This Challenge is OVER!

Yesterday, I took responsibility for feeding my family trash. When I do a blog challenge, there's always a hidden reason. I want to learn something about myself. For my 17 Day Diet Challenge, I wanted to lose weight but I also wanted to see if I had will power. I do. With this challenge, I really wanted to clear out my food rations but, more than that, I wanted to be conscious about what my family is eating. Since I do the vast majority of the cooking, I have only myself to blame.

We're making some changes - which is really what this challenge is all about. We cleaned out most of the crap and now we're ready to start fresh. That means I have to come  up with a plan before we go grocery shopping.

The first step of my plan for world domination eating healthier is to create a weekly menu. I used to do this and fell out of the habit. It's time to start up, again.

The next step is to only buy as much food as we need for the week. Seriously, I don't want to do another ration food challenge. While I come by hoarding food honestly (my grandparents were all Holocaust survivors who hoarded food long after moving to US and becoming successful - my parents do it, too), I can cut back on it just a bit. Granted, I can also stock up a bit when there's a good sale.

Another step: start eating healthier and also start shopping at places that promote that! Just because a package says "healthy" or "balanced" doesn't mean it is. I want to stop eating foods with tons of preservatives. Honestly, I took a look at the ingredients on the bag of bagels I got at Costco and I couldn't pronounce half of the ingredients. WTF! They're bagels!!! Big box places, like Costco, like to add a ton of preservatives to foods that really shouldn't have them - just to elongate their shelf life. Gross.

So, it looks like I'll be menu planning (Pinterest, anyone?) and then taking my money to Whole Foods and Hillers. I'm convinced that I can shop at those places and not pay $400 for a week's worth of groceries.

Thoughts?