Wow, so starting a Natural Health blog has awakened some thoughts in my mind! I have been thinking and thinking of all sorts of things to write about this week concerning naturally healthy living!
So here are a few of those thoughts:
1.I think when I finally finish my college batchelors degree through BYU's BGS program, I need to have my degree emphasis in WRITING because golly I have a lot to learn! I have lots of wonderful thoughts and ideas, I just stink at getting them into words! (BJ ALWAYS has to read my posts before I submit them and edit out the millions of writing mistakes I make:)
2.To a lot of people whole foods cooking means MILLIONS of hours in the kitchen. This is true and untrue. When you learn any new skill it takes time at first. Just try to pick up any kind of new crafting skill and you will know what I mean. Natural living is a lifestyle change--it is learning how to incorporate nutritious foods into your family's diet in a way that compliments your family's lifestyle and daily living--you are eating different foods, and that requires a change in lifestyle. So while it may take a little more time in the beginning, you will find a groove and a balance in what your nutrition goals are and how you want to spend your time.
Here are some ideas to help you not get discouraged when a lot of the new skills can be trial-and-error and a little more expensive and frustrating until you find your groove:
-Remember this is a learning curve! Make sure your motivation is correct. Food is medicine, it is what keeps us healthy and happy and able to serve our Heavenly Father and fullfill our obligations in this life. Whole foods living should not be thought of as a temporary diet or a trendy thing to do. I like to keep my motivation up by reading good literature on whole foods living. I love reading books about being proactive in my kids' health. One caution-reading too much too often can overwhelm and discourage you. Take your time, pace yourself. In our ongoing transition we are at a stage where we eat A LOT OF REALLY PERFECT FOODS! And a lot of bad foods at the same time. Try to focus on the good things you are eating, the more you do that, the less bad things you will eat over time.
-Enjoy your time in the kitchen! This can be hard when you have crazy kids nearby. Something that helps me is having a pretty kitchen. I painted mine yellow and hung some beautiful hand-painted asian plates by the sink. If you can't paint you can still hang something beautiful on the wall. Or put a plant on your windowsill. This doesn't work for everyone, but it really makes me love my kitchen when it is pretty. :)
-Batch cooking is really awesome. If you hate cooking, when you do make a casserole, make two! Eat one and freeze the other for another day. Another version of this is to always make enough dinner so that it can be lunch for the next day too. We have a favorite recipe that takes FOREVER to make, but it is SOOOOO YUMMY! So we make two at a time. I have a friend whose Mum cooks once a month for the whole month! There are lots of resources for this online.
-Don't try to do too much at the beginning. I am the kind of person who, if I am going to change something, I go head over tail! But the reality is that this is a lifestyle change and it takes a while to make a total transition. It is such a journey to find what works for you and your family.
3.So, on to progress this week with our weekly goals. Well, first of all we did pretty good. BJ was (almost) perfect with all his vitamins. Jane and Denny were awesome as well. Clair did very well for the first few days and then had some REALLY bad days for the rest of the week, including a lot of emotional eating, and well....it's another week tomorrow. We stuck to the menu pretty well until we got paid on Friday and Clair decided it was time for a serious treat.:)
Two things that would have made this week more successful would have been to post the food menu on the fridge where it was more visible, and making a chart to show who took what medicine when this week. Those two things will be our goals for this week.
MOTHER'S DAY
Today being Mother's Day my natural living thoughts have been focused on that. I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about my kids, their education, making sure they have a spiritual education, etc. BJ and I have this shared dream of a place we call BEARHAVEN. A beautiful piece of property where we can have a GINORMOUS garden and orchard, and a beautiful place for our kids to grow up in. Bearhaven is too close to my heart to share all of our dreams about it in such a public blog, but I thought of it a lot this weekend. BJ and I love sustainable living. We love the idea of hardwork turning into food for our family. Canning, and all those kinds of things, have always been something I have loved since I was really young. I love being close to the earth, close to living things. I feel so sad for people who have never felt this. I remember as a child being taught during a Sunday School lesson on proper Sabbath day observance that gardening was not appropriate to do on Sunday. I was totally baffled! I never felt so close to God as when I am outside in my garden.
It seems so ridiculous when you get down to the details of natural living that anyone would want to do it. Making wholesome food is work, organic sustainable gardening is work, cloth diapering is work, recycling is work, not vaccinating your children is work, natural childbearing is work and can be painful! Why would you do any of it when the world shows us such easier options? Prepackaged or processed food, food grown quickly by using chemicals or hormones that the FDA approves as unharmful, disposable diapers that you hardly have to touch (just throw them away!), induced labor, non-emergency planned c-sections, etc. It is so hard for me to tell people why we believe in trying to do things the more natural way. To me it sounds so sensible to see how God has planned to do things (like helping our bodies stay immune from disease and illness through healthy and proactive living). We try very hard to always see how God does things before trying man's way. Men are very smart, but God is smarter. And the more I try to understand how He has planned how to grow veggies, or how to take care of our bodies, have babies, etc, the happier I am. I have learned that quicker is not always better. I have learned that efficiency is not the same as convenience and that learning efficiency is a better motto than convenience. I have learned that women can have amazing birth experiences in a hospital, but a homebirth experience can be something only those who have done it can understand. Labor can become something you get excited to experience instead of something to get over with. I have learned that it is ok to go at your own pace and to be different than the world, and most of the time it is WAY better and safer to be different.
Anyway, today has been too thoughtful so this post got wordy (but hopefully not too lofty). :)
I am a very pregnant Mumma so you will just have to humor me today, and next week I promise a VERY funny post.:)
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