Healthy Food Fight!

As I've mentioned, we've been trying hard to eat healthier in our house, and to have a healthier lifestyle in general. That's why I've started doing Meatless Monday, and why Chris and I have been trying to have daily fruit smoothies. We're also trying to:

• limit red meat to one meal per week
• use turkey products when available (hot dogs, bacon, ground turkey, sausage)
• avoid high fructose corn syrup
• eat whole grains
• eat more vegetables
• avoid nitrates in processed meats
• eat as many natural and organic foods as possible
• Chris is trying to eliminate pop from his diet (I only drink pop maybe a couple times a month) (if you're not from Michigan, please note that "pop" is the word us Michiganders use to refer to what the rest of the world calls "soda")
• exercise more and in general be more active (and encourage our kids to be more active too)

Of course it's not always easy. Cooking from scratch and avoiding processed foods takes a lot of effort. Buying natural and organic foods is often a lot more expensive than less healthy options. Changing habits is really hard. But when Chris found out he's got some health issues he needs to address before they get serious, and I started to realize none of my freaking clothes fit me comfortably, well we decided we simply have to do this.

Because I think this an extremely worthwhile effort, and because I think everyone should make a commitment to eat healthier, I'm teaming up with SheSpeaks to help promote the Aetna Healthy Food Fight. Aetna is a diversified health care benefits company trying to get people across the country to eat healthier. They are sponsoring a healthy recipe contest, so if you have a healthy recipe that could be a winner, it's not too late to enter (Pomona and Dallas regions are now closed). Semi-finalists will compete in events throughout the U.S. The winner from each region will win a trip to New York City to compete in the Final Cook-off, judged by Bobby Flay! And the grand prize winner will receive $10,000 worth of groceries donated by Recipe.com! Locations and dates are as follows:

• Pomona, CA 10/1-10/2
• Dallas, TX 10/15-10/16
• Atlanta, GA 10/22-10/23
• Philadelphia, PA 11/5-11/6

Please visit www.healthyfoodfight.com for more information about the contest and event details. Even if you don't want to enter the contest yourself, you should visit the website so you can vote for your favorite entries, and get some healthy cooking inspiration!

Is your family making an effort to live healthier too? What are you doing to improve your diet and lifestyle? And please let me know if you decide to enter the Healthy Food Fight recipe contest!