My Green Transformation

It occurred to me the other day that I have become, what I used to call, a "health freak" or "granola hippie." I am a woman who is obsessed with what she eats. I remember looking at "those" type of people in the past, envious that they were so healthy and had the knowledge and stamina to live that type of lifestyle. I wanted that. I wanted to have that knowledge and I wanted to live like that, but was very intimidated. Where did they get their knowledge? How did they know what was best?

Now, here I am, drinking my green smoothie this morning and writing about how I've evolved into the person I am now. I am definitely a "health freak", and I'm very VERY proud of it. The best part about all this knowledge I've learned, is that living this healthy, is not tough at all.

3 years ago, my mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. For some reason, she knew that going for traditional amounts of chemotherapy and radiation would kill her. She refused to go the traditional route. She started doing tons of research and started learning lots about diet. Today she's still alive and taking care of her cancer alternatively. She's had some trials and errors, but she found a doctor who is working with her and helping to treat her cancer. I'll write about her story on my next blog entry.

Her strength to look alternatively for her health inspired me to start looking with her. I became obsessed with diet. I read book after book, hungry for this new knowledge that I knew absolutely nothing about. I grew up with possibly one of the worst diets on the planet! A regular day for me would be, 6 white donuts on the way to the bus stop, a Pop-tart at school, P & J sandwich, Cheetos, Capri-sun or soda, and a chocolate bar along with 5 or 6 cookies for lunch. Once I got home, I'd have a bowl of Lucky Charms or another round of Pop-tarts with a soda. It varied. Some days I would have Doritos INSTEAD of Cheetos. I ate ALOT of fast food and fried food.

There is not ONE green item in that list of food. I went on for years like this. The only time I would get a decent meal, is when my mom cooked dinner. Even then, I was never pushed to eat my vegetables. I didn't eat salad until I was in my early twenties! I'd eat fruit often enough, but not regularly.

My mom didn't know any better. She ate the same way, and was always battling her weight, doing off again, on again diets. My grandmother was a diabetic. She LOVED her sweets and suffered for it with her disease. Luckily for me, I was very active and I had a good metabolism so I was skinny as a rail...BUT, I was constantly sick. I had stomach problems all of the time and was taking antacids all through Jr. high and high school. I got every cold and flu that went around. During the winter, I was home sick more than I was at school. I got pneumonia the winter of my 13th and 14th year and I look back now and know my body was crying out for help. It was really sick.

As I continued reading more and more about diets, I started eating a little better, but changing didn't happen overnight. I bought organic and local when I could and I started eating more greens. I knew that I still was not eating like I should have been. I knew what I could have been doing, but I still was binging on junk food. It was hard at first. I had to make a complete diet change. Almost everything that I had grown up on, was untouchable. Every brand that I was familiar with had hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrups in it. I literally had to learn to eat all over again, and at the time, it was depressing.

Another year down the road, I had significantly changed my diet, but I still wasn't feeling that great. I was lethargic most days and I was in my early 20's. My biggest downfall were lattes. I was a serious caffeine addict and even though I had stopped drinking sodas, I couldn't go without my lattes..with either whole milk or sometimes, 1/2 and 1/2! If I didn't have that morning fix, I was cranky and lethargic and by the afternoon, I would have such a raging caffeine headache that I would be absolutely miserable. Still, I drank my lattes every morning and continued to eat poorly even though I knew that my diet could change everything. Usually, between the caffeine and the milk, I wouldn't be hungry for breakfast. I wouldn't eat, and I would start to get spacey and light headed. My hands would shake and I'd feel nauseous. When I'd finally eat lunch, I'd binge. By 2, I was exhausted and wanted to take a nap. I knew this wasn't healthy and that I was sick from not eating, but I continued with the habit.

I continued to read more about diet and health and started to explore the realms of becoming vegetarian or vegan. I found some information online about green smoothies on a great blog called, Happy Foody. There, I learned about the positives of green smoothies and how convenient and easy they made it to get greens into your diet. You can check out the creator of green smoothies and author of, Green For Life, Victoria Boutenko, here.

I tried to get in the habit of drinking green smoothies and I became a vegetarian for a while and then fell off the wagon and started eating meat again. The bad part of that is, that I wasn't eating organic meat. I wanted to buy organic meat, but couldn't afford it. I also wasn't keeping up with the smoothies because I was continuing to drink my lattes.

Finally, last summer, I got fed up. I was constantly nauseous and had headaches more often than not. I was always bloated, felt unhealthy and had no energy. I decided to see a doctor to make sure that I was OK. I had a full exam and checked out clean, so we talked about the possibility of changing my diet. She suggested, among other things, that I quit drinking milk and eat as little dairy as possible. She thought I might have some food allergies. Shortly after, I quit drinking the lattes and cut out dairy and it made a HUGE difference. My stomach problems and nausea went away. I started to make green smoothies every morning and I haven't stopped since. It's now been 3 months and I feel great...better than I've felt in years. I quit eating meat along the way for health and also because of inhumane animal farming and the negative global impact that they have. I have learned all sorts of new vegetarian dishes and I love them. Jordan and Alison are really good sports and they try all my dishes, usually giving rave reviews. I still cook them meat from time to time.

This lifestyle of course, goes along with being green. The more you read on diet, the more you learn about the impacts of what we put into our body and the impacts of the planet. What you buy really does matter. I recycle wherever and whenever I can. I use animal and earth friendly body products....Earth friendly cleaning products. I've recently started buying recycled and earth friendly clothing as well. I reuse whenever possible and get used items as often as I can. Hand me downs are great! I try to pass all this knowledge to Alison because she's the next generation and I believe our earth is in dire need of change. If I can instill in her what I've learned, then I've done a proper job right? I hope so!

I'm so amazed at how far I've become during this transformation and how much I've learned. I still have a lot to learn and I feel like a sponge, hungry for any new info I can get on being at my optimum health.

I know I will continue to change in my diet. If I could just cut out more sweets, I'd do better.

O-well step by step!