Saturday, May 28, 2011

Eating Well - Part 3

So...with all of those things combined (from the last couple of posts), I was well on my way to a new way of looking at food and thinking of food. Much different way than the 'conventional' or 'modern' way.

Basically, like I said, back to basics. Back to the way our ancestors did it. Before all the conveniences and junk got added in there. There are still people who eat like that...but unfortunately, they also add in the processed junk food and sugary processed treats.

I mentioned that I stumbled upon many blogs. Really great blogs...of people who had found the same thing and were journeying toward health in this way. Here's a list of a few of them, for your reading and learning pleasure:

astepofhealth.blogspot.com - This is one of the first I came across. She doesn't post very often, but her steps (left sidebar) on how to get started in this way of life are interesting. You don't have to do everything, but it's interesting to learn from.

www.passionatehomemaking.com - But then I found this one and it quickly became my favorite. This chic is really young, but is very inspiring. She blogs about all kinds of stuff and even has monthly guest bloggers, but check out her 'about' section and her 'resources' section...and of course her recipes. And she has a list of topics on her right sidebar. Really great stuff!!

www.keeperofthehome.org/real-food-and-nutrition
- This link is straight to the posts about food and nutrition, but the rest of her blog is good too. I especially love this bottom liner about fats which is EXTREMELY informational and excellent and full of links of resources for more learning. You HAVE to read it...a complete departure from the standard advice given today for healthy living.

heavenlyhomemakers.com - Also a great resource.

There are many things that are just foreign to me that I'm learning about...soaking your grains; sprouting seeds; things like kefir, kombucha, the benefits of fermentation, raw milk, and making sourdough. (just google or search those blogs to learn more) But, I'm learning. A very slow process, a little here and a little there, but it's happening. And, I may not ever actually do all of these things on a regular basis, but they are good things to know and incorporate a bit at a time. Maybe it will become routine for me...that would be ideal. But, maybe I'll just keep it simple...we'll see.

There is a GREAT website for those of you who are interested in really learning more. GNOWFGLINS.com is a great resource for so many things, but I especially love that they have online classes available to learn some of these new, old things. ;)

And, I also ran across a couple of books by Nina Planck. This one and this one. Very, very good. Here is a little interview she did (clip below). And this is a big interview she did that I watched a while back...not sure if it's still up, but this is the link if you can get it to play.



Hmmm...I think that's enough for today. I'll have to post again with a little summary and what this all looks like in our family from day to day. Very, very interesting stuff though. What do you think?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Eating Well - Part 2

I have a friend who is a chiropractor. Chiropractors are known for their health and so I always like to glean from all my chiropractor friends. This particular one is a part of a way of life and 'program' called Maximized Living. Really incredible way of living. My friend posts stuff on Facebook about it ALL the time, so I would just glance at these things every now and then. My interest was piqued. I started asking questions and then met a couple of other people who had started with Maximized Living. I read a LOT about it on the internet...Google and YouTube are just so great. And then my wonderful friend sent me a gift...a Maximized Living book. So, there's that.

I also have a another friend who had started following the Paleo way of eating. Although I for sure don't agree with the evolution part of it all, I did find some of the nuts and bolts of it interesting.

And then I also found many, many websites/blogs of just regular ole mamas like me that had stumbled upon a couple of books that had changed the way they did things in their kitchen/lives. I'll include the sites/blogs next time.

But one of the books was written by a guy named Weston A. Price. His book is "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" and basically chronicles his journey to several different 'primitive' people groups to find out what they were doing right and what us 'modern' people were doing wrong because all of the primitive people were healthier than the moderns.

The other book is by Sally Fallon, called "Nourishing Traditions." She also wrote co-wrote the "Eat Fat, Lost Fat" book. And here is a great clip of her giving a very brief rundown of what a 'traditional diet' is like. I also encourage you to watch some of her other things there on YouTube.


And that should be enough for today to get you going...now you can do some research of your own. Next time I'll tell you more of what I found and what it all looks like in my own life. I am loving it though. So...look at all this stuff and see for yourself what you think.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Eating Well - Part 1

I've been on a little trip these past few years...since around 2001 to be exact. 10 YEARS! Wow. That's when things started to change as far as my relationship with food. Here's how it happened...

I got married. :) Yep, that did it really. I started having a normal routine and eating 3 meals a day and well, that did it. Before that, I worked nights and had no real routine and usually ate like a horse when I ate, but eating was sporadic and not all that important really. Not nearly as important as running the roads and spending time with friends and swimming and laying out. Ahh, the carefree days. :) Anyway, there were probably other factors involved...for instance, I turned 27 a few months after I got married. Getting older may have had a little to do with it too. But, gone were the days of just eating whatever I wanted with no ill effects showing up. Eating whatever you want (junk) is never good internally, but it had never showed up externally for me until 2001. :)

More importantly, I also, at the time, was really searching out what I wanted to do as far as my family...what I wanted my family to look like (figure of speech, not necessarily physical appearance)...what I wanted my family to be like, etc. This included everything from church activities to child-raising to healthy lifestyle, etc....what did we believe and want for our family?

So...all of that combined sent me on a search of what 'healthy' is. It has been an interesting 10 years in that regard. I've had to face some yuck about myself and some of the things/lies that I've believed. Battling what has always been normal for you and going after what is not the norm but is SO MUCH better is so very hard. It's a constant struggle if you don't continually rely on the Holy Spirit to help you battle and overcome with His power. This applies to many areas of my life actually (and yours), but right now I'm talkin' 'bout food. So, here we go...

As you all know, there are SO MANY opinions/methods out there. Veganism, vegetarianism, food combining, raw foodism, etc. It's incredible the options we have these days from cloth diapers to salad dressings to house plans. Can we say overwhelming?

I've experimented with many things. I lived as a vegan for basically a year and a half. There were good things about it, but just not quite right I felt...something missing to it, for me. I've done Weight Watchers sporadically to lose baby weight through the years. I love that they teach you proper portions and they do teach about eating whole foods, but still...something missing. There still wasn't any one belief/method/way of eating that was grabbing me completely. But, I kept researching. Joel says he wishes I could get paid for my researching. ;)

Just in the past year I stumbled upon one thing that led me to another thing that led me to another thing that led me to a few other things. And all of those combined, I feel, is my answer finally come. And I'm pretty doggone excited about it, too.

You know I'm a little bit old school in the ways I like to do things. A little bit back to the basics...cloth diapering, breastfeeding, natural birthing, etc. Why? Because they are better. :) Ha. Truly though...I don't think that anyone would argue that point, but for some they just choose to not do it even though they know that it's better. Totally their prerogative. But, all of that to say, when I found the back-to-basics approach of eating, I knew it was for me.

I'll write more about what I found in my next post.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Make-Up


One day last week Hadley asked me to do her make-up. She's never really asked me to do that before...to use my make-up and me put it on her. So, we did...and her sisters wanted to join in of course. The pictures of when I was applying make-up are courtesy of their helpful older brother, Grady, the official make-up photographer. And, believe it or not, Eissa has become the choreographer of the family as far as photo shoots go...she's the go-to model of the bunch (I'll have to do a post of just her photo shoots alone...they are a-plenty...she loves to model which cracks me up since she has such a quiet, almost timid personality)...the photos where they are all looking in the mirror and are at the piano were were all orchestrated by her (and by the way, just ignore the mess of my room...I was going through tons of clothes, organizing). Anyway, enjoy these beautiful girls. Oh, and the picture up top is of the next day...the feeling of make-up-ness had not yet worn off and they were quite princess-like all day long. :) Love them.



Looking in the mirror.






















































































They are SO much fun!!