Journey
I was pregnant with my third and moving along with the rest of society with fast food, packaged convenient foods, and quick meals. We were living in Orlando at the time surrounded by people who rarely cared about health, but struggled daily with health issues. I remember watching an Oprah show with Dr. Oz on it. I was mesmerized by what he was saying about our digestive system, how foods effect our moods, and how the power of healing can come from what we eat.
As a high school girl, I suffered from a negative self image and a bad relationship with food. Unfortunately, the struggle led me to weigh about 105lbs at 5’4″. My regular diet consisted of a banana for breakfast, a half of a fried chicken sandwich on white bread for lunch, an afternoon snack of processed foods, and a small portion of what my mother cooked in the evening. I was malnourished. One point I’d like to make clear, this is not my parent’s fault. They encouraged me to eat, and filled our home with many options. I just never wanted to eat. Food hurt me. Anything I would eat would cause bloating, cramping, gas, fatigue. I understood that dairy hurt me, so I would stay away from that, but I never realized I had a choice of feeling that way.
College opened my eyes to spiritual growth, confidence, community and maturity. I began to eat more and more. I gained 30lbs. my freshman year. I enjoyed going out to eat all the time. This may be where my fast food addiction began. There was a time when I couldn’t drive by McDonalds without stopping for a small fry. Just a little something, all the time. My self image was improving with God’s help and the help of friends who loved me for who I was, but my food relationship continued to decline. Over the following years, things did not improve much. The selection of foods available to a poor college student are minimal. The chance of a home cooked meal rarely presented itself.
Looking back at my first year of marriage, I feel so sorry for my husband! My husband was 28 and had been working and eating in restaurants for 10 years. All I knew how to cook was spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, and burgers. I just didn’t know how to cook, much less cook real food. Even with a degree that focused on nutrition, food science, and family development, I couldn’t concept real food dishes. I was uninformed. It sounds so silly, but FoodNetwork saved our lives. I spent hours and hours watching food shows. They taught me how to expand my pantry and how to be creative in the kitchen. The problem was the fear of pain. When I would look at a dish, subconsciously I would fear how it would make me feel. This deterred the joy of cooking.
The struggle with pain in my joints, the fainting spells, fatigue, nauseousness, and basic fragility I experienced daily felt normal to me. My dad would even joke about it being our destiny as “McCords” (my maiden name). We would have talks about pacing ourselves, about sugar being a culprit, and about managing our pain. But these talks never led me to truly feeling better. Down deep I knew this couldn’t be it.
Until that day. Watching Dr. Oz on TV really stopped me on my journey. The road I was heading down would continue to tear up my intestines and my relationships. Some of his steps were so simple. So, as a family of 4, about to be 5, we decided to take some babysteps. We eliminated the sugary tea in our fridge. Then, we changed all our bread to 100% whole grain. These were tiny changes. Next we cut out artificial sweeteners and sodas. It was still a huge temptation from time to time, but the journey had begun. We had exited off the highway of destruction.
Reading is not my thing. But the first book I read about health was called The Cure
I cried.
Literally, I stood at the entrance of the store and cried. What do I do now? All that I knew about food had to change. I was not prepared for that first shopping trip post-health-book! Looking back, I should have made a list of foods he suggested and created a meal plan for our family. But no. I left with a couple veggies in my cart. The next couple years we gathered knowledge, surrounded ourselves with health seekers, and continued on our path. There were set backs. The fast food addiction and processed foods would creep back in, but they wouldn’t stay for long.
We moved to Iowa. This was not in my plans. It was a move that seemed necessary, but not understandable. Although this was a dark and cold time in my life, there were some good things that came from an extremely difficult year. I began to exercise as a 30 year old. I had never felt strong enough to work out. In the past, I would play tennis or go to the gym and faint within the first 30 minutes. I thought I was weak. Now I understand that I was just malnourished. I began to feel stronger physically and learn how to cook real food creatively.
Even with all the changes and getting stronger, I would take about 12-14 Advils a day. The female issues and joint inflammation were too much to manage on a daily basis. Of course, my intestinal issues worsened with that ridiculous intake of drugs. In my mind I didn’t realize that there was a connection. I felt that I was eating better, working out, and still in pain and discomfort.
We moved to Virginia. The clouds of depression were clearing up. I was ready to face some of the spiritual struggles head on. But then we received some news. My husband’s father was dying. His body was riddled with cancer. Our family gathered to pray over him and ask for God to intervene in his life. The doctors gave him 6 months to live, and refused to help him with their methods. This may have been the best un-wanted news we could receive. My passion to help him find a way to cure his cancer naturally began. He received a protocol of supplements and juicing from a friend, and began his own journey of detoxification and healing. We know God is the ultimate healer, but we also know He allows people to be instrumental in our healing. His life was extended by 2 years and 6 months. Through this time, he was on a strict vegan, plant-based diet of mostly raw foods. The cancer was dying.
He went to the Gerson Institute in Mexico/California and received an amazing program of high doses of vitamin C and B and other healing supplements. Their protocol was based on juicing, detoxing through coffee enemas and supplements. If I ever had cancer, I’d go there right away!!
In our family life, we committed to change. We sought out ways to cut out toxins from our home, cut out harmful cosmetics, cut out over the counter drugs, and continued our search for real food options. His sickness was a catalyst to our changes.
It broke our heart the day he passed away. Yet, in our pain we have joy for many reasons. He is in heaven with his new and perfect body, he never had to go to a hospital, he was off all prescription drugs, and he didn’t even need his glasses from all the great nutrition he received. His body had been healing from the nutrition he received. We have peace that God wanted him “home” with Him.
His journey taught me about supplements, juicing, raw foods, toxic environment, vaccinations, and healing. His faith in God never wavered either. I feel that our life is a balance of Mind/Body/Spirit. We must understand that focusing on any of these separately will put us out of balance. God orchestrates all of our life. We depend on Him for wisdom, protection from our environment, and provision for our daily food.
Where we are we today? We have our three children who are learning along with us. Our goal is to fill our bodies with as many real foods, which I like to call “God-foods”, as possible. Anything man has touched has been processed in some way. Obviously, we can’t avoid these foods. But we can replace what we normally turn to with good, real, God-foods. By filling our home with these real foods, we crowd-out the bad foods.
My relationship with food is healthy now. I understand that some foods may hurt me, so I stay away from them. Each person’s body is different. It takes some experimenting to know what foods cause havoc inside you. I have a friend who has Rheumatoid Arthritis. She is learning that Gluten, Animal Proteins and Nightshade vegetables cause her body to inflame. Once we are empowered with this knowledge, it’s simple. It’s not always easy, but it’s simple. I personally need to experiment a bit more.
Recently, we’ve been mostly vegetarian, close to vegan, but sometimes pescatarian! We started out with Meatless Mondays about a year ago, and gathered enough recipes to really enjoy weeks full of meatless meals.
Seems like each documentary we watch opens our eyes to new ways of eating. What we do as a family today is a mixture of all that we’ve learned. FoodMatters taught us about supplementation. The soil in this day in age is so depleted, we need to supplement our family with vitamins and minerals. For this we choose Shaklee products. Food, Inc. taught us about our food supply. It’s vital that we ask questions, meet farmers, know where our food comes from. It’s our right. Forks over Knives taught us about meat and animal products and their link to cancer. I personally don’t feel it’s wrong to eat meat or animal products, but the way America eats them is unnecessary. As a nation we consume more than our bodies can handle. So we are dying.
Do I want to live longer? No. We live this way for a few reasons.
1. Our body is not our own. It’s God’s temple. I know I don’t always treat it well, but I feel that if I am thriving, I will serve God more freely.
2. To feel better today.
3. To teach our kids to make wise choices and build their immunity.
4. To feel empowered with the truth when no one really is looking out for us.
5. To be prepared for illness. Having a complete lifestyle change when given a diagnosis sounds harder to me than living out this way in the first place.
I don’t feel great everyday. My hormones are still off, I struggle with mild depression, and I feel inflamed. But I am so happy to know how to handle these discomforts. It’s a journey of learning. I hope to find what trigers my aches and pains and hormone imbalances. Our chiropractor is our primary doctor now! We have had some great experiences with natural healing methods for colds, flu, fevers, spider bites, infections, and so many other things naturally!! It takes longer, but it’s so worth it.
One step at a time. No shame in learning. Depending on God for His provision. I believe with all my heart that He is pleased when his children go back to nature. If we are are pure as we can be in a world filled with toxins and temptations, we will be able to serve Him more purely.
This is not the end of our story. There will be set backs and adjustments. But He that began a good work in me will complete it.
What’s your story?
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