Photo Credit: Olivina
Making any big change in how we do things can be challenging, and it can certainly be daunting to us as we make steps towards feeding our family better food.
But I have often felt that we only need a little encouragement to get started. Once we have gotten started, though there may be mishaps and such, the positive outcome of our work can keep up motivated to keep learning new things. For many of us, that encouragement has come from friends or family with similar goals, but not all of us have “real life” people to turn to for encouragement.
I hope that this blog has been a small encouragement to some of you as you aim at feeding nourishing food to yourself and friends and family. But I wanted to offer not just my own perspective here at The Nourishing Gourmet, but also the encouragement and stories of others. For that reason I have asked four people to share their stories and thoughts with you as a panel.
All of these ladies have sought to excel at knowing how to nourish and nurture themselves and those around them with good food. They will be answering one question once a week for five weeks (to be posted on Thursdays). I hope this panel encourages, motivates, and inspires you to keep going!
But I would also love to hear from you. Where did your interest in healthy food start? What’s your story? I would love to hear your thoughts and your stories, so please leave a comment and share your knowledge too!
Today, I asked the panelists the question ” How did you become interested in nourishing/healthy food, and why do you think it’s important?“
Amy is a good friend of mine that I have known since High School. She was the one who shared the wonderful recipe for mayonnaise that so many of you liked. It’s always been fun to be able to share new thoughts and research with each other as we learn more and more about better nurturing our families. She answers:
“My mom is a health nut, but I never really listened to her until I experienced poor health myself! Now I think l am even more of a heath nut than she is! 🙂 Antibiotics have their place, but, without realizing their negative effects, I used them excessively, and ended up with very poor digestion and a weak immune system. I have also experienced increased food sensitivities. My poor health drove me to figure out how to heal myself, and I then stumbled upon Nourishing Traditions. I discovered that NT practices addressed my health concerns perfectly; Nourishing Traditions works to prepare foods in ways that are easier to digest, and to prepare foods that are loaded with good bacteria, enzymes and many friendly micro-organisms, all of which I am lacking in my digestive system.
I also think feeding the rest my family Nourishing Traditions/healthy style is so important for a few reasons:
– Nourishing Traditions focuses on good quality proteins and plenty of good fats, which are so important for my hard working husband and growing little ones
– The more I stay away from toxins/chemicals and who-knows-what-that-ingredient-is, and stick to cooking whole foods from scratch, the less prone they will be to have health problems later on
– Preparing foods in ways that are easier to digest will cause them to be able to assimilate all those vitamins, minerals, etc. from their food.
– Their health will be enhanced by all the good yeasts and bacteria that come from the fermentation process included in much of Nourishing Traditions”
Kimberly Hartke blogs over at Hartke is Online and is a new “blogging friend” of mine. She is a volunteer chapter leader in Virginia, and the Weston A Price Foundation Publicist. She has graciously agreed to share her story with us. Thanks Kimberly!
In 2002, my husband and I were each diagnosed with medical conditions, high blood pressure in his case, chondro malacia patella or runners knee in mine. My knee pain was pretty severe, and I was begging my husband to move to a one level home (our home is 4 stories). He said, “You are NOT going to be in a wheel chair, we are going to fight this thing!” We decided to lose weight by following The South Beach Diet, by Dr. Arthur Agatston, a heart doctor. We also joined a gym and started exercising regularly.
Sono Harris, my sweet mother-in-law, was the one who gave me the book Nourishing Traditions. Who could have foreseen what impact that gift was going to have one my life! I am sure that neither of us imagined that I would be blogging about it a few years later. She shares:
In the late 1960s I was pursuing a dance career and wanted to give my body every possible benefit and advantage so it would perform at its greatest capacity. In the Midwest at that time, there were no health food stores. An Adventist food shop was the beginning of my introduction to alternatives to the typical American diet. They carried wholegrain breads, yogurt and kefir, raw nuts and seeds.
My family had a predominately Asian diet which included sea vegetables, seafood and lightly steamed or sauteed vegetables (compared to my Caucasian friends whose vegetables were canned and cooked to death). My parents planted a garden annually so we enjoyed our own fresh grown vegetables in the summer and early fall. With my interest in healthier foods, we made the switch from white to brown rice and started baking our own wholegrain breads.
These practices carried over into my family when I got married. When other couples entertained with soda pop and chips, we offered sunflower seeds and raisins! I baked all our bread, used whole grains, and used no sugar.
Moving to the Northwest in 1983, opened up many more options for healthy foods in a culture and time when more people were interested in health foods. I became a member of an organic, health food co-op and discovered friends and health care providers who believed in the importance of nutrition. Health issues of family and friends kept me motivated to keep learning.
As the years have unfolded, both research and interest have given us more reliable information about the foods that are truly good for us. For me this culminated in early 2003 when I was introduced to Dr. Weston Price’s research and Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions cookbook.
The main ideas in Fallon’s book cleared the air and made sense of all the conflicting information I had been sifting through for years. (E.g. the hard hit that dairy, beef, and wheat had been taking by health food proponents- what if the problems were actually pasteurization, grain feeding and phytic acids?)
The world we live in challenges our physical well-being on many levels. There are many factors that we cannot control but we can make wise food choices and contribute as much nutrient dense material for our well-designed but battered bodies!
Finally, Stephanie, who blogs over at Keeper of the Home, shares her story. Stephanie and I have never (yet) met in real life, but we have been blogging friends for quite a while now. I always appreciate her perspective, including her thoughts on healthy food. Thanks Stephanie!
My initial journey into healthier eating and living began after my diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, when I was in my last year of university. Although I hadn’t become aware of traditional diets yet, I began to have the realization that what I ate truly made a difference in how I felt, how my body functioned, and whether I would be more prone to disease or to good health. I dove in headfirst, making small changes each time I visited the grocery store, learning new cooking skills in the kitchen, and over the next couple of years, began to devour any health and nutrition related books I could find.
Ultimately, my research led me to the Maker’s Diet, where I first came across the concept that our bodies actually need traditional foods and the crucial nutrients they contain- saturated fats such as butter, eggs, high-quality full-fat dairy, grass-fed meats, poultry and wild seafood, fermented and cultured foods, soaked or sprouted whole grains and organic vegtables and fruits. I was confused, as I had read so much suggesting that we should avoid these fats and dairy, and minimize our intake of meat, especially red meat. Yet, something stirred within me and seemed right to me somehow. The author referred to the book Nourishing Traditions, which I promptly borrowed and everything began to fall into place. At last- dietary suggestions that were not only backed by scientific evidence, but that further supported the notion that we have a God who is supremely interested in all the details of life. A God who intricately designed plants and animals to have the perfect foods to sustain our bodies, and could be easily used in common sense preparation methods which have been available to people throughout the history of time, promoting the most robust health possible!
Ultimately, for me, it comes down to the fact that I see good nutrition as a stewardship issue. Just as I want to be careful about how I use my time, manage my finances, maintain my relationships, etc. it matters to me whether I am also being purposeful with the body and health that I have been blessed with. A healthy, well-nourished body gives me the energy and ability I need to fulfill what is most important in my life- namely serving God, and serving and loving others.
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Next Thursday the panelists will be answering the question, “How did you make the transition to eating nourishing food? What challenges did you face, and how did you succeed?” So stay tuned!
Now it’s your turn! Where did your journey towards real, nourishing food start?
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About 3 years ago I started doing yoga and fell in love with it. It made me really take notice of my body, without judgement, for the first time. I realized that things I’d been accepting for years without question: my anxiety attacks, recurrent sinus infections and digestive difficulties.
I started asking questions, reading books, and paying attention to my body most importantly. My grandfather told me that my grandma (who suffer from colon pancreatic cancer) never tolerated dairy well. I’d never known that! So I went off dairy for a 2 week trial and have never looked back.
Since then I’ve cut out sugar, white flour products, and processed food in general. I learned how to cook things like kale and brussel sprouts. I figured out how to pronounce “tempeh.” It was like a big snowball effect in my life, but every day I felt better, more clear, more healthy. What a gift!
Now I’m studying at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and hope to share this gift with others. I like to think that an average mainstream gal can learn to eat seaweed and not be a total weirdo, and I try to share that thinking with everyone I can!
Hi,
I’ve been on a long journey to healthier eating/cooking and I have one problem that is making it really tough…no, not my kids. It’s my husband. He genuinely hates the changes I’ve made even the simple changes of white flour to whole wheat flour. I’ve brought my kids along this journey just fine without much resistance but my husband, even though he’s been a trooper for about 3 years of it sincerely can not stand the healthy changes when it comes to taste. He’s thin and active and educated about nutrition…it’s a just a taste thing. He can’t bring himself to like it. For the sake of pleasing my spouse I’m considering cooking him all his preferences while also make the same meal every night in the healthy version for my kids and I. This task seems overwhelming to me as it’s already a lot of work to make healthy meals every day as it is. For myself I know that I need to eat healthy because of my body type…I struggle with weight and diabetes. I’ve tried all of the tricks of making things appealing, using only the best recipes, etc. After three years I’m at a loss.
Any advice from anyone would be appreciated.
Hi Advice Needed,
I think that is a hard issue that many of us deal with. That’s part of the reason that I am so crazy about wanting my children to develop good “tastebuds” because it can be challenging to overcome life long tastes and habits when older. How about making cultured (sourdough bread), but making it half white flour and half whole wheat for a while? Or what about concentrating on ” meat and potatoes” type of dishes that have more wide appeal, but making them in a healthy way (using grass fed beef) and serving with lot of veggies on the side. I think that there are a lot of traditional “American” type foods that can be really nutritious but with a wide appeal to those who didn’t grow up eating more unusual food. Stews, soups, hearty casseroles, cheesy dishes, that sort of thing. I think” comfort food”. Would your husband like food like that?
I have always been interested in eating “healthy” and always considered the T.V. doctors and pediatricians to be authorities on the subject. About a year ago my 4 year-old son had fluid behind his ears so badly that he could not hear anything out of his left ear and failed the hearing test in his right ear. His pediatrician put us on two meds and told us to come back in a month. There was no change at the second visit, so she prescribed two stronger drugs and made me an appointment with a specialist for the following month. When I asked her how long he would be on the medication (presuming that it worked) she basically said that it could possibly be forever. I panicked and called my brother, who was in chiropractic school at the time; he told me to take him off dairy and sugar and bring him to a good chiropractor twice a week. I also called my neighbor, who I knew to have 4 children with very peculiar eating habits (you know sprouts and smoothies and such!). She concurred with my brother and recommended Nourishing Traditions to me. Within two weeks my son’s hearing was 95% better! I poured over Nourishing Traditions and it just felt so “right”. I feel so good about feeding my family now and can’t imagine ever looking back. Now we have become the family with the “peculiar” eating habits:)
I been switching to a traditional diet over the past 6 months. I have four kids – 10, 7, 5 & 16 months – and the three older ones have had their tonsils and adenoids operated on. The operations were at the end of a long road of poor sleeping/eating and illnesses. They have all improved since their operations – but I don’t want to go through it again.
When my youngest was born I swore that he wasn’t going to be put through this. I decided that whatever in our lifestyle had put them in at risk I was going to change it. I started making his food myself – but really lacked direction.
The real trigger was something so silly – at the same time Teddy started solid foods I switched to a natural handmade soap by a woman from etsy.com – I had always discounted the neccessity of all of this type of organic/bio goods, but I noticed such a positive change I thought that maybe I had been missing something in my lifestyle.
The day after I decided this, I read an article in The Washington Post on WAP and it was a revelation. Then I went to their website and I read through a great many articles and I really felt intrigued.
It presented such a moderate, common sense approach that I felt confident that I could carry out these changes and make them stick. My kids and husband have all been really supportive and throughly enjoyed my efforts – in a way I really feel like it’s even reinvigorated our family life. Also, they’ve all been healthier and we feel so much better.
It’s been a bit of a struggle sometimes because we live in Poland right now and some things I just can’t find – but I’ve had some successes – I found kefir grains on the Polish version of ebay and have been making it happily for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, coconut oil only comes in teeny tiny jars so I buy three jars at a time – but it’s all been worth it.
I started paying more attention to my diet and eating healthy after getting food poisoning from a bad frozen pizza. Simple enough reason and a real eye-opener! It totally wrecked me, and I ended up in ER. That kept me away from pizza and frozen food for sure! It also got me thinking about my food choices. I’d always been interested in cooking, especially baking my own breads. This took hold of me more as I had to learn to cook for myself in college. I love cooking, and I love healthy living and healthy food. I started reading more about food production in the US, and “reading” cookbooks for healthy and inexpensive ways to cook for myself. It’s kind of funny—I’ve come such a long way! For example, up until 2 years ago I never used to eat beans, and now I love them.
It’s hard, especially since I’ve moved back home and have to cook for others, strict meat and potatoes people. But it’s a fun process, I like learning more and more.
All my life I had been a slave to the “diet dictocrats” and the belief that way to be healthy was through a low-fat diet. I lost 60 lbs in 1998, and managed to maintain my weight loss, but I frequently had little slip-ups where I would overeat on “fattening” things. I was borderline obsessive about low-fat food (although I gave myself free rein with sugar!!), and it did not make for very satisfying mealtimes.
Then last summer I stumbled across some information about the Maker’s Diet. I read the book and was intrigued. It made so much sense to me! I was so pleased with my husband read the book too, and decided to do the author’s 40-day regime with me. Through the Maker’s Diet I found Sally Fallon and Nourishing Traditions. I was smitten! I love eating this way, I am falling back in love with cooking again, and I feel so good about the service that these foods are doing to my husband and children. Now instead of being the obsessively low-fat girl, I am again eating “weird,” but with a much greater sense of having satisfaction & peace with my food.
I am so blessed that my husband has been supportive (and even enthusiastic) about this revolution, and the boys are (slowly) coming around. I now have an 11-month-old baby, and my hope is that he will grow up loving real, good food, and never be a slave to the way society expects us to eat.
Well when I was younger, and I mean a kid. I watched my Granny cook, make quilts, and garden. She was raised during the depression and would do things like stop on the side of the highway and pick berries she saw growing. I watched her can, and make all sorts of yummy stuff from scratch. What sticks out most is her black eyed peas and snaps in a slow cooker, and squash pie! So good! As I got older I grew distant from my Granny, I was a girl that wanted to go to college and not have babies, and also had a bad habit of saying what was on my mind, and it wasn’t always pretty. What can I say I was a teenager. She passed away a couple of years ago, due to diabetes, and stroke. Her doctors convinced her that all her regular food was evil, and made her change her diet, and put her on those high blood pressure pills that they took off the market for giving people strokes. I always felt that her way of making things was the best, I felt better when I ate it, and loved the way it tasted. I bought into the typical diet, and when I was 14 stopped eating beef, it made me so sick. After ten years I was almost vegetarian, as this would upset my stomach the least. I had to take one more science class to get one of my degrees. I took Everglades Ecology, and one of the books required to be read was Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, a wonderful book. It caused me to really look at how our food was made, and what was put on it. I started reading blogs, and looking on line. I started with organic soaps and body care. I felt 100 times better, my stomach was not as angry as usual. I also lost 5lbs. I then moved to house hold products. I have been integrating organic foods into my diet, always milk products, but I am still in school and make less than I pay in tuition, so I have to compromise of some things. I go to local produce stores and buy as much local as I can, even if they aren’t organic. I still get grocery store meat, but I am hoping to find a source to try out soon. I hope to get the nourishing traditions book when I get my taxes, as it looks super!
I disappeared! I know! I deleted my foodie blog, because my heart just was not into it. OH I still eat a whole food diet but now I’ve returned to the blog world, only this time I’m doing what I passionately enjoy, learning about and sharing about natural health care. I’m currently taking some herbal classes and hope to become a certified herbalist in the future. I’m also learning about and hopefully will develop some recipes for herbal shampoos and conditioners. I’m actually taking a class for that as well. I’m also learning Homeopathy. I love it all!
I say all this to share my new blog called Dr. Mom, ML and hope that you will take a look and consider linking me.
Oh…you don’t have to post this comment if you don’t want. I know it’s not related to your post.
God Bless,
Anita
After struggling with an eating disorder for about 3 1/2 years as a pre-teen/early teen, I entered recovery as a blank slate when it came to food. For so long I’d had such an unhealthy relationship with food (not in terms of eating food that is bad for you, but in terms of not eating enough of anything and being highly deficient in everything) that going into recovery basically forced me to learn about food from scratch, as I became anorexic around the age of ten and thus had no real knowledge of nutrition beforehand.
I learned through reading, talking with my dietician, and, of course, eating what foods are better for you and why they are better. This initial tutorial only made me hungry to learn more about food, and over the past few years I have focused on eating well with a diet consisting of whole foods, and local, and organic whenever possible. I currently work on a small goat dairy in the mountains of NC and have, within the past year or so, discovered the unbelievable benefits of raw milk and cheeses and cultured, raw milk products. I am a Nourishing Traditions follower and am wholly dedicated to cleansing my body and making up to it for those years of abuse. Not to mention healing the wounds I caused it through my neglect (osteopoenia and a very sensitive digestive system).
This blog has been a wellspring of wonderful information for me, and I hope to use it as a reference as I continue to learn about nourishing foods and their preparation. Keep up the excellent work, and good luck to all of you who hope to better yourselves and your families through your diet.
What wonderful and inspiring stories!
When we made the decision to move to Brazil a couple years ago, I knew it was time to take advantage of changing my diet. I’d always eaten healthy, but working in nutrition in academia I was influenced by fake nutrition – diet cokes, jello, sucralose – not real, nourishing nutrition.
I thought it would be easy to make the change in Brazil – get back to real, natural, cultural foods – wrong! They have the same diet foods and processed junk that we do. This didn’t change my decision, it just made it harder than I thought it would be. I’m still on a mission to become fake food free and the produce available here is outstanding and helps with my efforts. Writing from home gives me the time to prepare better foods as well. I’ve broken so many of the habits I had back home and continue to grow more in my journey.
Your blog has helped me to take it to the next level. Despite my knowledge of nutrition I still have a lot to learn about nourishing, natural foods. Thank you!
I started my nourishing journey about 5 months ago. My husband and I are both infertile and have not been able to achieve pregnancy despite having the correct anatomy. I had charted my cycles so I knew something was wrong early on. I did frequent searches on ways to increase fertility which lead to a post at CheeseSlave on the health benefits of grass-fed butter and bacon. Then the angels sang because I had found a diet that promoted eating fat, as long as it was the right kind of fat. Finally! A healthy diet that Husband could get on board with, or so I thought. CheeseSlave’s site lead me to Eat Fat, Lose Fat, which lead me to Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. I’ve also just finished reading Nourishing Traditions. I’m getting ready to make my first sourdough starter today and I have a jar of lacto-fermented sauerkraut in the fridge.
Prior to this revelation, I had been pushing the low fat/no fat diet. Husband is slightly overweight and diabetes runs in both sides of his family. He definitely resisted that change in his own subtle, passive-aggressive ways. But he resists the nourishing change too. I’ve come to learn that it’s change itself he resists, not necessarily the diet. We are working on that. He doesn’t like a lot of change at once and doesn’t like to feel forced. So I make small changes here and there and we talk about them first. This has worked well for us so far. We taste tested the sauerkraut last night and it is Husband-approved!
Over the past few years as I approached menopause, I was gaining weight while trying to eat a low fat diet. Wasn’t working… My husband has diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholestrol that we are wanting to control without any more medications. Wanting to work him off some of these medicines eventually. I am finding that as I eat more real food, I am not as hungry all the time. I am working on cutting out my addiction to Diet Mountian Dews. As I am learning more about healthy eating, I am finding conflicting information on a lot of foods. One website says that canola oil is the best oil, another says that canola oil is genetically modifyed and to avoid. Soy is also another food that I find conflicting information on. How can I find out what is the right way to go? I enjoy your blog and all the helpful information that you share.
Thanks, Sharon
Sharon,
I generally make my final decision on conflicting evidence by comparing that food to traditional practices. Soy, for example, was always fermented a long time before eating it traditionally. Therefore we avoid most soy products and only eat real soy sauce, natto, that type of thing. Canola oil was not a traditional oil, and people thrived without it, so we don’t use it. I think that there is some wisdom in looking back at what cultures ate in the past, and comparing it to what we eat now. My post, Why Traditional Food, goes over my thoughts a bit on this topic. 🙂 It can be very frustrating to read so many conflicting reports, I know how you feel. But I think basing my diet on traditional foods has really helped me have a foundation in knowing which way I will go.
It has been so wonderful reading all of your stories! Keep them coming! I am loving hearing from you. 🙂
I am so glad I came upon this post and your site! We are also a nourishing traditions family– though I am still in the process of incorporating more and more traditional methods as I take the time to experiment and learn. I’m grateful that most of all the practical guidelines take no previous experience– choose REAL and WHOLE foods first and you will be doing so much for your health. As a healthy living and holistic nutrition coach and speaker, I love helping folks return to this way of eating– and I particularly love connecting the wisdom of God in His creation when we talk about how perfectly suited we are for the foods he gave us.
Anyway, I am so glad and blessed to find you, will be following you more and look forward to learning from what you share!
Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I get so discouraged sometimes but don’t want to give up and am frankly, really happy with our changes! =0) I will press on in trying to make healthy comfort foods like you suggest. I know those things work well and maybe I’ve gone overboard on some things. If it were just me I’d be a total health nut but I know most men aren’t wired that way. Thank you again for your encouragement…I needed a shot in the arm to keep on trying things and find the nitch that works for our family.
Lisa,
Welcome to my site! I am glad to have you. 🙂 It definitely is a process learning how to incorporate nourishing practices into our diets, isn’t it! But such a rewarding one too. 🙂
Advice Needed,
I think that is is pretty common for us ladies to go a little “overboard” in trying new things, and going more healthy. 🙂 I think that part of the reason that men complain is because they really do have more of a nutritional need for good quality meat and hearty meals that sometimes we don’t feel the same need for. Don’t give up! Change happens slowly and you will find what works for you and your family. 🙂
For me it started when I met my husband and continued when we had our kids. My husband has a lot of food allergies and our daughter does, too. This got me reading labels, making sure the food I bought didn’t contain anything that would trigger their allergies.
Well, in the course of reading all those labels I learned about all the OTHER stuff that was being put into our food, and I realized that it would be REALLY easy to avoid allergens if I just dumped the processed food altogether and made everything (well, okay, MOST things) from scratch. Buying whole ingredients naturally led to seeing out really quality ingredients and it kind of went from there.
I will confess that I do still buy some pre-packaged things but I’ve cut it WAY down from how we were eating before and I always, always, always read the labels so I’m making informed choices. I feel much better about what I’m feeding my family now — REAL food! Not processed food substitutes!
My quest for whole foods started when my now 19-year-old son was born. I wanted my baby and my family to eat wholesome foods. Or what I like to call real food. You know food that is food.
I only concern myself with sugars and such because I’m insulin resistance. My goal is to eat real food more then anything. I prefer organic, but because of my tight budget will eat non-organic and pray the Lord will use it for the nourishment of our bodies. I do buy low glycemic sweeteners for myself, such as palm sugar and Agave nectar, but my family prefers that I use the organic sugars such as Florida Crystals in my baking and such. I use whole-grains most of the time and unbleached white flour. I avoid hydrogenated fats, high-fructose corn syrup, and unfermented soy products as much as I possibly can. I try to substitute the unhealthy ingredients in my recipes with healthier versions. I also do my best to buy high quality beef, chicken, pork, and high quality milk products, including fresh raw goats milk when it’s available. I do purchase farm fresh free range eggs each week and I shop the farmers markets and buy in season fruits and veggies as much as possible.
Truth be known, my only concern is to eat food that is food. No artificial colors, flavors and the like. And like I said, I only concern myself about sweeteners because of my blood sugar issue.
My journey to healthy eating started in 2004 when I became very ill with chronic fatigue, debilitating joint pain, and weakness. After I was misdiagnosed with various ailments I stumbled upon the elimination diet in July, 2008. I discovered that food sensitivities were at the root of my problem all along and now that I recognize and avoid my reactive foods, I am healthy, energetic, and pain free. A lifetime of processed foods and poor eating habits caused me a lot of suffering. I appreciate great sites like yours that offer so many recipes and ideas to make eating healthy easy and exciting.
Ever since getting married I really tried to cook healthy meals. Of course, my healthy meals then did not look like my healthy meals do now. 🙂 When we had our first child and I quit my job, I read “Maker’s Diet” and began to look at food a bit differently. I found the Weston Price website and noticed “Nourishing Traditions” in their sources along with “Maker’s Diet.” I checked out “Nourishing Traditions” from the library then decided that it was a book I needed for more than two weeks. I always had a gut feeling (ha) that “real” food (real butter, cheese, milk) was better than the overprocessed foods, but I had finlly found reasons that supported that feeling.
I began trying new recipes, and I’ve had mixed results. I make muffins out of soaked flour, soak my oatmeal and rice, and try to stay away from white flour and sugar as much as possible. My attempts at soaked-flour bread were miserable failures. ha I am almost getting brave enough to try again (my frugal side hates to see the waste of a flop); hopefully I’ll have better luck next time.
So, I suppose my journey toward real, nourishing food started when I quit work and had the time and energy to research my options. 🙂 Raising a child also really motivated me because I wanted him to be as healthy as possible.
My ‘health’ journey began during my first year of marriage, 8 years ago. I have always been on the chunkier side, but after I graduated from highschool and wasn’t in heavy sports anymore, I added a bit of weight. I came across a diet plan that opened my eyes up to healthy foods. 70% of what I ate was raw fruits and veggies, the rest was whole grains, beans, vegetables and some meat and eggs. All dairy was full fat and I used butter and olive oil. When we were expecting our first child, I fell off the wagon big time. I didn’t really get back to it until after the second child was born and I was suddenly in bad health.
It wasn’t until I was pregnant with our third that I really began to find some answers; I now had IBS, was very overweight, I had had post partum depression and my immune system wasn’t the best. I came across the Maker’s Diet and began taking probiotics, eating more eggs and milk and butter and then found Nourishing Traditions and coconut oil. I’ve slowly incorporated the practices mentioned in the book over the last three years. Organic and grassfed meat has been very hard to come by on our budget, but we do our best. The most helpful thing I learned was about kefir and soaking beans and grains. Our digestion and gut problems are gone!
I am now preggo with our fourth and still overweight, but I am in much better health this time and though we’ve sort of fell off the wagon again, I am working hard at getting back to what I was doing before pregnancy, which was a lot! Thanks for all the interesting and new recipes- I look forward to sprouting again!