Our family has been participating in a local CSA program since August 2010 – not very long, but long enough to know we love doing it! We do get a lot of food, and there are weeks when I feel pressured to use it all (I mean, how many butternut squash is too many? I’d say seven- that’s how many we got this winter. SEVEN!), but now that little O is starting to eat solids it is even more important for us to be eating real food at every meal. I will admit that I don’t eat real food all the time. Some weeks are better than others, and a lot of it depends on my mood and energy level and motivation. And then there is the addiction factor- I know a lot of people have been throwing around the word “addiction” lately (“I’m totally addicted to Facebook!”, or “He’s addicted to music”, etc), but I think addiction can be recognized as something that creates an adverse physiological response when you don’t have it any more. I’m not talking about something you need, like water, (because yes, you will absolutely have an adverse physical reaction if you don’t consume water), but things we don’t need: sugar, fat, salt, caffeine, etc. I LOVE sugar … and fat … and salt … and caffeine. In fact, on my best (worst) day, I can have a soy caramel frappaccino and french fries and I feel that all is good with the world. Until about an hour later when my stomach starts to turn and I feel pretty shitty, and I get grouchy. On the days I don’t have these things I get a headache, and I’m grouchy. It sucks to be grouchy.

I think one of the coolest things about my husband is that he is a little bit competitive. Not in a douchey way, but in a fun way- this is a guy who will challenge me to rock-paper-scissors to do even the most mundane of tasks. We have found that the best way to motivate each other is to make is a challenge, put a little wager on it, and publicly shame each other when we slip up! That is why I’m writing this actually- we decided that we are going to take on a Real Food Challenge.

There is an awesome blog, 100 Days of Real Food, all about a family who – you guessed it – took a pledge to eat only real, minimally processed foods for 100 days. These are my kind of people! Part of their mission is to inspire people to take a 10 day pledge to do the same- eating real food. Sam and I are signing up! Starting May 1, we are eating real food. I hope to continue past 10 days; actually, it would be great to do 100 days, or even a year, but we’ll start small.

O is now eating almost everything we give him and trying to grab food off of our plates; I don’t want him to be a chicken nugget baby, I want him to have real food. We are really doing this for him.