eeny, meeny, miney, mo...

A real life friend of mine is on the road to weight loss which is equivilent to choosing a total change in lifestyle, in my opinion. I couldn't be more proud of her. She has reminded me of what I've been trying to do for the last couple years, of trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

Well here are some choices that just recently in the last 2 years have been getting more of my attention in terms of what I put into my body.

coffee or not

sugar or not

meat or not

dairy or not

wheat or not

fruit or not

organic or not

cooked or not

and ....

medicine or not

Now let me explain.

Living in this time and in this country of CHOICES can be frightening. All the little decisions that we make in a day whether to eat in or out, which most people because of business choose the latter. If I were to come to this continent from some desert or jungle somewhere with NO COKE (if coke has been there than that means commercialism has been there).

moving on...

Among all the choices there is still something else. The choice to educate yourself is a huge part. As an example, you can try to be a vegan, but if you don't choose the right foods, you'll most likely be eating more carbs or non-nutrient dense foods to compensate for the shift in your diet.

A couple years ago I decided to do a Candida cleanse which consisted of starving the overgrown yeast in my body. I used a cleansing kit and a strict diet was implimeted. I was only to eat green veggies, chicken, fish, beans & legumes, water and herbal tea (caffeine free) all organic if possible. After 3 weeks I was allowed to introduce certain grains, apples and plain yogurt.

It was a challenge. To eat this way all while cooking for my family; it was very difficult. I did it. Yes, I did it. After 2 months I was feeling wonderful, the best I'd ever felt, 10 lbs lighter and on my way to being back to normal, that's how I saw it. Whatever normal was?

Soon, in about a month, the weight was back I was also newly pregnant and back to where I started, because nothing really changed. I went back to my old ways of eating and cooking. While being pregnant my husband started back at the gym and we ate our normal way of a typical North American diet, ya know the pyramid. My moodiness increased, my sugar cravings increased and my yeast infections came back. After the birth of our last child we started back at it again, back to trying to change the way we ate, especially for my sake.

Now, 2 years later thanks to my husband, our family is now as balanced as I think we can be.

In 2 years we have researched about a number of things related to diet and health. We have gone organic (as much as possible), vegan, and raw.

Raw?

Have you heard of raw?

It is just as it sounds. Nothing cooked. Saying that, most raw foodists are vegan, cause who wants to eat raw chicken. Although my kids love sushi (raw fish).

Vegan?

I'm sure you all know what that is.

Nothing from an animal (period).

Organic?

Nothing treated with chemicals, which includes medicine and hormones for livestock.

So you might say that McDonald's is none of the above, so eating out was not really an option in our town in our trial periods.

Trial periods is what I'll call them. Trying out being vegans for a few months, trying living raw for another few months.

So back to our balance.

That's for next time...