Goji berries, huh?
Yup those little, beautiful, intensely powerful superfoods.
It can be extremely overwhelming to decide what to eat, where to buy our food, or what type of eating is realistic for us. There is SOOO much information out there, and so many “diets.”
For example, you could choose from the following:
- South Beach
- Keto
- Paleo
- Weight Watchers
- Eating For Your Blood Type
- Atkins
- Cotton Ball
- Zone
- Vegan
- Master Cleanse
- Werewolf
- Baby Food
Some of these “diets” could work for you, some sound a little crazy and weird. Where do you even start? How do you even choose?
It’s just TOO much!
I have tried some of these “fad diets” myself. Some have “worked” most of the ones that I have tried were not sustainable, some made me feel horrible but, some set me on a path that brought me closer to the ideal lifestyle eating habits that work best for me.
In all honesty, I try to steer clear of the word “diet” and prefer to say “lifestyle eating habits” because the word “diet” can often carry a negative connotation and in some cases can feel restricting. In reality, it IS a lifestyle choice, how we eat. The way we eat is what our lifestyle and individual situations allow.
The way I eat has drastically changed over the course of my journey.
The first thing that I remember in regards to diets and really being aware of what I was eating was when I was a senior in high school. During that year I was going post-secondary. This meant I was attending my local community college which was a thirty-minute drive from my house. My cousin was doing the same thing and we would commute together.
We got into this system where we went out to eat for lunch every day. To the best of my knowledge it went something like this:
Monday- McDonald’s (because “M”)
Tuesday- Subway (it was double stamp Tuesday)
Wednesday- Little Caesars (it was $5 pizza day)
Thursday- The local chinese restaurant (I can’t recall the name)
Friday- KFC
This went on for about 4 months. Then I started to notice and become truly aware of what I was putting in my body and I became disgusted with myself.
So, I quit cold turkey!
Thus, began the Honey Nut Cheerios and orange diet. Haven’t heard of it?
That’s because I made this one up on my own. I would start my day with a bowl, or two of Honey Nut Cheerios, and after school, I would eat one orange. Afterward, I would walk this big loop that was by my house. I called it the “Airport Loop.” It was 7 miles long. Of course, I built up to the complete loop but I dropped a bunch of weight, looked good, felt good, and therefore thought I WAS good.
HAHA!!! Right!
I fell into the same pattern when I was living in Eugene. I would go out to eat nearly every day for lunch. It was big, rich lunches, like pasta, or pizza. Eating these high dense calorie meals did a number on me.
Just speaking about this makes me feel so embarrassed not only to share but reflecting on how I treated my body. UGH.
Things really started to shift in a positive way a few years after Isaac and I had our first son.
It may have been looking at this sweet little, beautiful, brand new life that flipped a switch for me or it could have been that I noticed how my body changed after having a baby, I don’t know.
I am so thankful because this caused a positive domino effect of really shifting many areas of my life.
Once Zeke was born we became more aware of organic vs. conventional foods and I started putting a ton of time into learning the benefits of eating organic. Which led me to start to create more meals with healthy fruits and vegetables. And we were more mindful of where we bought our produce. We started shopping at a local co-op, supporting local organic farmers, and local businesses.
The snowball started to really roll here and before we knew it, the snowball was huge and there was no stopping it.
Thank GOD for this too.
With this new mindset shift and awareness I have really been able to become so in tune with my body that when I eat something that my body doesn’t like, man does it yell, I mean tell me.
Gluten is a big one.
This started about 6 months after CJ was born so, I have been gluten-free for almost a decade now.
But, it really started with Goji Berries!
I used to add these to my salads and veggie bowls that I would make and then all of sudden I had them one night and I felt so out of sorts, I actually went and laid down in our closet for about two hours. I felt dizzy, nauseous, and couldn’t do anything else but lay down. It was awful.
I had no idea why I was feeling this way.
Then about a week later, I had some on a salad that I made for lunch. Immediately after I ate I was on my way to a routine doctor’s appointment when I started to feel extremely nauseous. I quickly found a reusable grocery bag and was violently ill while I was driving.
At this point, I hadn’t made the connection to the berries. I thought perhaps I had picked up a bug somehow.
About a week later, I ate another salad with Goji berries and IMMEDIATELY got sick. It put me down for the rest of the day.
I FINALLY made the correlation to the berries and getting ill. Ok, so no more.
It was like my body was screaming at me that it DID NOT LIKE Goji berries! That was when, for the first time, I could actually feel the vibration of the food that I was eating
Needless to say, I have not had them since and have not been sick since either.
Now when I eat different things I can feel the vibrational tune of those foods. For example, when I eat fruit smoothies I feel lighter on my feet and a vibrational pulse. Like I can feel the nutrients making their way through my body, nourishing every cell.
When I eat beef, I feel sluggish, almost lethargic.
When I eat fish I feel full of energy like I could go run a 5k.
I have heard about people being able to feel the vibration of their food and because I hadn’t experienced it myself, I was a little skeptical.
That is no longer the case and it is so beautiful.
I believe it is important to understand that food can hurt us or it can heal us.
The beautiful thing about this is we get to choose, just like we get to choose how to move our bodies we can make a conscious decision about what we put into our bodies.
Lives can get busy between work, running errands, kids, and all the things we have committed to that cooking nutrient-dense meals can often get put on the back burner so to speak. So one thing that Isaac and I have been doing for about 8 years now to help with this is we’ve created a “Meals at a Glance Calendar”
It’s a google calendar that we both have access to. Every weekend we lay out the week ahead, find recipes online that are in line with the way we eat, add that link to the calendar and then whoever gets home first starts dinner.
This has not only saved us time and money but has saved our health. We get a lot of ideas from Pinterest or various blogs.
Right now we are eating more of a RAW diet. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies. In the winter months, we have lots of soups and bowls.
What I love about this, aside from saving time and money, it forces us to connect about something that is such an integral part of our lives. We even get the kids involved. They usually get to pick a meal a week that we add to the calendar.
This brings me to one last point about this, people often ask how do you get your kids to eat like that? Our boys know that what we offer them at meals is what is best for them and if they don’t eat what’s for dinner they are going to be very hungry. If they choose not to eat, it will be waiting for them at breakfast.
It’s so fun now to watch Zeke devour these veggie bowls and then at the end say mom that was really good. Laying this groundwork now is hopefully setting them up for healthy eating for the rest of their lives.
Food is our fuel, the energy that goes in is the energy that comes out.
It’s always an adventure, and with food, adventure awaits!
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