Returning to Healthy

I used to be a health nut, or as I like to say, health nazi. For those of you who use to watch Seinfeld and remember the soup nazi you'll understand what I mean. I was SO strict about our food and  its preparation; I felt it was my fault if anyone happened to get sick. It was some major bondage honestly.

So, when I had my 4th daughter, I was literally forced to let go of that, because it was too much stress and I didn't have the time. So I gradually began letting things go to the point that while we ate was at the normal supermarket, I still cooked from scratch, so it wasn't full of junk. The point is I had to let it go because it was becoming UNhealthy for me. The past few days I've been sensing a leading to start reclaiming some of those food practices back into our lives. So I've been doing lots of online reading, researching, thinking and praying. I trust in the Lord for our health, but at the same time we have personal preferences and knowledge about what is good and what isn't. Certainly if all we had to choose from was fast food, then we'd do the best we could and trust in the Lord to sanctify it. But, we are blessed to have a variety of things to choose from.

Another obstacle was cost-quality food costs. So I have to decide what is the most important. Since I have all girls, I feel the most important is food that lacks added hormones, whether it's organic or not. Organic is low on the list of priorities, although I'll buy it if we can. So I am working toward making some diet changes.

Since my daughter and I have just completed a round of antibiotics, we are focusing on eating probiotics. I am not a fan of supplements for probiotics, simply because they are too powerful for me. I do the best eating them in food form, such as kefir, yogurt and fermented foods like sauerkraut. I did buy the girls a chewable probiotic that they've been on before and they like it.

So, some changes I am making:
1. Start making kefir again, gotta buy some grains and I plan to try using them in coconut milk for something different
2. Make fermented veggies, hence the excitement about starting a greenhouse
3. Buy local raw cow's milk- there is one dairy here that does this for $6 per gallon, and I plan to buy 4 gallons (2 to the fridge, 2 in the freezer) every two weeks. It's a bit of a trip, but I think we can handle it.
4. Substitute whole grain products slowly. Yes we are more accustomed to white flour pasta, white rice...but, we'll learn to go back to better choices. Meanwhile I won't make a big deal out of it, just gradually change. I don't like whole wheat pasta, but I do like brown rice and quinoa pasta though it isn't cheap.
5. Do my best finding good meat, but I won't stress over it
6. Go back to making homemade bread. We've always eaten whole wheat bread, but I am way out of the habit of making it myself. I would also like to try some sourdough starter again.
7. Make kombucha- got a scoby growing right now from some storebought kombucha- I keep forgetting to make it!
8. Increase the amounts of fresh produce in our daily diet- serving more fruit at breakfast and lunch and eat least one salad a day
9. Make it a habit to bake some healthy snacks and treats each week- way out of the habit of this!
10. Start taking cod liver oil again, ack!!

To be honest, I just got burned out I think. I don't like my kitchen a whole lot because of how dark it gets, but we are making plans to do some home improvements very soon and the kitchen is one of the top priorities. Lots of painting and applying of wainscoting in the future :)
Also, being sick and unable to do anything and then being able to go on a long girl trip without having to do housework, really really helped me. It really recharged me and inspired me to get organized and be a better housekeeper and cook. Amazing how buying a few new kitchen gadgets(garlic press, cute little colander and a new coffee mug), and awesome new pot(walmart is getting rid of Paula Deen stuff, got a huge red stockpot for$25), a dish drainer and some of my favorite cleaning products (Ms. Meyers) change my outlook!

I am currently trying out a cool new recipe and will report back on the outcome soon.