I'm like you TJ… if I do my best with this, it will be MUCH better than what I am doing. I won't be at Whole Foods either.
And for sure, the biggest problem for me with Sucralose is the need for the sweet taste that I've developed. I would want to cut it out just to reset my tastebuds if nothing else.

I was going to pass on this (I had talked myself out of it again) because I wanted to try to stick with NSNG for a while. But now that I'm really reading the NSNG recommendations, Vinnie says 'NO' to artificial sweeteners too. Hmph! There goes my excuse. I just need to try to get more natural with my eating so this will certainly do that. Well, as long as I can stick to it any way.

Ah yes, I see … if you like things over sweetened then taking a break is definitely a good idea. Resetting your taste buds can help. A lot of artificial sweeteners unfortunately don't do what we've been led to believe, and can still affect insulin levels. Also Splenda is dangerous because its not pure sucralose. It's cut with other sweeteners that aren't zero calories. They get away with marking it as zero carbs because if it's less than 1g you can round it down to zero. For example, one packet of Splenda actually contains about 0.5g of usable carbs. Even natural sweeteners like stevia can affect some peoples blood pressure if taken regularly and in significant amounts from what I've heard. NSNG all the time is a great lifestyle if you don't take any pleasure in eating

Kris, pastured meat are where animals are raised out in the pastured. Organic don't mean much to me when it comes to meat. So they fed the animals organic grain but then confine them in tight indoor quarters( not to mention other things that I won't care to bring up sigh..)? Pastured farmers generally care about their animals and would try to source the best food they can. I met some of those farmers and they would source food for their animals from farms that farm " beyond organic" but didn't care to get certified organic. The animals live a normal life, they are allow to behave in their natural way, eat a varied diet and they die relatively stress free. The meat taste so much better and is of better quality.
As for grass fed, you need to do your homework, a lot of people are getting away with grass fed label but they still supplement with grain and a lot of them are grain finished. Because guess what, carbs makes mammals fat and they want their animals to go to market at a higher weight and that's perfectly sound business thinking. But all that pros that came with grass fed beef might be lessen because of that.
Can we afford it all the time? No. But I am fully aware of our food system and how bad animals are treated. So when I buy that that supermarket meat or spam I know what the truth is. It sucks but that's just the way it is for now.
I am participating in trying to change the system by choosing with my wallet and that is to buy pastured meat.
We eat a lot less meat because of the change in our diet. So I hope this year we can eat more pastured meat.
The thing with pastured meat is that you have to buy the animal by the whole or half, some might do quarters. (Especially if you are buying beef) some stores like whole foods sell pastured meat in individual cuts. Even if the meat is not pastured whole food's meat are always of better quality and they value animal welfare.

Heron and Kim, Thanks for sharing all of the info and your thoughts on all of it. I watched an episode of the PBS series Victory Garden's Edible Feast that was in Minnesota. One of the farms featured was a couple with a duck farm who raise their animals humanely and work to educate others. It was very interesting.

As a small child, as soon as I connected where the meat on my plate came from I was torn and struggled with it. My mother was supportive, but would say what she would continue to say to me as I was growing up, "Kristin, you can't save them all. You do what you can do." My father did not feel the same way and it was a constant battle so I would always eventually go back to eating it. Back then, other than Grandma's stories of the farm she grew up on, you didn't hear much about the industry. Nowadays, the information is readily available and for me quite unsettling. Knowing all this and how it makes me feel, you would think that it would be easy for the boyfriend and I to go vegan, but we haven't. We were just saying that if we watched programs on it daily, we would do it.

TJ, WOW! I am impressed by your planning. I am still reading everything over and over again. Haha on the Sonic Hangover.

John, thanks for sharing the link. Very helpful!

TJ - I just saw where you live. My brother in law and a couple of nephews are in Denham. Walls. One of the nephews, Brian, owns a muffler shop (I find it funny calling him a nephew as he's within 5 years of my age, my brother in law is 15 years older than my husband).

Anyway, don't fret about the meat. Just eat meat, get the best you can. But as you move through life think about finding little ways to make the switch, support the folks raising the animals right. And hunting is a great source of meat from animals eating and living their natural lifestyle. I'm at an entirely different stage in my life, much further down the professional path and fortunate to be able to afford pasture/grassfed meats...and even donate to causes that support the practice. You & your wife have a great attitude now, keep it up!

Heron - I haven't yet bought a cow share. Hubby has a thing about frozen meat (which I happily eat). Slowly but surely I'm convincing him. I keep thinking I should buy a half with my bonus...maybe this year.

TJ over here in Ga Wild Hogs are considered vermin and no need for a license to hunt them except during Turkey and Deer season, you have to have a license to be hunting period. But most game processors will only process them during deer season because of the higher risk for Brucellosis the Blood borne pathogen found in Feral Hogs. Here is a link on it from CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/brucellosis/pdf/brucellosis_and_hoghunters.pdf

That being said hunting them any time of the year is fun and does a service for both farm and other wild game populations.

Did you buy the book Kristin? How did you get the email? Nervous about that much reality

Yeah, what he said Carol! haha I just signed up for the emails (not the paid subsciption)

Try this TJ. Go to:
http://whole30.com/contact/
You may get a pop up for signing up. If not, go down the page on the right side and click on this:


If you are still having problems, you can shoot me an email with your email info and I will sign you up