Franken Food, Poison and Addictions, Oh My!

We all know, at least I hope you all know that the food industry has slowly poisoned us over the years.  It started in the 50's with fast food, breakfast cereal, soda and TV dinners.  This food is so overly processed that you aren't getting any nutrients out of it even when they add some vitamins in to it!  It is around this time that people started getting heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other food related diseases more often.  We now have a 50% chance of getting some sort of cancer and that is due in a large part to our food intake.  It is not my intention to be preachy or judgmental.  I am a food addict.  I struggle with knowing what is in the food and still shoveling it down my throat.  My main weakness is sugar.  And once I get a taste for it, it is all over.  I know that the food companies are putting sweeteners and additives that make my brain feel a complete euphoria when I eat a brownie and I still can't stop myself.  I have been better at limiting myself, but I fly off the bandwagon A LOT!  I made a complete over haul to our diet after Aurora was born, but each time I got pregnant that all flew out the window.  Why would I want eat broccoli when I was pregnant when I could have a milkshake?? It got really bad with Landon's pregnancy.  Not only was I eating burgers from Burger King almost daily, the kids were now joining me.  If you see any pictures of Wyatt and Trevor around this time, you would see little chubby cheeked chipmunks.  It was doing a number on them and I chose to ignore it, because you can't be pregnant forever, right?  An unplanned pregnancy that came just months off of a double pregnancy can do a number on your mental well being, paired with the fact that I had to take care of 3 little ones too, it was a recipe for disaster.  I gained 30lbs with Landon, the most ever for me and he ended up being well over 8lbs, my heaviest baby.  I looked bigger with Landon's pregnancy than I ever did with the twins, that is saying a lot.
We are now almost 4 years from the time our little baby joined the family.  4 years!  Can't use the baby weight excuse anymore.  I will pat myself on the back, just this once, for the fact that I lost every pound that I gained with Landon's pregnancy and technically Aurora's pregnancy.  While I like to talk about weight and we seem a country obsessed with weight, I am realizing more and more that it is about health.  I have been relatively healthy (knock on wood) for the first 30 years of my life.  I had 3 healthy pregnancies and delivered 4 healthy babies.  You can't ask for anything more.  As I hit my 30's this year, I feel my health is starting to become an issue.  My body can't bounce back from my food binges like it use to.  Any new exercise program leaves me sore for longer than it use to.  I hate to say that at 30 I am getting old, because it makes people in their 40's, 50's and beyond laugh out loud.  But if this is how I feel at 30, I don't want to know what 40 may feel like.
I have 4 kids that are full of energy and vitality.  I am the person that makes their lifelong food habits.  I am the one responsible for nourishing my children.  While I wish my parents took a  different route when I was growing up, so I don't have to struggle as much.  I am thankful for the experience because I now know what needs to be done. I have been down the fast food, frozen dinner route and I know where it leads.  My parents weren't aware of the poison they were feeding us.  We were essentially and still are, guinea pigs for the food industry.  People my age, some I went to school with have already had chemo for cancer, or strokes. To say that it had nothing to do with diet, is foolish. 
I remember when the low-fat diet came on the scene.  My Mom bought low-fat Twinkies that tasted like cardboard.  Anything that said low fat usually tasted like crap.  Then came the sugar free junk, because people were starting to get diabetes at an alarming rate.  Crap.  It all tasted like crap.  Now studies are showing that low fat diets are leading causes of heart disease and that "diet" pop is actually causing diabetes and cancer.  I am glad that my parents never feel for the diet pop scheme.  I may have been a health nightmare.  I don't care what sweetener they come up with, if I am going to drink pop it will be one with old fashioned sugar in it.  Then high fructose corn syrup came along and started replacing sugar in everything.  Now they are adding soy to everything, and it is genetically modified, meaning our bodies can't process it.  I dare you to find anything in the grocery aisle that is in a box that doesn't have soy in it.  Lets not forget that most farmers feed their animals corn and soy.  So even though you are eating a steak, it may still have corn or soy in it.
 I am responsible for the choices I make and while the food additives in most foods cause me to desire more of it, I can't place the blame solely on the food industry.  They are trying to make money.  But we as consumers have allowed them to make money off of our health.  They will still continue to make the crap as long as we buy the crap.  Once again we have taken something so simple and twisted it all up.  God made plants for us to eat.  He gave us fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds and animals to eat.  Couldn't we just leave it alone?  Nope, we had to start feeding those animals "feed" that has nothing to do with their god intended diet.  Then we had to take the grains God gave us and modify them to grow bigger and better.  Who cares if our bodies don't recognize it as food as long as someone is making money. 
Over the years we have taken steps to rid ourselves of the Franken food.  While we still eat the crap, we don't do it everyday.  We use almond milk, but recently discovered that the additive carageenan is horrible on the digestive system and started making our own almond milk.  It is a pain to make, but it is worth it.  The kids drink fresh veggie juice out of our juicer.  They gobble up smoothies.  They ask for vegetables.  They have probably had more variety of veggies in their short lives, than I ever have.  Aurora eats raw beets and radishes, I remember years ago I actually vomited when someone tried to get me to eat a beet.  Now I can't get enough beets.  It is my favorite thing to juice.  Wyatt pleads for more green beans at dinner.  Trevor and Landon eat carrots until I make them stop.  I may feed my children junk food occasionally, but they still have a taste for God's bounty.  That is one thing that I am immensely proud of.  Their Mother may struggle with food and make poor choices, but they are exposed to real food and consistently make good choices.
I am working on myself  and have made a lot of progress.  I eat things now that I would have never eaten before.  It sucks that I have to think about food, pretty much every minute of every day.  As the chef in the house I have to make a meal plan, a grocery list and cook this food for 5 other people. It is a daily struggle and some have compared it to alcoholism.  Which sort of make me cringe because alcoholics destroy the relationships around them and do stupid things while intoxicated or to score some alcohol. I like to think that my food addiction hasn't gotten that far.  I have made the decision to stop worrying about how much I weigh, I know it is easier said than done, and start worrying about my health.  I will focus on making healthy decisions each day and transforming the foods we eat to make them healthy for us all.  I will share some recipes on the blog and give some progress reports, good or bad. This will mean more blog posts and more emails if you are signed up, so please let me know if you want me to take you off the email list!! 
Of course along with eating healthy comes exercise.  I am a type A, so my body responds differently to stress.  It takes a long time for me to recover from it.  So I am choosing light walking at least 3 times a week and Qi Gong and yoga.  I will focus on stress release.  With 4 kids, this may prove to be quite the challenge. :)  We also have a 4 day beach trip coming up next week and as we all know vacationing has a way to bring out the inner food binger.  I am taking "precautions" to limit the damage and will let you know how it goes.
I am taking steps toward bettering myself and my family and welcome you guys along for the ride.


Here I go again: