Once grown I had the idea that I had been raised with really good nutrition compared with my peers, just because we didn't have any junk food (except for granola and peanut butter), always had a protein, a carb, a veggie at every meal, and only rarely a dessert.
Now, many years later I can appreciate that my mom was trying but much of it was misguided and we never really talked about nutrition. (not really her strength unless Dr. Spock said do it!) Much of it was carb based and processed, except we always always had fresh fruit and veggies. We all drank skim milk, used real butter but only really for cooking, and other fats were to be avoided. Never any pork because my dad had high cholesterol (they divorced when I was 5, and because of that she still won't buy pork). It is difficult to explain why animal fats are good fats when the media and pharmaceutical companies have worked so hard to brainwash a different message.
I yo-yo'd with my weight and never had much self confidence since I let it be related to my self-image. Once, in 5th grade I came home from school and said it was health day, we had been weighed and measured. I weighed 105. Someone told me "Now, if you can stay there you will be perfect". No idea what was gained by that person saying that to a child. Later as a teen I had a friend who was battling anorexia. That same person actually told us both that if we could switch eating habits we could both be fixed. Needless to say, we both fixed ourselves many years later once we took charge and owned the fact that "I am the only one in control of my body and self image", and stopped carrying around a lot of useless baggage.
I continued to yo-yo through pregnancies and life until Oct 2011 when the light just went on in my head. I did eat good food, but the addiction to carbs and sweets was self defeating and it was really my fault, not moms, or so and so, or anything else.
I basically cut my portions in half, and what I did let past my lips was the very best nutritional quality I could get.
(At this time in our lives: the kids were--one starting college, one a senior in high school; we were gardening like a frenzy, raising all our own meat, eating fresh eggs, drinking dairy and making dairy products, and still allowing everyone to buy their favorite treats at the grocery--ugh!--as we had been for entirely too long).
During the quest for the best food I began to really dig into a number of topics: grains, gluten, sugars, probiotics, sources of foods, real nutrients, and what were real deficiencies. I am still learning, as I hope to always be.
What is different now:
I do not eat processed food,
I order wheat berries and sprout/grind our own flour.
I only eat grains I have prepared.
I eliminated nearly all grain/starch products from my diet.
I have learned to replace a craving for a sweet with a protein.
I drink a lot more water.
Fruits and veggies, home grown/canned, organic or pass it up!
Only eat our own meat.
Drink as much milk as I can, full fat.
I stretch daily, I intentionally work out (not farm work, lol) 2-3 times a week
I have lost 42 pounds and 20 years since Oct 27, 2011
I have energy and feel great!
(And, I am not perfect, we do eat our on occasion and if I am dying for a bite of chocolate I have it--a very small portion)
Supplements I take daily: B12 Methyl 2000mcg, Primal Defense probiotics, Vit C 500mg, Manesium Oil body spray
Supplements I add this time of year: Zinc 2x, Aconite, Bryonia, additional 500 mg of Vit C
I have learned after years of eating some good/some bad that I was damaging my immune system with poor food choices and with stress (almost daily abdominal pain-- my body was/does put stress in my abdomen).
Specific things I learned or re-learned that changed my behavior:
* The brain is greater than 80% fat, if we do not eat real fat we are starving and shrinking our brain.
* Hormones require real fat to be able to perform their functions (which control literally every body function).
* Real fats do not cause the body to get fat, processed fats and too many calories and laziness do.
* Animal products do not cause cholesterol elevations. Stress, cortisol response, genetics, and processed foods do.
* Diet foods do not make you skinny or healthy--exactly the opposite is true. Neither do they counter diabetes, they can exacerbate it.
* Stress causes an inflammatory response, which irritates cells, nerves and muscles. Our bodies will "store" the stress somewhere if we don't actively get rid of it. This is, in my belief the primary cause of many cancers, heart disease, migraines, chronic abdominal pain, and many other maladies of today.
* If the medical profession does not know what is wrong with you, or cannot/will not take the time to ferret out the real problems they will make up a diagnosis--hence the origins of fibromyalgia. Completely made up, and now over used because the medical profession in general is too lazy to discuss nutrition, stress, and that if you don't act like an adult and change your behavior/nutrition you are going to die prematurely.
* Our lower GI tract's purpose is to be the immune system, feed the body and eliminate, that is it. Since the lower GI is one long tube of semi-permeable membrane where all the nutrients pass through, it is possible to clog up the filter or confuse the filter with fake, processed, or just poisonous substances. This leads to a non-existent immune system, a painful/irritated GI tract, and often toxicities. A dear friend very nearly died from aspartame poisoning (her liver could not break it down so it built up). These days aspartame is in dang near everything at the store (her main offender was diet soda--she drank it thinking she would lose weight and therefore be healthier).
The highly processed gluten in our foods is the reason for so much gluten sensativity and celiac disease now.
Did you know that wood pulp is allowed in a certain percentage in nearly every food? The sole purpose of it is to dilute the product to create a higher profit margin for the producer. Humans are incapable of digesting wood pulp. It ends up clogging our GI membranes. (fixed, as you know already by diet change and probiotics!) Go to your pantry or any aisle in the grocery and count how many products have "cellulose" in them, and note where it is in the list of ingredients.
* My body has been trained by yo-yo dieting and weight shifts to hold onto carbs and sugars and store them as fat, since it never knew when I was going to starve it again. I suspect many in our society have this same problem--which is actually exacerbated by the highly processed diet foods on the market.
* The food industry in this country is abysmal, and is nothing more than a money machine. The FDA, Nestle, Quaker, etc...none of them actually care about nutrition, other than fitting into benign guidelines to be able to make claims, to be able to sell product, to be able to make money.....etc.
* The pharmaceutical industry is worse, with much higher profits (and much more at stake for the people that take their drugs).
* A really gross, and true story relayed to me by my hubby: He used to work for a radio tower company (many moons ago), and went to a rendering plant in Iowa to perform part of an installation. He was given a tour which included viewing a barn sized room knee deep in blood that was being washed down a drain--he asked where that was going and they told him it was being pumped into the waiting rail cars to go to Quaker Oats so they could separate out the red blood cells and use the remaining serum/plasma as the single ingredient in their oats that make it "iron and protein fortified". Oats do not naturally have iron and protein in any great concentration. After the urge to vomit at hearing this, I wonder how many vegetarians were eating oats and oat products thinking they were within their diet. Not to mention the sheer disgusting-ness of it.
What I tell patients, friends, anyone that pretends to listen for even a minute: (lol)
Probiotics every day, no matter what.
No medications unless they are absolutely necessary and then you need to work on whatever the issue is to try to decrease or eliminate them.
Vitamin D is tantamount to overall health, get out in the sun and do not use sunscreen (use a hat/sleeves/umbrella instead). Our bodies cannot absorb calcium without the action of vitamin D which is synthesized through sunshine on our skin.
Figure out what your body needs to be healthy and do it, you are the only one that can. There is no magic pill for life or stress, they have to be handled healthfully and truthfully.
Know your food, where it comes from, who made it, with what, and if you are still ok with the full knowledge then eat it.
Grow, cook, can, dehydrate everything you can so that your food chain is simple: it is you.
If you need to cut calories do not cut nutritious, high-dense, high-quality foods, as they are what heal and nourish your body.
You have such an advantage by learning all you now while your kids are young, and you can help them know, really know nutrition and how important it is to make good decisions about food. My kids pay attention and do eat very healthfully for their ages, but I wish I had started sooner being more proactive and informed!
In regards to sunscreen---it is a fact that anything over 30 spf is redundant and adds no measurable additional protection, and it is also a fact that it takes approximately 26 seconds for whatever you have put on your body, face, hair, to get absorbed into your system. I am not ok with putting useless chemicals on my body. (For more info on homemade, or natural products search DIY online--you can make any product you use, and you can make it without carcinogens or parabens.)
I guess I would classify myself as real food eater, not necessarily organic (that label has been copyrighted by the USDA, so they are the only ones that can claim it now, and the ways they get around it are awful). We do things as naturally as we can here, basically by starting at the kindest/gentlest method first and then progressing through to eventually using a chemical if we need to and only once the risks and benefits have been weighed.
To summarize, keep it simple/clean/fresh and really wholesome!
I wish you healthful, toxic free living!
Now, to make this really cathartic, I will share before and after pictures of myself. (groan!) I am absolutely disgusted and saddened by the way I used to look.
Admittedly, I was quite stressed and travelling every week for my job. That meant eating airport, hotel, restaurant food--and even trying to make good choices I still ended up looking like a pasty faced sicko. Sad thing is, too many people look (and feel) like I did.
January 2011
November 2010
July 2012
October 2012--One Year!!!!
xoxoxo to all those that love, cherish and support me and my quirky ways--I love you too.
