Before our move a couple of months ago, I threw away the junk food from the pantry. I knew we were doing a juice fast, and I didn’t want the junk lying around after to tempt me. It was refreshing and fun, but I had previously already packed some boxes full of food and didn’t want to unpack and repack everything. When we returned to the farm (yes, we live on a farm), I unpacked everything and put it away. Including the yucky stuff. A few weeks later, I finally got around to de-junking (literally) my cupboards. When deciding to throw something away/donate it, I looked first at the ingredients. It was pretty easy to decide after reading the ingredients. I tossed the item if I saw the words canola oil, sunflower oil (or any other vegetable oils), artificial coloring or  flavoring, (even natural flavors is a bad one, as food manufacturers can hide a lot of garbage under that one label) or anything that I can’t pronounce (which is a lot). If the list of ingredients is long, I tossed it. I was pleasantly surprised by the many things I was able to keep. Because I strongly believe in keeping a supply of food on hand for emergencies, I kept some canned goods—although the ingredients were not ideal. All of my produce wouldn’t feed us for longer than a couple of weeks; but if we needed to eat canned beans and bagged rice to survive, then we would.

This cupboard is where all of the treats were lurking in dark corners. Happily, they are no longer there, and the cupboard looks amazing with just one layer of food, not several layers. It’s much less cluttered.

The items in this cupboard: apple sauce squeeze packs for my girls, Annie’s graham bunnies and cheddar bunnies (not ideal, but when they’re gone I’ll find something better), Annie’s pasta for days when the girls are starving and I need something quick, Annie’s fruit snacks — my girls are slowly being weaned from fruit snacks, Simply Fruit rolls (fruit leather), raisins, almonds (I always have to have a huge stash), coconut oil, baking soda, baking powder, coconut milk, vanilla, cacao powder, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, chia seeds, coconut sugar, cashews/hazelnuts, crio bru/crio beans.

I know that purging one’s cupboard(s) isn’t realistic for everyone. I also recognize that purging your cupboard(s) is a frightening task. Whether mentally, emotionally, or financially, it’s tough. If you are interested in making a change, but do not want to majorly overhaul each item in your cupboard, then slowly replace one item with a better choice when that one item runs out. Take it slow. For example, once your white table salt runs out, just replace it with good, natural salt. Buy some natural peanut butter when yours is empty. Buy cacao powder for brownies instead of the Hershey’s brand (which is horrible tasting anyway). Just do it one item at a time.

It’s easy to begin being healthy; it just takes a little patience.