Small, Realistic Lifestyle Changes for 2019

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posted on

January 1, 2019

Did you know 80% of New Year's Resolutions will fail by the second week of February? I am guilty of setting New Year's Resolutions about getting healthier, exercising, saving money etc... but within a month or two I've usually given up. How can we make sure we stick to those resolutions or goals?! By making smaller and realistic changes! Hear me out, if your goal is to wake up earlier - why not start with small increments? If your goal is to lose weight - why not start by eating healthier and then moving on to bigger steps? Here are just two things that could make a HUGE difference for you and your family, if your goal is to try and eat healthier (which is a great step if your bigger goal is to lose weight):

YOU COULD DECIDE TO CUT DOWN YOUR SUGAR INTAKE

Sugar is seriously SO bad for you.. I'm not going to give you a lecture about it (unless you really want me to), but here is just a small list of why sugar is bad for you:

Sugar can cause Weight Gain
Sugar can increase your risk of Heart Disease
Sugar can cause Acne
Sugar can increase your risk of Diabetes
Sugar can increase your risk of Cancer
Sugar can increase your risk of Depression
Sugar can lead to a Fatty Liver

I could keep going, but do you really need me to? There is so much added sugar in basically EVERYTHING we consume, even in bacon because apparently nothing is safe anymore... There are short-term diets you can look into that will curb your sugar addiction; Whole 30, Keto, etc. Once you have finished a round of one of these diets, you could make some day-to-day grocery shopping changes to keep that sugar at bay. For example, you could purchase our Sugar Free Bacon, in addition to our pigs being pasture raised they are also fed healthy food! As you may know, our motto is "No Weird Stuff!" and we have worked VERY hard to make sure no strange ingredients end up in our meat. To go even further, our butcher is amazing and willing to make batches of our Bacon without sugar!

Once you start reading labels of your food products, you're going to find sugar in the ingredients everywhere; breakfast sausages, chorizo, brats, etc, so you can also find all of our Sugar Free products in our store using the tag "Sugar Free."

YOU COULD CHANGE UP YOUR WEEKLY MEAL ROUTINE

Making an entire diet change can be difficult, but what if you only did it a night or two a week to start? You could replace one of your weeknight meals with one of our Meal Kits - which usually follow those major diets mentioned above and are gluten-free and dairy-free! So even if you aren't tackling a whole new diet, but want to make some healthier meals throughout the week our Meal Kits are perfect for you. Our Meal Kits are great even if you aren't making diet changes, but you have family members or friends that have food allergies. If you swap out one or more meals per week with one of our Meal Kits, I promise you will see some great changes! Plus they're super delicious, so you can't even tell you're eating super healthy!!!

I know what you're thinking, "I don't have time to make a recipe that takes 30+ minutes!" - but what is SO SO great about our Meal Kits, is that they are specifically created to SAVE you time!! All you do is dump the contents into your slow cooker, turn your slow cooker on high or low for the specified amount of time (normally 8 hours aka all day), and come back to a delicious meal! This is a GREAT way to avoid fast food, because you just have to think of it in the morning and throw the meal in the slow cooker! How easy is that?

We also have eCookBooks that have all of our favorite recipes to make your own meals at home and save time and hassle (convenience is key with making these lifestyle changes) plus almost all of our eCookBooks come with with our super amazing pre-made and customizable grocery lists and labels!

I'm still a sucker for New Year's Resolutions.. but I think that making the changes above will really help create better eating habits for myself and my family. What is your goal for 2019? Have you made any crazy New Year's Resolutions that you quickly gave up on? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Burger Night Week 9 (of 23)

Week 9: Pizza Burger + Bobs Burgers + Karaoke Win $500 for singing Sat night!?

Burger Night Week 8 (of 23)

Burger Night is open, rain or shineThursday & Friday 4pm-9pmSaturday noon-9pmSunday noon-7pm Welcome to Week 8 of the Burger Night season and the official start of summer! The weather proves to be a formidable foe, but it at least looks like rain and cold are not going to be a major factor this weekend! In fact, the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction but the heat can be beet! We've got oodles of shade, TONS of natural air conditioning and lots of cold drinks (win slushies!) so we'd LOVE if you joined us on the farm for some summer fun! We are slowly but surely working on adding more shady spots! The Weeping Willow is growing crazy fast but we are an impatient bunch and I wanted something now. Note that I know some of the furniture is on it's last "leg" but holy smokes is outdoor furniture expensive, so we'll keep slowly adding and replacing pieces, in the meantime, be gentle with what we've got please. ------------------------------------------------ I'm also pretty excited for this week's Burger of the Week: Beet, Feta Have My Honey! We made this one a million years ago - during the first covid year I believe - but you asked for us to bring it back this winter and, being a sucker for beets, I succumbed to the pressure (I think it was one person 😂). Roasted beets for this weekend's Burger of the Week: Beet, Feta Have My Honey! 😋------------------------------------------------Beet, Feta Have My Honey 🌱 NEW Garlicky roasted beet spread🧀 Feta crumbles🍯 Honey drizzle🐮 100% grassfed beef patty🍞 Toasted, buttery brioche bun Even if you don't love beets (🤨) this is going to be one of those "the sum is better than the parts" type of burger and you're still just going to have to try it!! The young'ins that work here are not expecting very many of these to sell, but I think we should prove them wrong and give them something to think about when it comes to the deliciousness that is roasted beets. So, whaddya say? Wanna help me reshape young minds? It will NOT look very much like this.... This is a picture of the first Beet, Feta Have My Honey BOTW we made several years ago and now we think we can make it EVEN BETTER! Come out and try v2.0 and let us know what you think!------------------------------------------------But wait, there's more! NEW! Now that we are restocked with two different types of beet kvass's we thought we'd do shots of kvass at the bar!! Not sure if you're old? One clue: You do well at tonight's Bird trivia. Second clue: You are really excited for non-alcoholic gut-health-promoting shots of kvass. Third clue: You know what kvass is! 😂 In any case, I hope you're more excited for this than you ever were for jagermeister! 🤮 We just got a ton of brand new ferments in from the Wise Goat that we'll slowly be adding online, unfortunately, these will only be available for on-farm pick-up or local delivery (can't ship them). We're loving these new kvass's so much, you can now order shots of them at the bar! Tomorrow you're going to wake up HEALTHIER from doing shots the night before - how's that for a twist?!------------------------------------------------ Thursday, June 19 Tonight's trivia is all about birds!! Trivia at 7pm: Birds 🐦🕊️🦅🦆🐤 Remember, we give prizes to 1st place, 2nd place and Last place. Bring your friends! (probably the more mature ones. 🙃) ------------------------------------------------ Friday, June 20 LIVE MUSIC from Chris Herriges, 5:30-8:30pm Chris is a highly regarded singer, guitarist and songwriter based in the Twin Cities. Among accomplishments, most noteworthy is probably the large amount of airplay garnered via independent promotion, for a number of original recordings on commercial radio (Rock, Top-40) throughout the U.S., primarily in the 1990's. Also, glowing reviews in many national as well as local publications, also primarily in the early to mid '90's. Can currently be seen regularly in solo-acoustic and duo performances throughout the Twin Cities area and greater Minnesota and Wisconsin. This will be Chris's first time at Together Farms! Let's give him a warm welcome! Like, really warm. Too warm? Nah. We've got shade and fans and wine slushies and cold beer and a pond full of snapping turtles and leeches if we get really, really desperate.------------------------------------------------ Saturday, June 21 LIVE MUSIC from Olivia Maro, 5:30-8:30pm Just a few of the artists she covers... Miranda lambertMaren MorrisZach BryanZac Brown BandTaylor SwiftChris YoungLuke CombsMorgan WallenKelsea BalleriniJon PardiLauren AlainaCarly PearceJo Dee MessinaKacey MusgravesMaddie & TaeLainey WilsonDolly Partonkid rockLuke BryanZac Brown Band and more! Who are you most excited to hear?? Come and check out Olivia Maro, an up and coming country artist who is going to come an sing you some of your favorite tunes! Don't miss this one!I think this might also be Olivia's first time! So, let's give her a warm welcome too! You be the fans! We'll drop the beats....and also beets.------------------------------------------------ Sunday, June 15 1/2 off kids meals all day.3 - 5:30pm: Free Xtreme Bingo for the folks over 21 (deluxe prizes pictured below) and free Kids Bingo for the folks under 21!It's BINGO WEEK! That means they are adding an extra ball to each round to INCREASE your odds of winning!! Let's win something BIG this week!! 🎉✨ Remember, you can't win if you don't play! ✨ Let's giveaway some prizes! Every Sunday at 3p, we play 9 games and give out either a huge fancy prize (like 1,000s of $$s) or a practical and modest gift with every round! It's BINGO WEEK! Which means you get a bonus ball to try to win EVEN MORE big prizes this week!------------------------------------------------ Heads up: Surprisingly, the 2025 season is 35% over after this weekend. Plan accordingly. Farm Store Updates Don't forget to checkout the BEEF restock! We've already got a few items selling out and the Bundle of the Month will be very soon (so we may redo it - watch for an update). All BIRD stuff is on sale! booksRaising chickensEgg cookbooksBirdhousesAttracting birdsDealing with squirrelsBird triviaBird poemsKids board books all about farm animalsTurkey huntingBird dog huntingBird poop and still more!!StickersStuffiesReusable egg cartons for you DIY types with a sense of humorSauces & seasonings for chickenFelt bird ornamentsChicken & eggs themselvesand more ....will all be on sale, all weekend! ICE CREAM UPDATE: The equipment is all here and all the product we need to get started. The health inspector is coming this afternoon to see if we're good to go and then it's time to order ice cream and get to dippin'! Bird trivia tonight but all bird things are on sale all weekend!------------------------------------------------ If you can't make it here, let's meat online instead! Thank you for your support during what is probably going to be an unbeetable Burger Night Week! Love you lots! 💚 Steph & the TF fam------------------------------------------------ No dogs, carry-ins or reservations (please let us know about groups though). $10 min on cards, ATM on-site. 📍 w93 Norden Rd, Mondovi, WI 54755 See the menus and learn more: togetherfarms.com/burger-night I am extremely biased that TF, the only "Burger Farm" in the midwest is pretty awesome, so don't take my word for it, check out the google reviews to see what others think, here's an example from Deanna: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a darling place out in the sticks. Well worth the drive to enjoy the atmosphere, burgers 🍔 and animals. The pigs were my fave. 🐷 Will be going back several times with our family each season! Oh, and the fries….🍟 SO good.

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