This part 8 of my video series, Switch Over to a Real Food Lifestyle in 10 Easy Steps. You can view the introduction video here, step 1 here, step 2 here, step 3 here, and step 4, and step 5, step 6 here, and step 7 here. Don’t forget that you can buy your own copy of How to Switch Over to a Real Food Lifestyle in 10 Easy Steps and follow along while we take this journey (it’s only $4.99).

Step 8: Ditch the Cereal and Make Soaked Oatmeal

Coming from a former cereal Queen, ditching the cereal was probably the hardest thing I did in terms of switching over to a real food lifestyle. What’s not to love about cereal? It’s crunchy, tasty, easy…. did I mention it’s crunchy? I love me some crunchy food. Unfortunately as yummy and crunchy as cereal is, it’s really not a healthy choice for breakfast. Watch the video to learn more about what causes cereal to be so unhealthy and what to do instead.

*To view the script, scroll below the video.

The 8th step in our journey is ditching the cereal and making soaked oatmeal. I know, coming from someone personally who was a total cereal fanatic, if you haven’t already switching over to not having cereal in your diet, you might think I’m crazy for suggesting it. Unfortunately no matter how healthy the cereal may claim it be, it’s still not good. For me and my family, I want to make sure our food is beyond healthy — more like nutrient-dense and there is a big differece between the two.

Cereal may claim it’s healthy but it’s not nutrient-dense. When made, the grains that make the cereal go through a high heat process which makes a slurry. If you think about it, the grains have to make a slurry otherwise they wouldn’t be able to create those funky shapes that don’t normally happen in real life. This process is called extrusion. It denatures the proteins in the whole grain and renders them toxic and allergenic. As you can imagine, the more whole grain the cereal is, the worse effect of the extrusion process.

So, what I did when I first started my real food journey was learn to soak oatmeal. It’s really, really simple and with soaked oatmeal it sticks to your ribs way longer — plus it’s more nutrient dense. To learn how to soak oatmeal, click here.

Soaked oatmeal can take some getting used to because there is no crunch. I’m a crunchy kind of girl and I love crunchy foods so when switching over to oatmeal, you kinda lack that crunch. The good thing is, there are so many variations of oatmeal that there’s never a really way to get tired of it. Plus, there are options of making homemade cereal if you want to.

Obviously balance is everything so don’t feel like you’re not doing the right thing if you eat cereal. It’s just important to know that cereal is not a nutrient-dense choice.

Your challenge this week is to go out and buy some oats. I like extra thick rolled oats or a creamy rye flakes and mix them — whatever you want. Once you buy them, try out soaked oatmeal and let me know what you thought! Oh, and the reason we want to soak our oatmeal is because it breaks down the phytic acid which makes it easier to digest.

Here’s a baked soaked oatmeal recipe that is super delicious.