We have been struggling through a few things lately. It is almost hard to process it all in terms of making a list. For about 3 years we have been consistently making changes, edits if you will, to the way we eat. It isn’t simply just the way we eat. It is the entire concept of our diet/nutrition can play pretty important roles in your life. Through this journey, we have learned a lot, we have experimented a lot, grown a lot. I understand there are skeptics that don’t buy into this type of thinking. That is fine. Ha, I feel like most of our family thinks we are crazy about our ideals. In talking about this, I feel the need to share a story about us. Soon after we were married (within weeks) I was pretty sick. Really sick. After I ate anything, it did not matter what it was, fresh fruit, veggies, chips, rice, anything–I would be on the ground within 20 minutes unable to move. My body would instinctively curl up in the fetal position as I endured the most horrific stabbing pain. This would happen day after day. It was terrible. I knew if I ate that would be how I would feel afterwards. This continued for 3 months before I decided to make a change. I had done some research (not a whole lot at that point) but some and had decided to participate in a colon detox diet. Andrew, my compassionate husband, decided he would participate with me. For 3 1/2 weeks we did not consume: yeast, salt, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and butter. For the first 2 weeks we did not have any carbs and only a tiny selection of veggies, fresh fish, flax seed and some crazy drinks involving hot lemon water with flax seeds and a combination of watered down cranberry juice (real cranberry juice without sugar or other fruits added). Needless to say it shocked my body in the right direction. Oh and at the end of the detox we were wanting what we still thought of then as “real food” and decided to treat ourselves to Olive Garden. We drank wine, ate breadsticks, pasta, dessert, etc. But had to choke everything down because nothing tasted good to us. In just a matter of weeks, we changed our pallets pretty much forever. Since then, I have not stopped researching, learning and seeking out more ways to change. Yes, we eat salt but we have taken out a few things once again. We have taken out all white flour, white sugar and are eating a completely vegetarian diet. I, Deborah, am only drinking decaf coffee for now. We are “raw until dinner”! We are so excited about this too! We are drinking green smoothies for breakfast and lunch and only snacking on fresh veggies,fruit or raw almonds throughout the day. Breakfast this morning was watermelon, spinach, nectarines and mint leaves. I know this sounds disgusting to most, but really it is quite good. We love the lightness we feel during the day. Note, not hunger, lightness. Meaning, we don’t have that crazy full engorged feeling that makes you feel like you either need to sleep it off or knock out some caffeine to keep going. We are moving and growing in the direction we have longed for for quite awhile. It is amazing how much your environment effects you. While we lived in Vienna, we never felt like we could commit to this. Whether finances played a part, we didn’t have much when it came to kitchen appliances over there so being without a high powered blender or food processor made it hard. Since we returned, we have been staying w/family. That makes it difficult too. It is amazing how personal it can be taken when you simply do not eat the same things you did 10 years previously. Needless to say there was some transition pains that took place.
We have a lot of things on our hearts right now but this is something we, in many ways, have been convicted about. We sat in our church a couple weeks ago, a church is going through a series in Daniel, and the pastor actually spoke about how diet can affect you. About how food can become something we obsess more about that God. Food! And how on one end, we may obsess about food and on the other end we end up obsessing more about ourselves. Andrew and I were blown away. We both just laughed at how in many ways one of the reasons God led us to attend this church would be so we could be challenged in this way. Note, our church and pastor is not pressuring people to change their diet or pursue a raw diet. The thing is, God has been convicting us of this for so long that we literally would talk about it every day and feel lost. We weren’t sure what we were supposed to do with that. I know some friends who would read this and think “they eat so healthy”, but the truth is we both struggle so much in our minds when it comes to food. Maybe we do have crazy ideals for what it should look like. But as much as we have tried to talk ourselves out of it or put it off–this is where we are. This is where God has brought us for now. I’m still searching and learning. I’m sure we will continue to change but this isn’t an experiment. This is our lifestyle for now. If this helps us not to focus on food but more on what God wants for us; if this helps us to not focus on what is ailing us physically and gives us more time to worship and praise God; if this helps us to follow obediently to what God wants–then this is good and right.
