October Unprocessed Challenge!

So tomorrow starts the big challenge, eating unprocessed throughout the month of October. {Want to join the pledge? Check out Andrew at EatingRules!}

As excited as I am, I'm feeling a bit over-whelmed... or maybe confused... in some areas. After my son was born two years ago, and reading more info on food and preservatives than I ever thought possible, I slowly started the journey to better eating. In the last year, we've tried to cook "clean" at the house using more whole foods (eating out, however, is a completely different story!). And I read just about every label at the grocery store now. So I thought this challenge would just be going another layer deeper with what we're already been doing and provide some much-needed recipe ideas.

But, somehow, I feel like maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew. Homemade tortillas? Making our own almond milk? Pasta from scratch?! Oh my. I know you can use your own discretion when it comes to certain items, but I whole-heartedly want to give it my best shot.  I mean, if I have to give up Rosa's, then I'll be darned if I cheat with something as simple as store-bought bread.

At least my hubs is on board. He's huge into healthy eating... or, at least, was up until he married me, ha!... but his support will truly be helpful. And my toddler, age two, will hopefully adjust with minimal effort. Thank goodness for homemade cheesy cracker recipes!

I won't blog about our journey everyday, but I will post our meal plans, favorite recipes, etc. You can also follow my board on Pinterest. Did you pledge? Would love to follow you, too!

Countdown to tomorrow begins now... guess I better chug one last Dr. Pepper!

Finding Balance

Balance is an interesting thing. What, exactly, are we trying to balance? Our own expectations? Expectations of others? And everything in between?

I like to think of "balance" as that wide ledge between everything slipping between your fingers and udder boredom. And I say wide ledge because, well, I guess falling off either way is not really a surprise, right? I mean, you can always feel it coming: a sense of overwhelming anxiety when things move too fast to count, or that numbing feeling of wasting life away by choosing to remove yourself from daily life. 

I always tend to over-compensate for one or the other. Life moving too fast? I shutdown the computer, the laundry, and the stove. I resort to fast food over cooking, Pinterest over blogging, mind-numbing TV over running. No fuss, no effort. Just ho-hum.

Life moving to slow? I dial up old friends, take on work projects, house projects, craft projects and me projects. Dust baseboards, over-fix my hair, host playdate after playdate, all while sampling life's zestiness in any way possible while running a hundred miles a minute. 

It's exhausting. 

And confusing.

But if I had a wine cup in my hand right now, I'd toast to fine-tuning balance. Because the ledge? Is fun and interesting, and where carpe diem lives. 

Or so I hope.