Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Beginning on the Journey of Healthy Eating

My journey as the main cook of a home has been...interesting...to say the least. Before I got married, I was too concerned with school and all the other more exciting pursuits of life, and did only the very necessary in the kitchen. My home economics teachers could tell some scary stories about me! My mother is an excellent cook, and I'm sure she tried to teach me, but I frankly didn't want to learn.

Fast forward to my marriage at an earlier age than anyone but God had planned. Sharing a home with a husband? I couldn't wait! Cleaning house and doing his laundry? I was thrilled! (Yeah, really. Time changes a few things. Only kidding!) But cooking? It scared me to death.

Not only was I totally inept in the kitchen, but neither of us came from the healthiest food backgrounds. Oh, I was familiar with many types of diets from the low-carb, high-protein one to the low-fat, high-sugar one. We had even tried the cabbage soup diet--for about one day. My husband's family rarely ate any fruits and vegetables and loved their saturated fats. My ideal breakfast was doughnuts and chocolate milk although I usually skipped breakfast altogether. His was eggs, bacon, white toast with margarine and a Pepsi.

I won't bore you with all the details of my trial and error learning to cook or our hit-and-miss attempts at healthy eating. When we had children, I began to be a little more concerned about health. That's probably when I started my research. I would read and read and read and then get overwhelmed with all the conflicting ideas and quit. Yet, something always kept pulling me back.

In more recent years, I've heard the most novel idea yet, and it's really growing on me--keep it real. Real food with the least intervention by man possible. As a Christian who believes God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, the idea highly appeals to me. As a woman who loves to eat, the idea still appeals to me. Telling my husband that we must eat real food to be healthy, for the most part, appeals to him. It seems too simplistic. No weighing food or counting calories/fat grams/carbs? Just back to the basics how God intended it? Well, we are trying it, and it's amazing--the more small changes we make, the more small benefits we reap.

If you've been on the "real food" journey for a long time, you can skip this week's posts, although they might be good for a chuckle or two when you realize how far I have yet to go. All I can do on this blog is share, not advise. So, I'll be sharing about where we started in eating differently...where else?...breakfast.

5 comments:

  1. Ever since, I started feeling ill and no one could really work out what was wrong, I made a conscious effort to discover healthy eating. It developed and developed until now I'm a vegan and I eat at least 50% raw food. I'm not 100% healthy, but I'm getting there. After all my surgery in the past year, my consultants noticed that I made vast improvements to other patients and I have pulled through a lot better than others. I had a major operations on April and so did on my friends. She's now having her second major operation and I'm not.

    Healthy eating is a really big part of my life. I do my best to encourage all those I love and care about to eat healthy. I believe if you love your family, you'll feed them properly, it make take a lot of hard work, especially if you didn't do it in the beginning.

    On my recent research I discovered that what most people call healthy isn't e.g. Animal milk. What many people don't realise is this, like human women, cows and goats only produce milk when they are pregnant, because it is designed for their calves. We humans think it's natural to drink milk which God didn't design for us to drink and call it healthy. Obviously the young calves get slaughtered and we eat the meat.

    God originally called us to eat fruit, herbs and vegetables (Genesis 1:29), but after man sinned and the flood occured, God permitted man to eat Meat (Genesis 9:3-4). Many people forget this and many Christians don't want to admit that this is written. I've made a personal decision to go back to the old path, the way how God designed us to eat and it has been beneficial to me. I would recommend it to anyone. There are many families who are doing this too. Check out http://www.rawfamily.com and http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/.

    When I first started I struggled with recipes, but now I have my mains ones, I'm up and away.

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  2. I am on a keeping it real journey myself. I have been for years, but it is a process and not an overnight kind of thing. I still have A LOT to learn and even more to change. We are not extremists but I do look for foods and products with less intervention as well. It is hard to do all or nothing in this world but the more we can do the better, or rather, the more we can lessen our exposure to icky additives, preservatives, artificial flavors, colors, etc.. the better, I think. I look forward to your posts! It will be fun to read about your journey. I got a hold of a book a few years ago that set me on the right path. It is called The Genesis Diet by Gordon S. Tessler. I am not sure if it can be found or not. Maybe on Amazon. I'll admit, after I read it I was on a rampage against anything premade or processed and tried to go all organic. That only lasted so long as real life set in, but it got me thinking on making better choices and now it is just a day to day - decision by decision kind of thing. Eating out is a hard one and going to someone else's house for lunch or dinner or to a church event with all sorts of unhealthy fare is tough too. That is why we choose to live and not be extremists because life does happen, right? :) It is a challenge but is fun to try to improve where we can.

    Thanks for sharing your journey. It will be fun!

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  3. Thanks, Sarah, for the links (you got ahead of me a bit ;-) and the advice. I'm still researching about cow's milk and trying to decide what is best for our family.

    I'm with you, wifeandmom. Being extreme pretty much means you have to be in a bubble in this world. That's why we're doing small changes and doing the best we can. I will be sure to read the book you recommended as well.

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  4. Hi! I know how you feel, there's so many conflicting ideas. One blog I adore is healthbeginswithmom.blogspot.com I like it because she's a Christian mom who's a wellness consultant and she posts about making small changes and all the evidence she's gathered about certain foods and vitamins and such. It so nice to have someone I feel is trustworthy to ask about some things, like agave nectar. :) All in all, I do my best and don't go overboard. Food can't be an idol, which can include healthy food. My body is for God, not something to be worshiped.

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  5. Again, you beat me. I think I have some links from healthbeginswithmom tomorrow. :-) I agree. I don't want food to be an idol nor do I want it to become more important than relationships, but I do want to take care of my body and the health of those under my care.

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