A Little Bit Crunchier

I've never been the health-food-nut, save-the-planet type, but recently I've become a little bit crunchier. It all started with a diet that led to a smidgen of weight loss and the huge desire to eat healthier. So we switched from white rice to brown rice and white bread to wheat bread. We stopped using the regular white granulated sugar and now opt for organic evaporated cane juice. You get the picture. I thought I would hate all of our new healthy habits, but I actually like the stuff.

If you know me (and my husband), you know we tend to take things to the extreme. For instance, we decided we wanted to pay off our student loans. So we sold our house, our second car, and moved in with my parents for a year. It was a huge blessing on our debt reduction plan but not so huge on our build-a-strong marriage plan. The good news is with a few months of autonomy we were back on track in the marriage department.

This new health phase has that sort of ring to it. I mean its totally normal to go from eating all things processed to grinding your own wheat and making your own bread, right? In less than two months, I might add. And of course I would start making my own baby food because who wants the convenience of those little glass jars that you can take everywhere? Not me, no way. I like to spend a lot of time with my food processor and be tied to my freezer.

Like I said before, I've never been very granola; so its easy to make fun of this stuff. But honestly, Matt's homemade bread is totally yummy and it makes the house smell awesome. And my new baby food tastes really good too. Zoë's even started saying "mmmmm" when I feed her peas! These changes also help out in our debt reduction plan. You remember the one that got put on the back burner in favor of our strong-marriage plan. And that is BIG for me. I hope we keep some of the things around for good and some other things ( i.e. the cloth diaper fad that lasted 3 days) I won't mind letting go of. Because truthfully cloth diapers are not fun. I know you thought they were, but they are not.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that crunchier isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It seriously beats being mushier.

If you want to be a little crunchier too, here are some of my new favorite things:

• Trader Joe's Brown Basmati Rice
• Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter
• Local Honey
  
• So Easy Baby Food by Joan Ahlers & Cheryl Tallman
  
• Kashi GoLean Crunch (Honey Almond Flax is my pick)

Maybe there's a little granola in everyone after all.