My Journey

I started my healthy eating journey almost three years ago. I watched Food Inc around Christmas with my family, and I knew at the end of it that I had to stop eating processed and chemically enhanced foods.

I wanted to know more though, and I read some great books that gave me the willpower to stick to my plan. I highly recommend Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma for a very detailed look at how our food system fails us, as well as the other options we have. If it's too heavy of a read for you, check out the basics in Food Rules, which is also very informative without overloading you with information.

But because those books just tell you what to eat, not how, I was still at a loss. I picked up French Women Don't Get Fat, mostly for the French recipes, and I found that Mireille Guiliano is also a champion of natural foods. Perfect. I now had recipes and I could begin my journey.

At first, with zero cooking skills, I found making soups and sandwiches to be quite the challenge. I was pretty miserable because while my eggplant soup wasn't bad, I really wanted to eat Velveeta. But with my own health in mind, I was able to stick with my diet.

I cheated here and there. How can you go to a Superbowl Party and not have at least a few items that were unhealthy? But one night of bad food is different than a month or a lifetime, so I didn't let it destroy my resolve. Plus, I made a conscious effort not to overeat when I did have processed foods.

By the time St. Patrick's Day came around, I wasn't worried about eating something unhealthy and being afraid of a relapse. But something surprising happened: when I bit into a bright green cupcake, expecting the sugar to make my brain swoon, something else happened entirely. The chemicals made my taste buds shudder. Cupcakes, which I used to eat by the handful, were now disgusting.

If you're out there and you're thinking that you'll never be able to enjoy cupcakes again, you couldn't be more wrong. I still love cupcakes, but there are only a handful of places I can get the good ones: ones that are made from all natural ingredients. No chemicals, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients. Those make me sick, literally.

But the cupcakes made from butter and flour and sugar? I love those. 

Anyway, with my new found dislike in processed food, I knew there was no going back. And I haven't really  relapsed in any way.

Things that have happened to me? 

I lost a lot of weight, about 30 pounds, and I didn't consider myself overweight to begin with.

I started cooking, and I really enjoy it now.

I started looking at my other lifestyle choices. Chemicals in my food are bad, but are they okay in my shampoo and lotion? Doesn't my skin absorb that? Am I okay with using the microwave, especially if this science report is true? If I have a soda once a week, what are the effects on my body?

I don't want to kill any plants, but I'd love to replicate the experiment.

But the most important question of all: how do I want to live my life?

Do I want to continue spending money on things that could harm me? How do I deal with stress? And environmental factors? How do I deal with life?

Basically, I'm not just looking at making over my diet anymore, but making sure I'm as healthy and as happy as I can be. 

The focus of this blog is going to shift. I'm still going to have recipes and food news, but I'm also going to include recipes for skincare, news about environmental toxins, and plant based "cures" that I've found work as great as modern medicine.*

I'd love to have you join me for the rest of my journey, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiments on what works and what doesn't work for you and your family.

*I'm not a registered/licensed anything, nor am I being paid to say or endorse products. All of my opinions are my own. All of my research is done on my own time, unless otherwise noted. Please do your own research before taking anything, just like you would do with anything else.