It's so overwhelming! Where do I begin?

Turn on the TV or radio.  Practically everyday you hear about all kinds of things that have adverse effects on  your body and mind.  There are so many things to consider...where do you begin?  Baby steps!  Many topics means many opportunities!  Implement one thing at a time.  The way that our family started  was by recycling.  Helping our environment means less pollution on our planet, which in turn helps our air & water quality.  These are vital things we cannot live without that are getting worse everyday. 

Next, we started shopping for organic groceries.  What is organic?  The organic food industry is heavily regulated.  The USDA has very specfiic requirements for a product to be labeled organic.  Organic foods are produced using methods that do not involve the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and do not contain GMO's (genetically modified organisms), nor are they allowed to be processed using industrial solvents, chemical additives, or irradiation.  Why is this important?   The fact of the matter is that you pay the farmer now or the doctor later.   There are loads of studies out there about the effects of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc. in our food supply. Practically every bite that you put in your mouth has been treated with chemicals at some point before it became a finished product.  These chemicals add up and can have devastating consequences on the human body. 

Now I know what you are thinking..."But organic is so expensive!"  Eating organic is not as expensive as you may think.  We have a family of four and we eat almost exclusively organic.  Our grocery bill last week was $114 and our bill this week was $80.  We eat very well balanced, nutritious, tasty, FRESH meals. But, before you go running to the frig and pantry to throw everything out that you own, remember that I said baby steps.  Here are three steps to help you get started:

1. Recycle everything that you can! 

2. Replace items with their organic equivalent as you run out of them.  Look for the USDA Organic seal.

3. Make an edible centerpiece for your table and be sure to rotate the produce in and out of it.  This step turned out to be crucial in our family.  As soon as I started keeping an edible centerpiece on the table my kids started taking in more fruit and stopped asking for junk food when we went shopping.