Toward the finish line

I've made a lot changes since I started this blog.  As a whole, I have been eating better but not as well as I could and should be eating.  When I think about my former eating habits, I am both ashamed and appalled.  Dinners consisted of chicken nuggets, hamburger helper, hot dogs, and was rarely a true home cooked meal.  Reading blogs and gathering information has helped TREMENDOUSLY at changing the way I feed my family as well as avoiding pseudo health foods. 

I am not striving for perfection, but there are some big changes I still need to make.  I won't call them goals because these are things I feel I must do. 

1. Eliminate all high fructose corn syrup.  Yup, that means that if something has HFCS in it, then I don't buy it.  There is always an alternative, even if I have to make it myself.
2. An extension of number one.....read food labels.  Too many ingredients?  Out.  Questionable ingredients?  Out.  I have been much better at reading labels nowadays but I am often swayed by "Natural" products (which can be just as processed as products without the label), and brand loyalty.  The second ingredient in my fave BBQ sauce was HFCS!!  I will not be swayed by 100% natural, organic, or think that just because I am at Whole Foods that the product must be healthy.  The truth is in the label. 
3. Try a new meal and experiment with vegetables.  I am used to canned vegetables.  I do love broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and zucchini but I am used to canned peas, canned carrots, and canned green beans.  I love corn in any form.  It is going to be tough to program my tastes to like fresh veggies.  This is something I'm not used to, and I was raised on canned vegetables loaded with salt and margarine.  I had no idea what real vegetables even tasted like!
4. Plan my meals.  I am still struggling with this one.  The main reason I turn to fast food and frozen pizza is because of lack of planning.  I know I should be writing a menu every week and then making a list.  I never end up doing it and that leads to me 'not having time to make dinner.'  I didn't have time because I didn't plan my meals!  Spending money on fast food is not only wasteful pocket wise, but it's also unhealthy.  It just doesn't make sense when I have perfectly good food at home.
5. Eliminate food waste.  I love leftovers but sometimes I forget about them and they get thrown out.  This never happens with things like spaghetti, but those two leftover pork chops get thrown out all the time.    

I think all of these things are easy, simple changes.  These are just immediate diet changes.  I will get to the monetary changes I need to make later!