Nutrition and Lifestyle- My Story

Enjoy God's Great Bounty!

I am so over wondering what is in so much of the food we get at the store. Even though labels say ingredients are natural, many times they aren't. Things that fall under the category of "natural flavors" or "natural ingredients" on labels are things like aspartame, cellulose (processed wood pulp, most commonly used to keep shredded cheese separated), not to mention all the fancy names for high fructose corn syrup and msg. The list could go on! Over the past year I have been learning more and more about what REAL nutrition is and how I can take control of it. God has blessed us so richly with his beautiful creation! It was created in perfection and honestly, why would I need to alter it? For example, buy "regular" strawberries and organic strawberries and do a taste test. There is a remarkable difference in taste, texture, and quality! I promise you will notice a difference, I used to be a skeptic but wow, there is no denying the truth!

Nutrition to me is making sure I am giving my body the best chance to absorb it to begin with, without chemicals getting in the way. It's a slow process to completely change over to eating the way I want my family to eat, but I find that this slow process is actually giving me a chance to really soak in and learn. I had my second son last February and at my last appointment before his birth I weighed 173. I am 5'5" and had gained 24 lbs during my pregnancy. Granted that was 1 pound below the max recommended, but subtract the 24lbs from 173 and you will get my unhealthy weight before pregnancy. I weighed 149...
What do I weigh now? 128.3 as of today. But most importantly my body fat and BMI are down by a large amount!
I didn't use anything to help me loose the weight, I just quit eating so much processed junk! I also work out 2-4 times a week and stay active constantly throughout each day. As of 2 weeks ago I did start drinking a whey protein shake for breakfast in the morning. After much research I settled on one that is absolutely FANTASTIC, it's sweetened with stevia and contains 25grams of protein!!! Check out, Jay Robb's Whey Protein Powder. (Only cold-processed cross-flow microfiltered whey protein isolate is used as the protein source and this material comes from farm-raised, pasture-grazed, grass-fed cows not treated with the synthetic bovine growth hormone rBGH. )- Taken from the Jay Robb website

How my fridge looked than and now...
You used to be able to find a few convenience meals in our fridge along with frozen pizza, frozen veggies with seasonings and cheese in a steam-able bag, etc... Now you find, frozen meat, a couple of bags of organic veggies, and fresh veggies and fruit that I have frozen.
In my fridge, you used to find a variety of shredded cheeses, but now it has been replaced by blocks of minimally processed cheese (Trader Joe's has a great selection or a price that's reasonable!). But my biggest change is the large amount of space all the produce takes up! I swear, I need half of my fridge to just be produce drawers! I LOVE fresh fruits and veggies!

With all this said...
Do I still buy processed foods? Um, yes, unfortunately, it's almost unavoidable. Some people make that change completely, but I find it very hard to do from a full time working mommy standpoint.
Do I buy all organic? No. I use my "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean 15" lists and try to buy as locally as possible without breaking the bank (I spend less than $200 a month on groceries for a family of 4).

Overall, I feel a million times better than I did before! I fill like I am keeping my body more as a temple, my family is better taken care of, and I spend less time thinking about and lusting after foods.
I hope this is inspire to some who might be struggling with the same food battle. You can make it work in a food budget. A slow change will allow you to budget properly.