Of late, I have become the 'master of repairs' in my house. I used to have a pile of stuff that sat for years in a 'to be fixed pile'. I am sure that some of you have the same kind of pile: clothes with buttons missing, clothes with holes in them, books with the binding coming apart, etc. Today I actually got to the bottom of the pile and have officially fixed everything (that I was capable of fixing) in my house. While not being able to buy anything new was certainly powerful motivation to put some of these items 'back in circulation', it was also just wonderful to have accomplished one of those tasks that just never seems to get done.
On a completely unrelated topic, I have been attempting to decode the food labels of the products that are already in my house. It is not good news. I have unknowingly been poisoning myself and my family with some of those 'crazy additives' that I alluded to in an early post. Included in these items are:
- Salad dressings
- Some crackers
- Cans of soup
- Cereal
Don't those items sound innocuous enough? Not so my fine friends, not so. The salad dressing contains BHA and BHT, some of the crackers contain MSG, cereal contains trisodium phosphate which is most commonly used as a cleaning agent and has the ability to corrode metal (!) and canned soup often contains MSG as well. Gross right? Luckily, I have come up with substitutions for all of them: I recently made a batch of homemade crackers which are delicous (and thank goodness the 'cracker man' of the house, aka Chephren, approves of them). Salad dressings are also easy enough to make, I just have to get into the habit of making them on a more regular basis. While I will definitely miss the convenience of canned soups, I am willing to give them up (assuming that I can't find a more suitable alternative to my current brands at the grocery store). And cereal, well, Chephren is going to have to give up his Cheerios. Thankfully he loves toast, oatmeal and eggs so we won't be strapped for breakfasts. It looks like we are well on our way to eliminating some of those dreaded additives from our pantry.
Sorry to burst your bubble if these were facts that you were happier just 'not knowing'. I hear that. Food additives are literally in almost everything and trying to eat foods without them is quite an arduous task these days. However, it is not my intention to be the 'voice of doom' or to look down my nose at anyone else and the choices they make, I simply want to see whether or not I am able to eliminate these items from my pantry... and of course, I plan on sharing my strategies with you. Take or leave the information as you like.
You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action. - Tony Robbins
Here's to 'knowing' and doing something about it!
Marebare :)
