Welcome
Meet Lisa! Lisa is a best-selling cookbook author, wife, mother, and passionate home cook. Lisa began blogging in 2010 and has created a community of millions of people who share her love of healthy living, real food ingredients, and family recipes.
In the beginning of 2010, Lisa had never before read an ingredient label, never bought anything that was organic (at least not on purpose), nor had ever stepped foot in a farmers’ market. She is certainly not proud of those things, but that was reality for the first 32 or so years of her life. The most disturbing part is that she had no idea she was doing anything wrong.
After reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan she got the wake-up call of her life and felt like her family’s eating habits needed a serious overhaul. Making such drastic changes was not easy at first, but it has thankfully become their “new normal” since then. At the time she struggled to find resources to help her understand exactly how she could apply these principles to their everyday lives.
So shortly thereafter this real food blog was born and a few years later her #1 New York Times Best Selling Cookbook was released. She has since released two more cookbooks. What a journey it has been! And what better way to convince others to join her on this journey than to give them all the tools they need to successfully make it happen. Good luck with your mission to cut out highly processed food.
Meet Addison! Addison is a passionate home cook, runner, and blogger. Addison began blogging on www.organicallyaddison.com in 2018. After navigating a health diagnosis and becoming gluten-free, she has learned about nutrition, health, and healthy living. In 2018, Addison became certified as an Integrate Nutrition Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.
Today, Addison heads up the creation and publication of new content weekly. Lisa’s guidance and Addison’s passion shine through in every recipe.
Here are some of the resources you'll find on the blog:
- Our list of rules (how we define “real food”) and why we think it’s important to cut out processed food
- Weekly updates during our original “100 Days of Real Food” pledge, which ended in September 2010
- Weekly updates during our second pledge “100 Days of Real Food on a Budget” ($125/week)
- Over three hundred “real food approved” kid-tested recipes and meal ideas
- All my favorite kitchen essentials including just about every single appliance and gadget we own
- Our list of recommended reading and cookbooks
And more resources in the free membership area:
- Free week-long family meal plans that include breakfast, lunch, snack & dinner as well as coordinating grocery lists with pricing
- School lunch packing chart
- Real food shopping lists for major stores
- Tip sheets
If you're brand spanking new you might also want to check out:
- How to Read Ingredient Labels (the #1 way to know what’s in your food!)
- Understanding Grains and 6 Ways to Ease the Switch to Whole Grain
- 21 “Real food” essentials for freezer, pantry, & fridge
- How to buy real food from a mainstream supermarket
- Our post that details why we don’t eat low-fat, lite, or fat-free foods
- Our personal changes in health since switching to real food (listed on our Budget Day 100 entry)
- And as mentioned above definitely take advantage of the free meal plans
I add new content to the blog weekly so be sure to subscribe via email to be informed of new posts.
Wishing you the best of luck on your real food journey!
At the beginning of 2010 our eating habits were just like those of any other average family. We thought we were making fairly healthy food choices, although we certainly weren’t following any special rules. Then came along the Oprah show “Food 101 with Michael Pollan”. After the show, Jason and I (Lisa) both decided to read Pollan’s book “In Defense of Food” which ended up being life-changing for us. As it turned out, a lot of what we thought were “healthy” food choices were actually just highly processed and what the food industry was labeling as “healthy.”
Jason’s background is fairly different from mine. As a young child, he lived with his parents and aunts and uncles on a hippie commune in Oregon. They grew and raised all of their own food. Jason and his parents have since become more industrialized when it comes to eating, but that doesn’t change their basic understanding of where our food comes from. On the other hand, as a child, I had both Doritos and Kraft macaroni & cheese as staples in my diet, and I barely stepped foot on a farm. This shaped my views as an adult. As most other wives and moms can relate, I do most of the meal planning and food shopping, therefore I was (and still am) the biggest influence on our family’s food choices. And after reading “In Defense of Food” I decided it was time to make some big changes to those food choices.
So it wasn’t easy at first, but we slowly revamped everything from what we bought, to where we shopped, to how we cooked. It’s been such an eye-opening experience for us that we didn’t want to keep all this exciting information to ourselves. So soon after we started making changes I launched a blog called The Food Illusion (which has now been moved over to this site) and began to build an audience. After a few months of blogging I decided it was time to do something big, something bold, and something that would get as many other people as we can to not only read about eating real foods but to also make a commitment to this important change. Which is when the original 100 Days of Real Food pledge was born. You see, every time we food shop or eat a meal we are voting for either processed food-like substances or real food. If all of us make the right choices together then we can make a big impact, which will help change our country’s food system for the better.
Disclaimer: Lisa Leake is not a trained dietician, nutritionist, chef, or medical professional. The information on this blog is based on facts, research, and personal experiences. This information is not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease. Never dismiss any advice your health physician gives. The author shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or any other damages.