I grew up on a farm, and for the most part we ate pretty healthy- or at least we thought we did. We made almost everything from scratch, we drank our own cow’s fresh milk, for a long time we raised almost all of our own meats, and my mom bought a lot of organic produce. But our diet had one major flaw- sugar. We loved our ice cream. Publix brand is the best. It was an almost nightly tradition. And during the holidays between Thanksgiving and Christmas we had a baked dessert of some kind every night. We also almost always had chocolate chip cookies in the house- year round.
Then Josh and I got married. I still made our bread for a while, but in an effort to have fluffier bread I switched to white flour for most of my baking. And we love ice cream! The two of us could finish off a half gallon of ice cream in 2-3 days. We ate store bought bagels, crackers, tortillas, english muffins, boxed macaroni, Oreo delight too often…. And in an effort to save money I never bought one organic thing.
I gained about 25 pounds- people don’t believe me when I say that…. I guess my clothes hid it well. Josh gained weight. He was sick a LOT. I had two miscarriages and my cycles were sometimes 6 months apart. At the time none of that seemed connected, but looking back now it’s pretty clear- and more than a little scary!
After having my second miscarriage at 8 weeks, I started looking into how to heal my body and make myself healthy enough to carry a pregnancy to term. I’ve read about herbs, supplements, lifestyle changes, special diets…. but my conclusion is pretty simple. God has given us everything we need to be healthy. We simply need to cut out all the processed, unnaturally raised, artificial stuff and eat our foods the way God created them. Great health comes from eating a variety of minimally processed whole foods. Now I also know many people have severe allergies to certain foods. I believe this comes from generations of unhealthy living. We eat toxins in our foods, nutient-dead foods, stuff that shouldn’t even be considered food… And we us countless chemicals in our homes and yards. Is it any wonder that out society is getting sicker and sicker?? Now, some of us have health issues that require more than eating better to heal. Sometimes we need natural supplements. God has created nutrient rich “super foods” and powerful herbs to help in that area. And sometimes we need modern medicine- thank God for that too!!
I’m no expert, and I don’t have the time or the knowledge to really explore this subject on this blog. Other smarter people have already done it quite thoroughly and written books about it. (Yay!) I do recommend you read a couple books and do some research on your own. Naturally Knocked Up is an excellent book with tons of great diet and health information… Even if you’re not trying to get…. knocked up😏. Also Nourishing Traditions and westonaprice.org are great sources.
I’m just going to share with you what changes we have made. After spending all this year feeling nauseated every morning and very tired all day long, and even struggling with mood swings and just wanting to be by myself and not talk to anybody, and after my husband continued to get sick often and just not feel good most of the time, and after much reading and talking with knowledgable people, we’ve made some changes. We’ve cut out all sugar ( except for on some special occasions and the occasional BBQ sauce or ketchup at a restaurant). That has been the biggest and hardest change for sure!! We also eat very little bread, although when we do it’s usually with white flour still, until we move into a house and I have my mill back!! Josh does love wheat thins too, but I figure those are some of the healthiest crackers we could eat. We eat whole grains like rice and oats. We eat a lot of protein in the form of beans, meats, eggs, cheeses, yogurt, milk, and I’m trying to add in more nuts and seeds. We also eat a lot of vegetables, and I try and use a good variety. We sometimes have corn chips, but usually organic ones, and any other corn I use is organic except the popcorn, only because I ran out.
The biggest change recently has been buying organic produce and getting rid of almost all cleaning chemicals in the house. It feels so good to buy fruits and veggies that I know aren’t full of pesticides!! I wash my hair with homemade concoctions and baking soda, I use my own homemade hand and body soaps, I use vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, salt and essential oils to make my own house cleaning products. There’s another bonus to that- these cleaning products cost WAY less than the chemical toxic stuff anyway! 🙂 And guess what? I feel better! I have more energy. My cycles are evening out with a little help from natural progesterone cream and vitex extract. Josh has been feeling better too, unless we “splurge” and have pizza too often, or we eat out and accidentally eat something smothered in good ole MSG (True story). Josh has had a cold and recently a stomach bug that has been going around, but I have never felt better, and other than those incidents he feels much better too!
It’s a process for sure. We still have a lot of changes to make, like getting off the white flour, making our own butter and yogurt, learning to make (and enjoy!) healthy snacks, etc. But I feel like we’re on the right track. We exercised faithfully last year and early this year and both lost weight. (Yay) I really can’t believe how much my own health has improved in the last couple of months. It makes me want to continue eating and housekeeping this way, and so I’m sure you’ll continue to read about what I’m doing and learning if you continue to follow this blog. But for now, I have housework to do. Have a wonderful day!
Britt
diaryofahappyhouswife 