Summer Project Wrap-Up

As summer comes to an end, so does my little "project." In late spring, I began researching some of the choices we made as a family when it came to the food and products we bought. I looked into the type of milk we drink, the "stuff" in our food, the fruits and veggies we eat, and the products we use to clean. If you look back through the blog, you can see what I have learned about all of these choices. But learning and doing are two different things. So what's different in our house now? Here's a few changes we've made:

• This summer, most of our fruit and veggies have come from the farmer's market each week. We have a "guy" we buy from every week and I'm pretty sure Jack thinks he's our buddy now since we see him every week. We've discovered how great fresh fruit tastes and we've even gotten the kids to try (and like) some new fruits. Brett is a blackberry fiend and Jack has discovered fresh peaches are pretty darn good. Next year I plan to try more recipes with what is in season to add a little more variety.
• We still buy regular old milk and still love drinking it. While we probably should consume less, we haven't worked very hard at this. Although, we have all gotten better about drinking more water, so at least we've improved something in our drinking habits.
• We have eliminated a lot of the foods we used to buy with hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. We've found there are many good substitutes such as the Kashi brand products and the Meijer brand naturals and organics lines. We've been able to still enjoy cereal bars, graham cracker cookies, and snack crackers while getting rid of the ones with the junk in them. Since we've gotten rid of a lot of sources of these additives, I don't feel quite so bad about the ones we haven't eliminated.
• We've switched to "green" cleaners. I'm going through a twelve step program to give up my antibacterial addiction and am slowly recovering. :)

I had been worried about if all these changes would be costly, but I haven't really noticed much of an impact on our budget, which has been a pleasant surprise. Our fruit and veggies cost slightly more by getting them at the farmer's market, but I'm willing to pay a little more to reap all the benefits of buying local fruit and veggies from local farmers.

So, I'm glad I undertook this project and honestly believe my family is healthier for it. I've also taken the opportunity to talk to Jack a little about why buy the food we do and why we don't buy the foods we've given up. It helps me to feel like I am raising a lifelong healthy eater and an environmentally conscious kid!

Now I'm going to go bite into a big, juicy local apple! :)