I haven’t been on here in awhile. I’ve been making changes in my own life, making new goals, achieving many goals and thinking about all the things that make my mini world go around. As many of you who know me have seen I’ve had a focus on my diet. Nix that word diet, its a lifestyle change. My husband and I have been doing research and decided to start being conscientious of what we have been consuming. We are now a full year into this awareness and so much has changed.
The biggest item we cut out was processed and refined sugars. Do you know how hard that is? I mean how truly difficult. Like I had the shakes at 2pm daily because of it for over a month. So much of our food that we were consuming included sugar. A lot of it unbeknownst to us. But then we started really reading every label on the food we were eating. Then came the awareness that if we stopped buying food with labels, we could stop looking at them to guidance. And those beer bellies we had, gone! Literally a pound a day was disappearing and took us to what we both believe is our best weight (don’t worry we are healthy and are completely fine based on our BMI’s and doctors review).
Which brought our second change: less purchasing of prepackaged food. Now that was an even bigger eye opener. I was the queen of just throwing a can of this or that in it for dinner (you might have seen some recipes on here) or adding pre-shredded cheese to the top of the casserole. My excuses: It was inexpensive, it was convenient, I had a coupon for it for goodness sake. But there are so many ingredients in those cans and boxes. Why was I eating Red NO. 20 or whatever the scientist made up to trick my brain into thinking this food like sustenance tasted good or was good for me? Why wasn’t I looking into what was making me feel bad and had me running to the bathroom for the 3rd or 4th time after eating it.
Because of my gut I went full out and quit gluten and dairy all together. Occasionally we have it now since I have realized small, small doses don’t bother me too much. But what I was consuming before, which I thought was “good for me food” as based on the old food pyramid I was trained to follow, was tearing me up. Literally. My stomach was always hurting, or swollen, or I just felt uncomfortable. It had to go.
All of this made me consider a 90% plant based lifestyle which I work at constantly. Why not 100%? Well its hard to give up, or have to say no all the time when people have cooked you meals, or based on what options are available to be consumed or purchased to be 100% and I’m not a liar. We have to be honest to ourselves about what we can do. Sure I’d love to be 100% swapped over and I think within another year it is doable. As for now, I’m finding that if I have realistic attainable goals it is much easier to get there and I don’t have to fixate or stress about a change.
Today a documentary was on and it brought up being a 10% change in your purchase and consumption habits and it inspired me to think about what am I doing to make this change. Do I work at purchasing local more often than not? I’d like to think I do, but do I? Do I purchased meat without antibiotics in it? Well since I’m working at being 90% plant based that means if i consume meat am I eating what myself, or my family, has caught and killed? Am I using the resources from my garden for my meals? This I know I’m doing! My lettuce and green onions are so great I haven’t had to buy any in over a month – woohoo!
I’m in no way wanting to preach at anyone about their habits and lifestyle. But if we can all do one change this week to have a positive affect on our community based on a food purchase, shouldn’t we? What’s one purchase? A massive change is what it can be. The farmers markets have started back up, which is amazing based on the world’s situation regarding COVID-19, and I for one have it on my list to go to my local one less than a mile away on Wednesday to see what to add into my food mix. What about you? What can be your 10% more thoughtfulness this week?
Modern Wife Tale 