The Crazy Train

My husband thinks I've lost my mind. So does my dad. And my children. And my sisters. And just about everyone I've been talking to lately.

I feel like God has been talking to me about changing our lifestyle in regards to our health.

A few years ago God put some friends in our lives who were making healthy choices for their family. I listened to what they had to say, but I didn't take it to heart.

A few months ago my dentist told me to start using fluoride. Before I had the chance to use it, I received a health email talking about the dangers of using fluoride.

A week ago I heard that a friend of mine from college has a sister who is in her 30s and fighting stage 4 cancer. (This is the 3rd acquaintance of mine to be diagnosed with cancer this year. I also lost my grandmother to cancer this year.) The next morning I woke up and had another health email in my inbox. This time the topic was preventing cancer.

I told my husband that I felt like we needed to make some changes, but that I just didn't know where to start. I've never been healthy. We never diet. We never exercise. We usually choose fast food over "slow" food. We use our Lipscomb meal plan to buy Chick-fil-A, Blue Coast burritos, and lots and lots of lemonade and Starbucks. There are days I don't eat a fruit, vegetable or even drink water! (However, I always feed Eli tons of fruits, veggies, water, milk, etc. - although I was starting to let him eat some bad stuff, like Poptarts!)

So I decided to start reading and researching...

This is where I started. I've never seen SuperSize Me, but I thought this book might be a good place to begin finding out about food and the American diet.

After I finished reading, I told Sam we could no longer eat meat that wasn't from a) the wild, b) grass-fed, or c) cage-free and in an enhanced environment. Sam said ok. (What!?! Wasn't this the man who was making fun of me about this a few days ago??? See. God does do miracles.)

Then Sam found a documentary on Netflix called Food Matters (another modern-day miracle! Thanks to my awesome husband for getting on board the crazy train!!!).

You may want to visit this blog for a summary of the film, http://www.coachlauren.net/2010/11/food-matters/.

Then I discovered the Institute for Responsible Technology. If you click the link, you can watch a presentation on the dangers of consuming foods that have been genetically modified.

Then we found a helpful shopping list for non-GMOs (non-genetically modified organisms). And we decided to try to eat 100% organic for the time being, including grass-fed beef, cage-free chicken, and dairy products that are organic and do not continue r-BGH (bovine growth hormone). Eventually, we want to remove more and more processed foods from our diet even if the food is organic. But you have to start somewhere, right?

Then we took our first trip to Whole Foods Market. We even got my parents to watch the kids, so we could go and really figure that place out. It is amazing. We were surprised that we were paying very similar prices to our Kroger, but we were buying all organic. The biggest difference in price from Kroger were the eggs. For example, at Kroger we bought regular ole eggs for about $1 while at WFM we spent about $3 for cage-free, local eggs. However, chicken was the same price at Kroger and WFM, cereal was the same, etc. Probably our biggest expense was switching over to new sauces and dressings and such.

Here is our meal plan for the week:
Breakfast foods: cage-free eggs, organic granola and organic and fat-free yogurt, a variety of fruit (mango, apple, kiwi, pear), organic fruit loops, buckwheat pancakes with raw local honey, whole grain whole wheat bread with raw local honey.

Snacks: Almonds, Organic peanut butter and Kashi 7 grain crackers, organic cheese and Kashi crackers, Veggies (peppers, cherry tomatoes), Fruit, organic pita chips and organic red pepper hummus, organic cheese "bunnies" for Eli, organic granola bars for Eli, nut and fruit trail mix, organic granola and organic fat-free yogurt, organic dried apples, organic Horizon vanilla milk and yogurt smoothies for Eli

Lunch: To utilize our meal plan we will be eating Vegetarian at Blue Coast Burrito on campus by eating salads or burritos with no meat and no cheese. We are going to let Eli get quesadillas, though, with cheese. Our burritos will be a tortilla, rice, beans, peppers and onions, mushrooms, pico de gallo, guacamole, lettuce and tomato.

Dinners:
Tonight - wild caught tilapia with lemon, whole grain brown rice couscous, salad (all organic)
Tuesday - Organic whole wheat whole grain pasta with olive oil and lemon, avocado, tomatoes, and onion (pasta salad)
Wednesday - Organic chicken salad
Thursday - Organic frozen stir fry mix with organic chicken
Friday - Organic spaghetti with organic spinach spaghetti and organic tomato sauce

Although we started choosing healthier, fresher options last week, this is our first week of going organic aka jumping on the crazy train. Is this the way that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego felt when changing their diets from the king's meal plan to God's meal plan? Did the Babylonians think these men were on the crazy train? I hope that the changes we are making in our life will be pleasing to the Lord!