Our Journey to Healthy Eating Part 1: Why?

Sorry this blog is much neglected. I have so many family memories that I need to update and pictures to add. I promise I will get to that (I think, ha!). In the mean time, I have had so many people ask about our journey to healthy eating that I thought I would devote several posts on the topic. My prayer is that I can help some of my family and friends on their journey- no matter where you are.

So the obvious question is why? Why did we decided to go to such extremes (if you call grinding our own wheat and eating only clean meat extremes, ha!). Before I started on this path that the Lord laid out before us, I "thought" we ate healthy- WOW was I so WRONG!! I really did not think our diet needed that much changing- besides cutting back on eating out. Unfortunately, the Lord had to smack me in the face with reality and I am so thankful!!

It started right after my 30th birthday. Within a week, I had my first ever panic attack. That was an experience that I pray that I never have again (I would rather give birth to another baby). The enemy started to really use that experience in me to increase my fear. In an effort to ease my anxiety over my health, I called the doctor to get results of a blood test I had taken several months before.

Well, that was a backfire because I found out that I have inherited a genetic antilipidemea. That is a fancy way of saying that my body does not regulate my cholesterol properly. For me, this means that my body does not naturally make enough of the good cholesterol (HDL). This is the same trait that my dad has, which has caused him to have his first heart attack at 35 and now at the age of 50 he has had a total of 4 attacks and triple bypass. As you can imagine, this did not do much for my anxiety but the Lord had a plan and He works all things together for the good of those who believe in HIM!!!

As I started to research this and talk to a doctor, I realized that modern medicine does not really have an answer. Doctors have created great medicines to lower the bad cholesterol but none have shown to be the magic pill for this particular problem. All the meds that my dad has tried have failed to increase his HDL. In my research, I found that "real food" was raising HDL. Here is a post from 100 Days of Real Food that talks about her personal blood test results.

A very wise friend of mine pointed out that this is because "every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord"! So this is where I am putting my trust and faith- in my Lord and Savior! This brought me to the book "What the Bible says About Healthy Living" by Dr. Rex Russell

I think that everyone should read this book! This books shows that God cares about every detail of our life and even shows us how to be healthy in the Bible. There are three rules to healthy eating that Dr. Russell explains in the book.
1. Eat the food God gave us to eat- the take home for that is only eat clean meat. Yes, I know that Jesus freed us from the Law, but that does not mean that God just made up random rules for the Jews to follow. He had a reason to tell them to avoid shellfish and pork- they are not healthy and it is backed up by modern science.
2. Eat the food as close to the form in which God gave it to us in- this is the reason that we grind our own wheat. God did not give us white flour, He gave us wheat grain. God did not give us white sugar, He gave us raw honey. God also did not give us margarine, He gave us butter. This is the reason that we are in the process of getting rid of all processed foods. Here is an awesome article by Sue Becker that talks about processed flour and food- "The Bread of Idleness". This really opened by eyes!!
3. Do not worship any food or drink. This is the reason I gave up coffee, sweet tea, and coke (in addition to other reasons). I was addicted to caffeine and that had to stop. I probably did not have to go to such extremes but when I thought about it, there is something wrong when I feel like I have to have a cup of coffee.

I am going to write more about how this looks to our family. I am also going to cover some topics like: how I find the money and time to cook like this and how I am getting my picky kids to eat healthy. Please know that I have NOT arrived and I still am in the baby steps process to change over our eating. I don't have all the answers and we still make mistakes. I also don't want people to feel like I'm judging anyone, this is a journey that the Lord has to start for each person. I used to feel like such a bad mom when I would read a blog post like this one, but I realized that I wasn't ready until God said I was ready and put the desire to change in my heart. Maybe this post will be that seed that gets planted to start a change in your family. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them.