Nourish

(Photo above is my birthday salad, made by Mr. Blue Eyes. Yep, it was delish, and he rocks.)

I don't know about you, but ever since I had kids, I kind of feel like all I do is try to figure out how to constantly feed us all. Our days completely center around ingesting food. Yesterday I was making a turkey and it made me realize the last time I posted anything on my cooking page was Thanksgiving.

Really? Thanksgiving? Like four months ago?

Yep.

I really don't know where the time went.

What I do know are the few reasons why I haven't been posting any recipes...

1) I've been really darn-tootin' busy. Posting on my main page was about as much as I could keep up with.

2) Recipes take a lot longer to post. I haven't had that kind of time. Refer back to #1 for the reason why.

3) Slowly but surely, I've been trying to change the way we eat around this joint. And this is why I'm here today...

You may or may not remember, about a year ago, in a fit of confusion over new year's resolutions, I decided to follow the example of a few others and choose one word. It was one word for the year, a word to implement into my life. And the word I chose was...

(drumroll, please)

Nurture.

And I have to say, between Mr. Blue Eyes and me, I feel like we have. 2010 was a good, nurturing year for our family. We worked hard, we played hard, we snuggled hard, we slept hard. And 2011 ain't lookin' to shabby on that front either.

So, this year, kind of in the same thread, my one word is...

(drumroll again, please)

Nourish.

I bet you saw that one coming.

If you happened to read the title of this post, you saw that one coming.

Why? Because it has been coming into my consciousness for awhile now, that we -- as a family, and even on a bigger scale, as a nation -- just don't nourish ourselves very well. We put a lot of things into our bodies that don't truly fuel us for the demanding lives that we lead, and worse than that, are harming us in the long run.

On a personal level, where I've been at is struggling with a lot of seemingly minor things, that were contributing to me not feeling all that super a lot of the time, which took away from being able to enjoy life, have the energy to keep up with my husband and children, and at the top of the list... serving my God.

Like I said, seemingly little things. I'm not going to give you a rundown of my medical chart, but just to give a few examples, things like... Migraines and tension headaches, sinus aches, post-nasal drip, moodiness, mental fogginess, general achiness and just feeling plain old tired.

So, about a month ago, after a winter of our family (and everyone else I know) being sick over and over again, and just never feeling 100%, I got fed up. I decided something needed to change. 

I've owned this book...

...for awhile now. I think I can safely say that this book is changing my life. However, I will also say that it's not necessarily an easy read. But in spite of that fact, it is totally worth it to read it. Actually, I don't think I can say I've completely read the whole thing. I've read a large portion of it simply by skipping around and reading bits at a time. (Clearly I'm nowhere near having an 'Ultra Mind' yet. Hah!)

Last year, around this time, after reading part of this book, I got a little bit fired up about changing my diet. And I did, sort of. The biggest thing I did was cut way back on refined flour and sugar, and this went a long way toward relieving the achiness in my joints and muscles I had been feeling for so long.

Other dietary changes that I've implemented over a longer span of time -- a few years -- have been: 1) cutting out soda; 2) cutting out coffee (and I still cry myself to bed at night over this one); 3) almost entirely cutting out fried and deep fried foods; 4) cutting down on bread.

Recently, after feeling that I need to more to further my health, I have implemented the following changes... 1) no gluten; 2) no dairy; 3) no sugar (other than what is naturally found in foods); 4) much less red meats and animal fats.

I know. I know. The gal who posted recipes like mushroom and garlic stuffed chicken breast with white wine cream sauce and pecan caramel rolls has gone gluten, dairy and sugar free. The gal who has been a lifelong soulmate of butter and cream has tossed them to the wayside like so much rubbish.

Why? Because I'm tired of feeling like so much rubbish.

Not one to climb up on my soap box much, I have to say I feel pretty strongly about this. I want to feel better. I want to have the energy to enjoy my husband and my kids. I want to have the vigor and passion to let God do what He wants with my life.

So this is also why I haven't been posting on my recipe page lately. I'm just so preoccupied with experimenting with foods like quinoa and kale, I can't say I have time to put a decent recipe together. And I'm hemming and hawing over how this will manifest itself here on my blog... New page about health and wellness? Or just write about it here on my main page? Not sure how to go about all that, but I can tell you one thing: I'm gonna write about it. It's too big a part of my life to not, and I think it's interesting. And I'd like to share it with y'all.

How do you like them (organic) apples?

I think they're delish.

Comments

[Cate]

Good on you. I've managed to break a 20+ year addiction to diet coke only this year, and have also gone gluten free (with small lapses at times when we are eating at a friend's). You should seriously jump in with my Project 2011 gals - there are a number who have altered their diets in a similar way, and are going great guns with it.

[Tauna]

You are inspiring me to do the same.
I need to give up Pepsi! Right now.

I believe that our bodies would function better if fed better.

I hope you are feeling better with all of your changes. You will absolutely love your garden this year.