Learning to Read

If you are like me, and just beginning your journey, you might be overwhelmed by all the information available from multiple sources. If that is the case, you might also be unsure of where to start. You might be tempted to try to implement everything you learn all at once. While this method does work for some people, there are those of us who just can't handle that kind of change. I found myself forgetting some things that I had learned and then beating myself up because I missed something. I would then dump the whole process, practice my unhealthy habits for a while, and then try to start over. I was incredibly frustrated that I could not stick to a diet, and that nothing I did seemed to work for me. So, after some major frustration and meditation, I finally came up with some beginning steps that should help anybody who will go on this journey. In the coming weeks we will take some things step by step. Here, then, is step one.

READ LABELS ON EVERYTHING YOU BUY

It seems like such an easy thing, but it still hangs me up sometimes. Who wants to spend hours in the grocery store reading everything you pick up? OK, so I didn't start out reading everything. I split things into chunks. The goal is to educate yourself on what you are actually eating. I started with one product. I read every can of tomato sauce I could find. I learned that one brand contained only tomatoes and salt. I figured that was a good start since the others contained sugar, corn syrup, and other chemicals. Then a few weeks later a conversation with my sister led me to look for a product that only contained tomatoes. What I found was only tomato paste, not tomato sauce. So I experimented and found that equal parts tomato paste and water comes out the same consistency as tomato sauce. Now, every time I go to the store I read something new. Since I have been doing this for several months I have pretty much figured out what I can and can't buy according to my plan.

In addition to reading the labels, you should know what you are looking at.

This is a picture of the label on a can of cream of mushroom soup. The third ingredient is Modified Food Starch. I have no idea what that is or where it comes from. Also, there are some other things on the list that I do know about, but are not allowed on the plan that I am on. So I choose not to eat this anymore.

Sometimes this means that I have whole dinners that I don't eat anymore. I was using this soup for something that my husband calls "Green Chili Soup". I always ate the filling wrapped in a tortilla, since I don't eat wheat or corn anymore tortillas are out, so this dinner is out anyway. Sometimes it means I have learned to make something from scratch that I normally would buy. I have learned how to make chili, and this allows me to put what I want in it and leave out what I don't want. I have also been doing chicken stock from scratch. It is good for so many things and I can do big batches of it and split it up.

The end goal for me is to eat things as close to the way God made them as possible. So when I find something that I don't know what the ingredients are I find a way to either eliminate it or replace it. If you are just starting out though, you may not want to try to replace everything at once. The first step is to begin to educate yourself and learn to read those labels.