food

Mandi and me posing with chicken nuggets.

This week I ground my own flour for organic apple muffins, let my kids eat Bugles, drove to a farmer’s market just so I could get their blue and green free range eggs, ate 2 cookies and a piece of cake in one night, refused to give my son the ultra-pasteurized organic milk from a restaurant and let him eat 3 Starbursts wrapper and all.

My healthy food journey is all over the place. I am totally convinced that eating organic, unprocessed, local food is the way to go–for your body, for the environment and even for our economy. But there is a disconnect when it comes to a party, a vacation or even going out to eat.

I don’t know how you can eat healthy ALL the time and still be a slightly normal person. I mean, there are times you have to eat out! There are times you have to eat a meal with someone and they serve something completely processed. You can’t get all holier-than-thou and not eat!

I’ve heard an 80-20 diet is acceptable–80% of the time eat healthy so 20% of the time you can eat whatever you want (and/or need to). So, if you eat 3 meals a day then a little over 4 meals could be “unhealthy”. I guess that’s not too hard. In fact, most of the time I only eat out once a week.

Last week, I was asked to eat out and try a healthy meal at Wendy’s. At first I thought, “Wendy’s? Really? Healthy?” But I decided to check it out because honestly, I have not been to a McDonald’s in 5 years. I haven’t opened the door of a Burger King in longer than that. The only fast food place I ever take the kids to is Chick-fil-a.

Me standing with Mishelle Lane at Wendy’s. And obviously, I look lovely.

Wendy’s is doing this new Pick 2 menu–with a half salad and a host of other sides. I met up with about 10 local bloggers to try out the menu and gab. I got there a little late and stood in line forever (they apparently didn’t know I was a famous blogger). By the time I got my food (and the kids’) almost everyone was done. I was shaking with hunger. Asa was sitting across from me eating chicken nuggets. When I got the 2nd bite of my apple-pecan-blue cheese salad in my mouth Asa began throwing up. Not just a little I-don’t-like-this-food, it was more like a heaving vomit. I run over to clean him up and suddenly hear Lydia whining/crying beside me. I turn to her aggravated like, “Your brother is vomiting! Do not make this about you!!” and then I look down, she has spilled her milk all over the table, the chair, the floor, herself and Evan (Mandi’s Evan was sitting next to her).

Mandi and the kids

Fellow ATL blogger, Lindsay rescued me with a  few napkins. But my magical get-a-free-healthy-meal-with-some-fun-bloggers experience was just a little less exciting after that. Actually, the salad was pretty yummy. The lettuce was crispy, there were big pieces of cranberries, tons of blue cheese (my fave) and the pomegranate dressing was awesome! I asked for mine without chicken but they put it on there anyway. And it was actually really good!

The only “eh” part was the sides—you could pick from all sorts of things that just didn’t seem super healthy (or exciting) to me: a hamburger, some kind of chicken wrap, a bottled water, a frosty, baked potato, etc. I got the baked potato and it was good–according to Wendy’s website, they actually cook it in an oven instead of a microwave. Anyway, for a healthy fast-food meal (oxymoron), that salad and baked potato Pick 2 was a good choice! I love the idea of a salad being your main portion and the hamburger, etc. being the extra. It’s much better to focus on the veggies over the meat!

So, what’s your healthy meal-unhealthy meal ratio? How do you do healthy on the go? Out to eat? To those of you that eat healthy 100% of the time, how do you do it?!

{visit my facebook page to win a Wendy’s giftcard!}

Gorgeous photos by the fabulous Secret Agent Mama, Mishelle Lane.

This was part of a paid opportunity with Wendy’s & The Motherhood. Opinions mine.

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