini breakdown yesterday and tried curing it with a Kit Kat bar. It was disgusting. All I could think about was how I was cheating on my fruit and that I should’ve had an orange instead.” – Coalville, UT
- “As a working mother of two small children, I find it difficult to prepare, cook, and store ‘real’ food for everyone in our family (including one child who appears to be allergic to everything in sight). However, with a little planning (actually, it took A LOT of planning), I was able to map out a week’s worth of meals and I discovered that we used to waste so much food. I’m now able to spend the same amount on groceries as before but this time I shop at Whole Foods Market and I get better-quality produce. I just don’t buy as much and we eat everything that we buy. The biggest thing I learned, however, is that eating healthy keeps you healthy…everyone in my office has been sick this winter season with the flu…except for me.” – Alexandria, VA
- “I learned that my idea of ‘healthy eating’ was very far from it. We all feel better. I feel more rested and don’t crave the 3 P.M. coffee to pick me up. My husband’s headaches are better and IBS is not a problem. Three-year-old doesn’t have constipation issues. My husband and I both lost about 8 pounds each.” – Lexington, KY
- “I have lost 2.5kgs, which is great! And I am feeling healthier in myself, especially when I am not eating so much junk. So here is to a healthier, more intentional me :)” – Cranebrook NSW, Australia
- “We finished the pledge about a week ago and my eleven year old has just asked if we can go back on it!! This is truly amazing since up until the pledge she hasn’t been a very healthy eater. She said that since going back to processed food her stomach hurts. (She can’t wait to get her bracelet.) As weird as this sounds, my skin felt so much cleaner during the challenge. I guess my body had ‘detoxed’. Cutting out sugar and white flour was huge for us!!” – Jacksonville, NC
- “Like you mentioned the kids ‘poop’ is a lot more regular. We all FEEL a lot healthier.” – Destrehan, LA
- “I am definitely going to keep real food as a staple in my eating plan. I am going to start reading labels and I am going to try to get my family on the same plan. Thank you for having so much information on your site to help people like me who have been jaded by the diet industry to stay away from things that are actually healthier to eat (butter, juice, etc). They tell us that eating all this processed food, prepackaged frozen dinners, and margarine are better for us because they don’t have trans fat, lower in calories, and fat-free or sugar free….but they add a lot of unwanted things to make them taste good. I feel like I’ve been lied to and feel stupid for not paying attention to labels sooner.” – Owasso, OK
I started this at the beginning of Feb 2015. As of now May 27th, 2015 I have lost 20 lbs and I feel amazing. I had eczema (bad), my joints hurt, had hip bursitis and was about 30 lbs over weight. I first started to help with my eczema but soon my body felt better. So I was hooked. Thank you for taking the time to post and share all this information with us. May God bless you!
Hello,
Yetersday I took everything out if our kitchen that wasn’t 100 day pledge worthy and donated it. Then I went to the grocery store and got my fresh new food. I think the hardest part was rebuilding our kitchen supplies like the flour and sugar. Usually our budget for weekly is $100. This week we spent almost 200 because I like making my own bread products. Yeast was 7.99$ by itself!!! But I am really okay with spending more the first week because I can get back down to around $100 next week. Our farmers market doesn’t open until first weekend in May. If you are like me and limited options go online and find local farmers. I found some willing to sell meat. Talk to your friends! I had no idea 3 of them had chickens for me to get eggs from for $3 a dozen! Our first meal as a family I didn’t know if my kids would eat yogurt with berry sauce but they thought it was ice cream! I let them call it that now! :) at least They ate it!
Wow. If losing weight doesn’t sell it, nothing will. let alone FEELING BETTER!
I was wondering if The Food For Life bread was a good choice? We have that locally and I sometimes buy the Ezekial or Genesis version.
Hi Deana. As far as store-bought brands go, it is one of the best you can find. Be sure to keep it in the freezer as the shelf life for sprouted grains is very short. ~Amy
It’s awesome in support of me to have a website, which is helpful in support of my know-how.
thanks admin
Hi! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new apple iphone!
Just wanted to say I love reading through your
blog and look forward to all your posts!
Carry on the superb work!
I am starting the real food pledge tomorrow october 22 2013. I am very excited to see if I can complete the 10 days without cheating.
Spot on with this write-up, I seriously feel this site needs much more
attention. I’ll probably be back again to read through more, thanks for the info!
I live in Europe and go regularly back to the States. I have been struck recently by how American food and recipes add sugar when it is neither needed nor desired, e.g. to a potato salad. American canned tomato juice is disgustingly sweet, for instance. I don’t eat food that I have not cooked myself and certainly not in the States. If you compare a good French recipe to an American one the latter almost always has a totally redundant addition of sugar. This is recent. Julia Child wrote an excellent cook book and didn’t add sugar where not wanted. Now a recipe on the Internet has sugar as often as salt. Tastebuds seem to have been blunted.
No wonder so many Americans are obese!! They weren’t when I was young.
Trying to find the rules for the 10 Day Challenge and it says that the webpage is not found. HELP!!!
We wrapped up our 10-day pledge this week. I had serious cravings for fries and ice cream (my weaknesses) on days 2 and 3. But those were soon gone. On day 5, we talked about how much better we were feeling and made a shopping list to stretch our 10 days into 15+. I am a creature of habit… so I’m a little shy at trying new recipes. We used Meal Plan 1 as our guide for week one and while we have some perfecting to do (we weren’t so great at making the tortillas, for example), we’re surely getting there and we’ve loved each and every meal. We love that our two small children are in this with us and we know that we’re carrying this on as our new lifestyle. Yesterday, in the midst of our crazy schedules, we hit the local fast food drive-through on our commute between commitments. I order a small fry… ate four of them… and threw them back into the bag. They didn’t taste good at all – SUCCESS! In fact, they didn’t taste like anything. My taste buds have been spoiled with all of this REAL, good food that the emptiness of french fries was completely unappetizing. Thank you so much – I am so excited about what this means for my family!
We didn’t do the pledge in our house, just sort of went cold turkey on a big grocery day. It has been great and not nearly as difficult as I thought! We are on about 85-90% “real” food in our house. Still keeping a very few basic things around (like ketchup, mustard, pickles…) because I don’t want to throw them out, when they’re gone I’ll replace them with the real food counterparts. Other than those few things we are making so much from scratch at home and really enjoying the switch. Since the switch (almost a month) I noticed my energy level really coming up in the first week or so, but now….I am so tired all the time. Did anyone else experience this in transition? Can’t say we are even eating less meats, (iron) we always buy our meats “real” anyway, so that hasn’t been altered in our move towards 100% real. Thoughts anyone? Thanks to all who contribute here, I have learned loads, and can’t wait to learn more :)
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
Anyhow, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking
and checking back frequently!
Just found your blog , my family has been eating real food for years . I make all my dressings ,marinates and ketup all from real food . We live in Vt. So we have no problem finding GOOD eggs ,grass feed beef. pastured pork and free range chickens. Wish more people understood how important it is to eat real food. The Vermont house is working on a bill to label GMO products .it has passed the agerculture commitee on to Judesuary . Keep up the good work will be checking your blog dailey!! Steph
I am starting the 10 days pledge with my 12 y.o son on 3/4. I also set a goal of recruiting 8 more people to join us. As of today, I only need one more! A few family members, a few facebook friends, a school friend of my sons and his mom, and one lady I work with. As a school nurse in a K-5 school, I am appalled at the way kids are eating. Just today a girl had gummy worms and a 16oz. florescent blue sports drink for snack…ugghhh!! How i would love to bring changes to the school as a whole, but ultimately the parents are the ones who feed their children…i can only give them the facts! See you in 10 days when we sign on to get our bracelets!! Can’t wait!!
Hello,
Please read this article, it is a horrifying glimpse into our food industry ( but what they actually provide is not even close to food):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all
Thanks Christopher. We have read this. ~Amy
We’ve eaten this way for all of our married life (going on 15 years now!), and I’m really glad to see your website helping more people to realize how much non-food they were eating! My family and I do most of our shopping at a natural foods store, and when we’re on vacation and can’t find one, we’re always shocked at how hard it is to find anything we consider food in a regular, chain grocery. Tortillas? Forget whole wheat because those seem to be even more processed than the white-flour ones in mainstream stores. All a flour tortilla needs is flour, fat, and maybe some salt, but you have to look long and hard to find one like that if you’re shopping in a mainstream grocery. It’s no wonder so many people eat the way they do–it’s just about all you can find at many stores.
Keep up the great work! I’m so happy more people are figuring out how artificial much of their “food” is!