At the very end of my pregnancy with Livy, my brother called me with a new good read. He was reading a book called The China Study, and thought I should check it out. From this point on my thinking about food was changed forever. I don't want to go into the specifics too much about the different books and the information they present. I wanted to blog my journey, to adapt to the new information about nutrition that is out there and my parallel journey to get Jordan and I healthy and to lose weight. I suggest you read 5 particular books on your own. Form your own opinions, and adapt the information to your own families particular beliefs and needs however you feel the necessary. These are: Eat for Health, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Eat to Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Disease Proof Your Child, by Dr. Joel Furhman, The China Study, by Dr.T.Colin Cambell, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., also the DVD Forks Over Knives shows the correletion between these 3 doctors.
This was 3 years ago. So, as I am still hugely fat, if not more so, you must think the book clearly had little impact on me. Not true at all. I knew now what my goal was for our family and our diet. I knew what it Truelly meant to be healthy and I knew the steps to get there. I tried. So so many times. We did succeed in doing a month long juicing type fast where we drank green smoothies, juiced, and allowed ourselves any whole fruits and vegetables. We felt amazing, Jordan lost 35 pounds and I lost 30. We broke it and although we didn't dive right back in to crappy eating all the time.....we slowly migrated back to our old eating habits. Unlike other diets however, the weight took almost a YEAR to come back fully....it clearly was healing our bodies and changing our body chemistry for the better.
The drive to adapt these 3 different doctors lifestyles into ours stayed with me and has never left. If anything it has gotten stronger and more desperate feeling. Knowing that I could at least control what the kids ate, while we tried to succeed ourselves, I have at least succeeded in keeping their diet a consistent majority of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I've xdfinately had periods where I've been lax about what they eat because jordan and I are eating crap.....but because I've been fairly consistent they gravitate back to fruits and veggies easily. They are young still. With their age in mind, I keep feeling more and more strongly we need to make the change ourselves a final one. We've tried every single way I swear. Adapt one new recipe at a time....just add more veggies into our existing diet, just cut back on specific things fats or just quantity. But the truth is, Livy is old enough to know we are eating something different than her. Thank goodness she still likes the healthy things, but it isn't going to work anymore. We have to make the change. And honestly you just cannot take a diet filled with animal products, dairy, processed and refined fats and sugars....and just try to play with it and make parts of it more healthy. That is just an excuse. Besides, the more subtle flavors of natural whole foods can never compete with concentrated sugar, fat, and dairy. You have to strip out your diet completely. Go back to basics, and start fresh. You have to reverse the roles, and make dishes that are primarily whole natural fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds ans whole grains. If you want to use animal products as a flavoring, THAT is their rightful place in our meals.
A few times before I have tried making the switch for us as a family....by taking fat free vegan recipes and simply adding a little lean meat if desired, or animal based broth, or simply some olive oil orI other oil. Everything I've tried has been met with disgust from Jordy, the flavors just cant compare for him and I spend so much time making one elaborate dish that I throw in the towel in frustration when he hates it and the kids wont eat it.
Well I decided this is more a journey about self mastery, than anything else. Together, Jordy and I decided the best thing to do was set goals, both physical and spiritual to make it a more well rounded journey, and strip it down to basics. Eat raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and smoothies, and try out one different recipe however often I feel the motivation. Experiment, but not to feel overwhelmed with cooking this new way every night. If we eat rice and broccoli for dinner one night and fruit as desserr with some seeds sprinkled on top, well that day was a success and the cooking and experimenting will get easier and easier. It feels right, and its time.
Since we are poor and can't afford to waste food we first used everything we had on hand that is not in the new lifestyle. The cabinets now cleaned out I spent a couple weeks using what money I could to slowly stock the house with things in the recipes, and seasonings and nuts and seeds and beans and legumes to stock pile. Next step we wrote out goals. We each want to lose 70lbs in 12 weeks. Huge goals but why not shoot for the stars. We set spiritual goals, character goals, I set goals that had ANYTHING at all to do with self mastery, how I spend my days, how I react and with what emotions, how I will lean on the lord and invite the spirit in every possible way. Use the addiction recovery program, because Truelly this food addiction has taken the control away from us. The ability to chose health, to chose physical activity, to choose happiness.
I believe journaling is important in all aspects of life but ESPECIALLY in trying to overcome an addiction or any major obstacle. I chose a blog for a couple reasons, I can print it off later for a hard journal, I know others struggle with food as if it were heroin the way we do and perhaps could use the motivation from hearing our struggle, and having others KNOW about the goals gives us more responsibility for them.
So here we go. And just to clarify we are taking the information from all of these books and using recipes from all of them. They all have their own sort of extremes they come to, in the china study he determines if going from 20% animal protein to 5% turns off cancer and so many other disease.....then none at all should be best. I agree, however I think a little doesn't hurt and is sometimes a more convenient way to get those B vitamins. The research proved the cancer turned off at 5% and that's enough for me. Now in "how to prevent and reverse heart disease, he finds the same conclusions as dr. Campbell from the china study, however he finds that he successfully prevents heart disease and even halts progressed disease in its tracks.....but finds he can actually REVERSE the build up and disease by eliminating fat all together, including natural fats. Im good with just halting it haha;). The one who embodied the least extreme diet but still works in the same circle as these other doctors and still prevents sickness and disease and has become my favorite is doctor fuhrman. His books "Eat to live" and especially "disease proof your child" are the ones we are using the most. I highly suggesting reading both of these books. I have to keep rereading to retain it all, and also its helping me keep motivated and stay on track.
So day 1 went by very simply. Whole foods, and rice and broccoli for dinner. The kids weren't happy about dinner but they gobble up raw fruits and veggies so readily all day that im not the least bit concerned that they didnt gobble up dinner. I had to read my written mantra and goals outloud a couple times, and have some really intense prayer a couple times. I know I can so this. Im going to be going to bed ALOT earlier for a while hear because night time and chilling in front or the t.v. before bed will get me everytime. So its off to bed early. That's okay. Its all for health anyway.
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