But that doesn't mean pledging 100 days of eating only real food has been easy for the Hillsborough resident and her family.

"He's not all that thrilled with this change," she says of her 7-year-old son, Wyatt. "He got used to the filler food; he wants more of the kind of bready, snacky sort of food. Getting him to fill up on fruits and vegetables before the carby stuff is kind of difficult. He wants peanut butter and jelly every day of his life."

It wasn't always that way.

Before her son and husband moved to gluten-free food to resolve some health issues, the Lobaczes largely ate real food - the foods that come from nature rather than science, foods with recognizable ingredients.

"When we went gluten-free, I was feeling bad that they couldn't have all the foods that we used to have, so I was buying the cereals and packaged foods that are gluten-free - all the things that I wouldn't have bought him had he not been gluten free, like chocolate cereal, cookies," Lobacz says.

In the spring she saw a listserv posting about a real food challenge and found herself at the "100 Days of Real Food" website, chronicling the journey of a Tar Heel family of four who challenged themselves last year to no processed foods for more than three months.

Lobacz, coming off the emotional rollercoaster of her father's terminal cancer, was ready to make a change.

Instead of taking 100 days of mini-pledges or the 10-day real food pledge that visitors of the site are challenged to, Lobacz decided to go for the full 100 days. She and her family started May 16.

"Because of all the health issues my family has been having, it was kind of a catalyst and perfect timing to be more serious about my health and my family's health," she says.

In November, her father died from prostate cancer. Her mother was diagnosed with abdominal cancer in March and is undergoing chemotherapy.

"We have to be conscious of our health because David and I don't have health insurance right now," Lobacz says. "Having lived this way before, I know how beneficial it is."

The woman behind the challenge - Lisa Leake of Charlotte - predicts those who take even just the 10-day challenge will come away with at least one improved health benefit. She lists as examples: having more energy, losing weight, improving regularity, or just feeling healthier overall.

Lobacz says her family noticed a difference immediately.

"It just made us feel healthier and gave us more energy, so Wyatt and I are now getting up every morning and going running. It's just sort of a whole positive cycle," she says.

Lobacz also is enjoying experimenting with food and the twice-a-week trips her family makes to the farmers market. In addition to feeling better, they're also wasting less food.

"I can only hold so much in my bag at the farmers market," she says, laughing.

"It's a whole new way of doing things. I kind of feel like it's more of a European way of living. They go to the market every few days. They don't have this Sam's Club stockpile in their house."

And although Lobacz's husband and son balk at some of the foods they try - like some of the raw fruits and vegetables she increasingly is incorporating into their diet - she finds the challenge isn't difficult.

"It's not hard when you get used to it," she says. "Really the hardest part is organizing. You can't plan what you're going to eat in 30 minutes."

And a bonus is her son has stopped asking when the hundred days is up.

"The first few days he said, 'When is this hundred days up?' " Lobacz recalled, laughing. "I said, 'Probably never.' "