When it comes to eating Real Food, you may be surprised to find out that different folks have different rules. Some folks insist on growing, soaking, dehydrating, and preparing all of their food from scratch. My family attempts to Juggle Real Food and Real Life by setting food rules that work for our busy family. I encourage you to have a family meeting and decide what works best for your family. Your food rules need to be something you all can live with. There is no point in going to the trouble of switching your family to a real food lifestyle for just a couple of weeks. You want to create healthy living food rules that you can live with for a lifetime.

In Part 1 of my “rules”, I share my family’s list of rules for things we no longer eat. Part 2 of the “rules” is a list of the foods we now eat and enjoy.

Foods we no longer eat:

1. We no longer eat refined grains. That means we no longer eat white flour or white rice. Another thing we look for on our labels is that it says, “whole wheat” and not just wheat. Those food manufacturing people can be pretty tricky which makes things pretty confusing.

2. Limit packaged foods to 5 ingredients. We try to limit things we eat out of a box, can, or bag to have 5 ingredients or less. Flip the package over and look at the ingredient listing.

3. Deep-Fried Foods: We no longer eat deep–fried foods on a regular basis.

4. Honey and Maple Syrup: The only sweeteners we use on a regular basis are honey and real maple syrup. We don’t use any artificial sweeteners either. That means I had to kick my Diet Coke habit. Not easy!

5. Beware of organic packaged foods. We’ve also agreed that just because it says it’s organic, doesn’t mean we can eat the whole box at once.

6. We’ve decided to avoid artificial colors. This one is tougher than we thought it would be. Artificial colors are in all different kinds of foods. I found color added to pickles. Why can’t they just be green all by themselves?

7. NO “FAST FOOD”: This one is really tough for busy families who are always on the go.

Do you have food “rules”? What foods would you include on this list? Do you live a real food lifestyle?

If you are looking for help in making the transition to eating more real food, you should check out the Real Food Experience posts. You can get started at the beginning or jump around the challenges. You can find a complete round-up of the program here. Each week’s challenge is full of terrific advice to help you transition from fast and processed food to a real food diet. Changes that will help you to live a healthy lifestyle and have the energy to keep up with your busy schedule. I would also love for you to join me on social media. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on a regular basis. Leave me a comment and let me know you are there. I love to visit with my readers. Yes, I’m a real person.

For more “Rules” read Part 2 “What we eat” here.