We Made It!

Nov 01, 2011, Updated Jun 28, 2020

Wow, what a month!

By October 1st, 2,000 people had signed the October Unprocessed pledge. As people continued to discover the challenge, our numbers ultimately passed the 3,000 mark. Incredible.

I want to express my enormous gratitude for the 55 (yes, fifty-five) guest authors and experts who shared their time, talents, energy, and recipes. I hope you agree that the guest posts were terrific! Many thanks both to the friends whom I cajoled into writing and to the folks who reached out and offered to contribute. Everyone — and I mean everyone — blew me away with their resourcefulness, enthusiasm, and professionalism (and remember, everything was voluntary; nobody was paid for his or her contribution). The food blogging community is one of the finest groups of people I’ve ever been blessed to know and be a part of, and for that I am truly blessed and grateful.

Thank you as well to everyone who helped spread the word about October Unprocessed. Whether it was through sharing on Facebook or Twitter, writing on your own site or news outlet, or just through a simple conversation with a friend, including others in this challenge is important on so many levels. It increased awareness and participation — but more than that, it continued to build community and strengthen this important revolution.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who took the challenge, signed the pledge, and participated. Even if it was just for one day, giving it a go is so important. Ultimately, this challenge is about awareness and about truly considering what you’re putting in your body. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to do any more convincing, though, so I won’t ramble on any more about that!

Later this week I’ll be sending out a survey to get your feedback on the challenge. I hope to learn what you liked best, what you liked least, and everything in between — and where you think we should go from here.

In the meantime, though, I’d simply like to list all the guest posts and their authors one more time — and encourage you to read (and share!) their posts if you haven’t yet, and to visit their sites and see what they’re all about. It’s a pretty terrific group of folks.

With gratitude,
Andrew

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amee

November 1, 2011 8:09 pm

What an incredible collection of raw talent and positive intentions. WHat a great think that youve started for this community – this society. I embarrassingly (is that a word?) did not participate, but I will next year. I think you should find a way to publish and hardcover bind these posts (on blurb or myblurb or whatever) and make it a giveaway for the next year…or now! 🙂

Great posts (and i do admire and envy your oh so neat formatting) 🙂

Valentina

November 1, 2011 4:49 pm

This was great, Andrew. So happy to have participated both in the challenge and with a recipe! Loved it! 😀

Liz

November 1, 2011 4:01 pm

It was an fantastic challenge – I loved it!

Same time and place next year?

The Wimpy Vegetarian

November 1, 2011 1:22 pm

You did an amazing job, Andrew, of keeping a great level of energy behind this worthy effort, and for lining up a stellar group of contributors that kept it very fun, informational and tasty. I can’t say I stayed on the wagon, but you’ve given me a blueprint that I can keep going back to for ideas, etc. Thanks so much!!

Amber K Lee

November 1, 2011 11:37 am

Andrew,

I want to tahnk you and all the contributers. This has helped me on my journey to better eating.

Christine K

November 1, 2011 10:36 am

Congrats and THANK YOU!!!!

Gretchen@HealthfulMama

November 1, 2011 10:27 am

Thank you for hosting this event, Andrew! I felt like my family was eating relatively unprocessed beforehand, but despite some missteps during the challenge, I learned easy ways to make this our lifestyle permanently, while finding some great blogs along the way! Most importantly, I got some people on board with this type of eating, which is exactly the point, eh? I can’t wait to see the participation next year! 🙂

Jamie

November 1, 2011 10:23 am

I fell off the wagon a few times but I am really proud of what I accomplished! I thought that all the homemade food would take up a lot of time and was surprised that with one afternoon of preparation I could get almost a weeks worth of meals done. I learned to make better decisions when I went out to eat and have explored some new cuisine. I don’t own a scale but from the way my clothes fit and the way I look I really feel like this is the best my body has looked in years. I will continue to eat (mostly) unprocessed! Thank you!

Marlou Russell

November 1, 2011 10:04 am

Thanks for inspiring us all and helping spread the word about the power of unprocessed. I made it through the month of October, signed up for Fresh 20 menus, and was able to pass up all that Halloween candy! I’ll continue to eat unprocessed.

Allyson

November 1, 2011 9:46 am

This challenge was difficult at times, but it was so worth it. My cholesterol fell 25 points in three weeks. I don’t plan to be unprocessed 24/7 after this, but intend to stick with it at least five days a week. Definitely the best thing I ever did for myself.

Reply to Allyson

November 2, 2011 6:57 pm

We have blood work pending. Can’t wait to see the results.

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We Made It!

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