Eating Well in 2012: 100 Day Challenge

It seems like I do this every year.  I vow to eat better, on less money and then I don't.  But after several years of failing I have at least figured out the flaw in my system.  The flaw?  Not having a clear system!  When I make the grocery list, the meal plan and then do the prep work, we do great.  If I don't do it, then we end up eating frozen pizza and watching produce go bad and that is just throwing money away - something we can't afford to do.  So for the next 100 days we are going to work hard to eat better.

There are several blogs out there focusing on "Real Food" and eating better.  I'm leaning on them for ideas.  This one has some clearly defined rules for the challenge (read them here), but I read through them and while I would love to fully move into that, I know myself and my family.  We need to move a little slower.

So here are the rules for our family:

• Refined while flour, sugar etc. will be limited as much as possible. 
• Soda will be limited to 1 can a day or less. (Michael gave up soda cold turkey on year for Lent, it wasn't pretty and I promised not to make him do that again.)
• Limited packaged foods to those with only REAL foods listed - nothing I can't pronounce.
• Make a meal plan and stick to it.
• Plan lunches:  Lunch is where it all falls apart for me.  I need to plan it out.
• Make a thorough grocery list and only buy the listed items.
• Stick to the budget of $125.00 a week
• Eat more veggies!

You can check out the rules my friend Laura planned out for her family here.