If You Have a Chronic Illness – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for If You Have a Chronic Illness – The Granny Plan

If you have a chronic illness you know exactly how the woman in the photo above feels. Some days you can’t get out of bed and there are many more days when, well you could but the prospect is daunting to say the least. And while following along this past spring with “The Granny Plan” you may have felt that “This is all very well and good for people in good health, but I can’t possibly keep up.” I hear ya … if you’re already ill you’re probably super motivated to change your diet and start reaping the benefits but are frustrated by the two steps forward, one step back dance of learning something new while sick. Heck I think everyone experiences this to one degree or another but it can feel a lot worse if you’re already sick.

Continue Reading →

Questions and Answers: The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Questions and Answers: The Granny Plan

All the steps are laid out now end to end so we can get a good look at them? In my very first post on The Granny Plan I suggested this little plan was something of an experiment. Something that we could work on together. I’ve had a quite a bit of feedback over the past 12 weeks indicating what was helpful, what was not, what absolutely didn’t work and what was an outstanding success. My plan today is to share that with you along with my future plans for The Granny Plan!

Continue Reading →

Find Your Real Food Tribe – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Find Your Real Food Tribe – The Granny Plan

Today we are going over the final step in The Granny Plan! Yaaaayyy!!! It’s been a wild 12 weeks and we’ve come from the very most basic kitchen routines to handling complex kitchen projects. We’ve gone from 0 to 100 mph in just 3 short months! Give yourself a well deserved pat on the back for persisting and making it all the way thru the whole plan! Our final step is the little piece of the puzzle that helps give these habits stickiness. And know I don’t mean like honey sticky, I mean habits-that-stick kind of stickiness.

Continue Reading →

Expand Your Real Food Knowledge – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Expand Your Real Food Knowledge – The Granny Plan

This is the next to the last step of The Granny Plan! We have come so far over the past 3 months! Making plans and doing them, lots of meals made and kitchens cleaned. We have new plans for projects we want to tackle and have eliminated many toxic processed foods from our cupboards! So what’s left to do? It feels like all the wheels are in motion and the only thing to do is keep on keepin’ on. We’ll continue to work on getting more real food into our lives with our projects and 15 minute tasks. At this stage of the game it’s mostly about refinements. Refining and building your knowledge of what good food is.

Continue Reading →

List Your Routines – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for List Your Routines – The Granny Plan

As of last week we now have LOTS of things going on everyday, don’t we? Shopping, making meals, special projects, supplements, etc. It’s beginning to feel kinda unwieldy isn’t it? So this week we’re going to work on making sure we have the all the things we are doing noted down somewhere where you’ll see them often. So this step short and sweet .

Continue Reading →

Do You Have Kitchen Gaps? – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Do You Have Kitchen Gaps? – The Granny Plan

We’ve come very far in “The Granny Plan” over the past couple of months! In the beginning there was just you and your kitchen in whatever shape it was in. You have systematically brought some structure and routine to your kitchen … I’m really happy for you and so proud! Now that we are working our way toward the end of the series we need to consider any kitchen gaps.

Continue Reading →

Building up a Real Food Pantry – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Building up a Real Food Pantry – The Granny Plan

We’re rounding that last curve around the track to the finish line in “The Granny Plan” this week. Oh, we still have a few more steps to cover but we’re getting so close! Today we’re going to talk about ingredients and the logistics of keeping what you need to make what you want on hand. Most times this is where people start talking about menu planning, but I’m not going to talk about that. While menu planning is a step up from panicked runs to the grocery store on a daily basis it still falls far short of ideal. And pantry cooking is so much easier than menu plan cooking that we’ll just jump right in. You’ll want to be prepared to make most anything you might usually make at all times. A good pantry reduces a lot of the work of scratch cooking.

Continue Reading →

Starting up a Real Food Project – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Starting up a Real Food Project – The Granny Plan

Moving on to the second half of The Granny Plan With the basics under our belt we’re now ready to move on to the fundamental foods of a real food diet. Excited? I know I am. This is where we start working on the core of what traditional food is all about, that is wholesome ingredients! Sure, we’ve made a few adjustments here and there leading up to this point but now we’ll start planning a strategy to undertake some bigger projects. Things like locating and buying raw milk, beginning to make fermented foods and breads with soaked flour, and stocking a pantry with wholesome ingredients so we’re ready for anything!

Continue Reading →

What Can I Improve in 15 Minutes? – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for What Can I Improve in 15 Minutes? – The Granny Plan

This step is all about thinking, just simply thinking. No actual doing involved, unless of course you really want to . Everyday pose this question to yourself: “How can I improve our diet today in just 15 minutes?” No commitment to do any of the things you think up is required, at least not right away. Just think up one of two that you believe you could realistically do in about 15 minutes. Things like finding a healthy version of a favorite recipe or researching sources for olive oil. Like clearing your counters or pre-preparing snacks. Jot down your ideas somewhere where you’ll see them often. You can do any of them whenever you are good and ready, or do none of them at all. All we’re committing to is thinking about them. Do commit to thinking up one each day. Just thinking about it will get the wheels turning

Continue Reading →

Eliminate One Fake Food – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Eliminate One Fake Food – The Granny Plan

Okay, now things start to get a bit tougher! You’ll need a bit of resolve to follow thru on this one so pick a good day. One where things are relatively calm and peaceful. One where you have time to think. This is the one you’ve been waiting for … we’re going to start eliminating the bad stuff and replacing it with the good! Mostly people jump to this step first, I think. And then they pick the thing they are most attached to eating as the first thing to eliminate. Soon after in the heady afterglow of getting rid of that food they quickly rifle thru the pantry throwing out so much that there is nothing left to eat. This is a really big mistake that is bound to upset the family, and exhaust and discourage you. Instead we are going to go thru this one week at a

Continue Reading →

Feed Yourself First – The Granny Plan

Thumbnail image for Feed Yourself First – The Granny Plan

So now things are humming along. Everyone has veggies for dinner, the kitchen in mostly clean most of the time, there are two good meals on the table for dinner each week and you have your apron and shoes! We are well on our way! Our next step is about keeping ourselves well … We all work too hard for the most part and far too often we run on empty. You know what I mean. Skipping a meal here and there, staying up too late, having a plan for every hour of the day trying to cram a few more things in. And it all looks absolutely necessary I know … I do most of the same stuff when I fail to stop and think thru the consequences. Maybe it’s just getting older, I don’t know, but the consequences seem to come up a lot sooner than they used

Continue Reading →