Personal food revolution

rev·o·lu·tion
n. A sudden or momentous change in a situation.

I like the word revolution.
It means changing, growing, most times, for the better.

I wanted to open up the discussion of diet lifestyle in this post.

Today is usually my day to post organic recipes that I love to use
but today I'm going to delve a little into how I eat, and why I eat that way,
and how I've gotten here.

Lots of people do different things,
but this is what works for me.

I must admit, I used to eat probably like most people do.
An embarrassingly small amount of fruit,
some vegetables, throughout the week.
Maybe once or twice a week?
This was when I was mainly in control of my diet,
in the end of high school, college,
and even into when I got married.
I used to eat out at restaurants a lot, lots of sweets,
I didn't eat organically at all, I had never been to a farmers market,
got my daily fills of grains, more than 5 a day for sure.
I seriously ate like crap.
I would wake up and have cookies.


I don't know where the change came from.
Maybe knowledge, the internet has been a great source for me,
I share a lot of links back and forth with my family, sisters, brother, mom and dad.
We've sort of discovered this all together.

The slow switch over to organic food came last year,
and then eventually the giving up of meat.
Regular readers know how much I believe in the importance of
local, organic food. I don't know what
consequences we will see from the pesticides that we put on the
foods we put in our mouths but I have a feeling
we will soon find out.
How can we gauge how safe neurotoxins are to people,
without being able to measure amount of consumption?

I gave up meat quite some time ago.
I don't even miss it, I don't even debate anyone on why we
shouldn't eat meat
I really won't be interested, because, I don't want to eat meat,
it's just what makes me happy.
And I think you should do what makes you happy.

Personally,
I don't like how our animals are raised and slaughtered.
Cows are not meant to eat corn. Chickens are not meant to grow
three times faster than they normally should because of growth hormones.
We are not meant to eat animals this way.
If I were to eat meat, I would prefer it
from an organic farm, with free-range animals.
I don't even view hunting for food as bad.
I don't like hunting for sport. But, I would rather
someone hunt their own wild food, than to see the animals
in stockades, in a Texas field, with not a blade of grass in sight,
stinking up the town, 20 miles away.

And now my biggest accomplishment yet!

It's almost been 3 months since I've completely
given up sugar. (!!)

Since giving up sugar, I've realized my body's desperate need for
good sugars, or complex carbohydrates, like fruit, beans, vegetables and whole grains.

By eliminating simple sugars from my diet, my body feels
incredibly free, my head is clear, I can concentrate,
I don't have sugar highs and lows.
My body still does crave sugar, its essential for life, as sugar feeds all cells,
but I feed my body with what it needs to give it long energy.
And I've lost 15 pounds in a month, to boot!

This was a process long in the making.
Now, it's not just sweets I've given up,
sugars hide in other things, too.

On my list of things I've completely given up.
meat
processed flours
processed grains (because in the end, white flour ends up as.... surprise! sugar!)
processed sugars
this includes anything packaged at the store.
no cereal, no pretzels, no grain bars,
no crackers.
I think some cereal is great, Bella really likes organic oats
And if I had cereal for breakfast I would choose something like a flax
cereal of the sort.
I used to rationalize eating my favorite Luna bars because
they had vitamins in them, were 70% organic and marketed as great for women
but in the end.... it still has lots of sugar.
nothing sweet.
I don't eat any cakes, cupcakes, ice cream, chocolate...

seriously no chocolate?

I know. I'm a sweets lover. I come from a long line of sweet lovers.
In truth, I seriously miss it. But I think I miss more of the habit than anything else.
I miss sitting down at night and having a chocolate bar with milk.
I miss going to the park and eating my cupcakes with Bella.
I miss having some coffee with a chocolate croissant.
I will have something for a special occasion, like a small
piece of cake for a birthday party.
I'm not a saint, after all.
But it's a big improvement to the amount of sugars I used to eat.


The yes! list

vegetables
fruits
nuts
legumes
whole grains
dairy

yay!
I use honey mostly to sweeten my coffee
sometimes I will throw in a little organic sugar
but don't tell anyone.

I used to use agave nectar until I found out
that they process it so much it's
basically like using high fructose corn syrup.
Such a bummer.

I'm on a quest to find good, long lasting
foods-in-between-meals.
I don't like using the word snack, because my brain
is wired to think of chips, snack bars, crackers oh how I love goldfish crackers,
and junk as snacks.
I had an idea swarming for a mock crispy rice bar
with raw maple syrup, organic brown rice puffs, honey
oatmeal, and raisins.
After all, it is hard to take take yogurt and cheese every day
for snacks on the run... you get a little tired of it.
And it gets a little messy.

But really what tipped me over the edge for this,
was following along with my cousin's battle against cancer.
She is on a strict diet, strictly no sugars, among other things, as cancer also feeds on sugar (since all cells live on sugar).
She has completely, and drastically changed the way she is eating, she is my hero.
I first started it as more of a support, like a fast on sugar.
But, why not change now, for life?

My heart is so heavy, friends.

I learned yesterday that my Nana may have cancer, and I'm so very sad.

I don't know if my diet will improve my overall well-being in
the end, but I feel better because of it.
And I'm seriously far from being anywhere near
a model diet.
But, I feel better, and I hope I can grow more,
and develop an even better cooking style,
and pass it on to Bella.

Are any of you on a similar path? What have learned that you can share with me?
Let me know so we can support one another!
I hope I can stay on this path.