Drastic Changes

In November, just before Thanksgiving, I finished a crazy 30 day No grain, No Sugar, No Dairy, No Legume/bean/anything I used to eat diet. It was entirely life consuming but completely eye opening at the same time.  You see, over the last however many months (years probably), I'd become more and more aware of the atrocities within our food system (food is just the tip of the iceberg if I'm being honest, but that's all I'll delve into at this point).

I realized I needed to make a change.  Starting with what I ate. The problem, however, was that dietary change doesn't come easily after 30+ years.  Enter the Whole 30. To me, it serves as a radical way to get started with unprocessing my life so I can reach my happy place...

When you cut off the poison and addiction of dairy and grains and SUGAR and fill your body with food that's healthy for you, it's easier to think clearly and just life your life.  Did you know that sugar is 8x more addictive than cocaine!?

I try not to tell people just how crazy I am or how passionate I feel about where our food system has taken us. It seems silly and completely crazy to tell someone you hardly know that no you can't have that pretzel or m&m because you aren't eating sugar (trust me, almost everything has added sugar at this point). Or that you pretty much can't eat any any restaurant because they all have added something to their food that simply doesn't need to be there.

I'm doing this for my own good. That being said, if I can help one person care a little more about where our society is headed or how they take care of themselves, then I'll be proud of myself and feel like I've fulfilled at least one of my life's missions. I'd like to do it for myself, my kids, my family.

Starting January 1st, I'll be embarking again on the NO SUGAR, NO DAIRY, NO GRAIN, NO BEAN/LEGUME path for an entire month. I've done it before and quite honestly, I was ready for it and I actually enjoyed it.

Why do something this crazy you ask?

The reality is that I'm becoming a little granola...

I want to be more conscious, compassionate and informed regarding how I live my life. I want to live a lighter footprint and focus on being the best person I can be.  I have ZERO clue where I'll land but I honestly feel like I've had an awakening and as a result, I can't continue to live the way I have.

I can't be perfect.  I'm not sure anyone can.  At this point, I'm hoping to live within an acceptable range... a sort of invisible bottom line regarding where I'm not willing to go (no red meat) and hopefully as I get better and better, I'll continue to increase my bottom line while continuing to live within my acceptable range. Ideally, my bottom line will be at the very least vegetarian. I'd like to stay as far away from my bottom line as possible so I'm hoping to be plant based vegan for the most part :) hopefully this makes sense.

There are really so many things I want to say but I don't want to come across as being completely nuts so I'll slowly go into things as they come up.  It's more about being aware, knowing the facts and making decisions for yourself with what you're willing to tolerate. For me, right now in my life, I need to focus on the last 30+ years of what I've put into my body and deal with those issues before I can increase my bottom line.

My goal for this Whole 30 will be to focus on veggies and foods from the earth. I will rely to an extent on chicken and fish and eggs... but after 30 days I'm hoping to swap the chicken and eggs for beans/legumes and see how that goes.

Obviously, I'm a work in progress... but the beauty of it is that I'm enjoying the process. 

 I am learning to be happy at each step of this journey and be grateful for the health I have.  

I'm thankful that I have the curiosity and commitment to see my goals through.

It might sound odd, but I look forward to becoming more granola...