Life changing

No, this one is not about having kids. Although having two adorable daughters has been an awesome life changing experience and I wouldn't change it for the world.

The WHAT:
This one is about health. It's all been done before by lots of people who appear to be much, much stronger willed than I. Radically changing one's eating habits, thereby radically changing one's life. I have no excuses and cannot cop out on this one. Everyone is on board. This is a declaration of commitment.

The WHY:
All the signs are there dummy. If I could have been any more dense. Or maybe I just didn't want to see it.  I have eaten like crap for most all of my adult life and even most of my childhood (major, major, major sugar addiction). I've been pretty lucky with my decent metabolism, or unlucky however you see it.  Diagnosed with Hypothyroidism at age 22, PCOS at age 27 and at the rate I'm going what's next??!! Diabetes?

Now having a 2 year old daughter diagnosed with asthma being pumped with 2 different medications on a good day and 7+ medications on a bad day. The thought of it makes me cringe. I hate putting all that medication in her little body. Besides the thyroid hormone this used to be pretty close to a zero medication household (prescription or over-the-counter).

The GOAL:
The goal is to cure what western medicine describe as "uncurable" diseases: hypothyroidism, PCOS and asthma. In doing so we will get back to a zero prescription medication (and over-the-counter) household.  Because he, and she, and they have done it. And I believe it can be done.

The HOW:
The plan is unknown. Does it entail a completely vegetarian, grain-free, dairy-free, vegan, gluten-free, (insert any diet type here) diet?  The answer is yes or no or maybe. I simply don't know enough yet. I am going to work really hard at what I apparently love to do: researching. I am going to figure out the best possible diet that works for our family to allow our bodies to naturally heal themselves. A no brainer is that this diet (lifestyle) will consist of ZERO processed foods and (I can't believe I'm going to say this) ZERO non-natural (processed) sugar.

The WHEN:
I don't have a specific timeline, because I know these things take time. It will also most definitely be a trial-and-error experimentation. However, if after at least a year or two of strictly following our super healthy diet we don't see any improvements I'm not at all against calling in reinforcements - Integrative doctor, Functional medicine, Nutrient Oriented medicine, or the like. To be honest I know there will be setbacks or times when our diet isn't practical. However, I believe we can commit to a completely different way of eating at least 95% of the time.

The CHALLENGES:
I don't like to cook. We eat out a lot, or at least we did before kids. Worse than cooking, I hate meal planning. Mostly because I don't have the time and I want spontaneity in my meals. I want to eat what I feel like eating right then and there. How am I going to know what I will feel like eating a week from now??

Eating is a social ritual. Since having kids our social life has almost stood at a stand still.  The biggest thing we do to be social is go out to dinner or have people over for dinner. With this lifestyle change there is basically nowhere we can go to 'eat out'.  Even going over to friends for a home cooked dinner is pretty much out. Do we make our friends eat our 'funny' food when they come over for dinner?  I have absolutely no idea. We will also have to make sure and prep food anytime we need to go out and run errands because it takes us forever and even longer to get out the door so the likelihood of us being out during a meal time is 100%. I think these situations will be our biggest challenge.

I live for sweets and baked goods.  Sugar is toxic. The fact that I can never go to a bakery again and sip on a sugared up latte while eating a sugary scone breaks my heart.  Maybe I can do it once a year for my birthday :)

Eating all organic is expensive.  Or is it?

What about alcohol?  Probably all a big fat no. Hopefully I can at least keep red wine??  Probably not. Screw this, I already give up!

In any way this journey unfolds we have already started by removing refined sugars and carbs from our diet.  We have also started eating tons and tons of greens. Our smoothies no longer consist of only fruit, they are now 50% veggie (spinach, kale, celery, spirulina, carrots) and growing greener by the day. By making these changes thus far we are already seeing a change in the way we feel: "lighter".