These are phrases I’ve heard for many years, and for many of those years I was one saying them. I figured I was still living even after eating and or using all the things people warned me about. Fast forward to the husband and me living in Utah after bouncing all over the country. We have two wonderful boys and things were just just looking up. It was only when I started living here that I heard soooo many friends, neighbors and clients talking about eating clean. What the junk did THAT mean? If we are supposed to eat clean…then what is eating dirty and why would anyone DO that??? To add to that, the flu hit our little family within months after moving into our home. I posted on my FB personal page about it saying something silly like…”Ah the flu, we meet again.” Nooooooot kidding you within 30 min I had three different individuals bringing me space like looking devices and viles of fluids to put in them. Witches. Surely we moved into a neighborhood full of service oriented witches. I placed these so called “diffusers” around the house and read the instructions each of them had left for me to the T.
Let me just tell you, I have NEVER been in a house where the flu was present and I didn’t get it. My immune system is top notch but the flu will kick my J-Lo every single time! My husband got it first and then my oldest was showing symptoms (that’s when the diffusers came). After using the oils on them, washing my hands religiously while helping them and keeping them separated from each other and the healthy ones I WAS SHOCKED!!!! Not only did Kevin get better quickly, but Kayson stopped progressing and didn’t go past the first few symptoms. Branson and I NEVER got sick!!!! I was convinced that there must be something to this witchy business lol. I asked questions, read articles and purchased a few things to start myself on this clean journey. I haven’t turned back yet and love what they can do for my family.
I still hadn’t learned much about clean eating though. After we built our next home and moved in, sure enough, it was my neighbors that took me to the next level with their knowledge. That we have toxins in our food, that they weren’t always there and there is TOTALLY a way to find clean foods all around us!!! It wasn’t that I had to give up the foods I loved, I just would need to switch the kind of products I was buying. And teaching my kids to read their labels and understand why it’s important to do so.
Are some of the items now more expensive? Well, yeah. But having a disease or ailment caused and enhanced by what we eat is waaaaay more expensive! Let’s go back in time to when people were SO excited about new technology that could keep foods on the shelves longer, be less of a pain to prepare/harvest AND be less expensive. What a great deal right??? We have been living this way for so long that we’ve forgotten how to consume real food. I for sure hadn’t been consuming real food for years and my body has suffered for it. But I honestly didn’t know any better and thought what my body was experiencing was normal pains from being alive, being active, not being active, that time of the month etc.
I was in for a HUGE eye opening experience. After thinking about it for quite some time I decided to embark on a food journey to eliminate quite a few things for a good long while before introducing things slowly back in. I went vegan for a year. It was really hard! What I learned about myself was that I have a very unhealthy relationship with food and would get quite emotional about it the first few months. I soon was in the swing of things and did just fine. After the year was up I was ready to slowly start introducing foods back in. Again, I learned a TON from this!!! I learned that dairy is not something my body likes to consume on the regular. I still haven’t gone back to cows milk and it’s been 2 years now. I love that I was able to step away from it for so long that my body could really communicate to me that it wasn’t a fan. I had dairy so often that I believe my body had just built up a slight immunity to it and I was so used to feeling a certain way, that I didn’t know any different. It was, like I said, eye opening.
What I learned a bit later was that a lot of what I was eating on that vegan diet was also not great for me. That to give me that “sense” of cheese, or of meat, I was eating quite a bit of genetically modified foods. Not great for your body. What I am learning now, is that there are so many chemicals, toxins in our food that it’s not even real FOOD most of the time. I taught my kids the importance of healthy foods and what they do to our bodies. Contrary wise I taught them how bad foods can have an even bigger affect on our bodies. As I began sharing this on social media I had a cousin of mine reach out and tell me about an IG account she was following called just.ingredients. Karalynne is AMAZING with the knowledge she has and the hope she shares. It’s hard for me to hear doom and gloom accounts that just scare me and leave me not knowing what to do. She gives such great tips on more of a good, better, best way to go about shopping……BUT……it wasn’t just for food.
I am amazed at how the chemicals in our personal care products as well as our food are making HUGE changes in our bodies. I LOVE that by making simple changes I am seeing huge results in all aspects of my life. I highly encourage you to follow her and learn from her. She’s so generous with her time and talents. I was lucky enough to meet Karalynne and make this video of us going around a normal store and seeing that good better and best already exists where you shop NOW. That you don’t have to go to a specialty store and drop hundreds of dollars on products you’ve never heard of. I hope you enjoy it and that you learn something. I do every, single, day. And I hope to never stop! After all, that’s why we are here. It’s the journey of life right? Comment below with something that stood out to you or something you didn’t know before (for me it was the dyes and what they do to us). Can’t wait to hear from you!
xxoo
Jen