My little family has been working on our health for the past several months, and although we've not put as much into it as I'd like, we've noticed some pretty awesome results.  I love the support I'm getting from my husband in this too.  He's a pretty special man.  We aren't trying to become vegan or do anything too drastic with the changes we're making.  Some weight loss would be great, but it's not the primary goal either really.  We're just trying to live a healthier life.  Our son deserves parents that can keep up with him.  I know I don't want to be something that holds him back in anything he might want to do (as long as he's not being self destructive).

We had been discussing our health issues for a little while with some close friends including how foggy our minds had become.  I think we all pretty much agreed that the biggest problem was the processed foods that seemed to be our go to foods.  I really had no clue how to balance a diet or prepare truly healthy meals.  My mother tried to prepare healthy things for us when I was young, but when I was a teen, I HATED being in the kitchen so not learning this stuff was as much my own fault as just societal norms in general.  I learned enough from what my mother had talked with me about, to know that getting back to a more natural diet was what we needed more than ever.

Our friends pointed me toward the video "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" on Netflix, which I watched at least twice.  The message of that movie struck home!  One thing I'd known from some of the things I'd learned with my mom was that our bodies have an amazing capability to heal their selves given the proper building blocks.  Joe Cross (the subject of the documentary) reiterated that and in sharing his own story of transformation is living proof of what healthy food can truly do.  This documentary is one mans journey to fix his own health.  He chose to do begin by doing a 60 day juice fast.  Of course it's not something everyone should do, and he did it under a doctor's supervision.  In the end, he states that his message isn't about just juicing, it's about getting more raw fruits and vegetables into our diets and less processed foods.  This was the starting point I needed!

We started out replacing one meal a day with juice.  We kicked our pretty heavy soda habit in the first week with little side effects.  We try to get as much organic produce as possible, but this can be pretty expensive.  We've learned that there's a limit to how much produce our refrigerator can hold.  If we were to do a juice fast for any length of time, I'd be grocery shopping nearly every day.  So, we try to stick to one juice a day or sometimes we do smoothies.  We've also done pretty good at incorporating more veggies into our other meals.  I've found that my son LOVES eating fresh raw veggies (except carrots, which seem to be a little too crunchy for him still), his favorite is salad.  He even enjoys sipping on our juices when we have them.

We aren't always successful in maintaining these new habits, but it's not because we don't want to.  Usually it's a lack of funds that stands in our way.  The difference is extremely noticeable though.  When we don't have the money to buy our juice supplies, our digestion suffers, we get gassy, and feel really lethargic.  The less fresh food I consume, the worse I feel.  So we continue to do our best to keep the fresh foods in our diet.  I'm looking for more affordable ways to get organic produce.  I did find a local organic co-op that looks promising.  I'm also looking for more raw food recipes.  I'd like to get more variety into our diets and make more fun healthy foods.  It's fun watching my son dig in to the fresh fruits and veggies.  He actually eats those better than he does a lot of the more processed foods.

Over all, I'm really happy with the steps we've taken so far.  In time, we'll get better at preparing fresh wholesome foods for our family and eventually our finances will get less restrictive and we'll be able to afford more of the good stuff we want to eat.  It's been more than six months since we kicked our soda dependency and we've maintained that pretty well.  I'm finding indigestion a lot less of a problem than it was before we made our dietary changes.  I still get some mild heartburn, but I'm not dependent on medication to keep in under control anymore, and I don't have it at all if we can maintain our one juice a day pattern.

An interesting side effect of focusing on health... I'm pregnant again!  It was a pretty amazing Mothers Day gift to myself, finding out.  My hormones had been pretty out of whack since my son was born, and the stress of the past couple years hadn't helped at all.  It's an awesome thing though what our bodies can do when they are fed well.  We wanted to have another child, but we weren't counting on it since it had been so difficult getting pregnant the first time.  I've had more energy so far than I had when I was pregnant with my son.  Just sitting here writing this blog is proof of that.  I'm sure the improved nutrition has a lot to do with that also.

It'd be pretty easy to fall back into old patterns, but the motivation to maintain the changes we've made is pretty strong.  My husband and I agree, we just feel better over all since we've made these small changes, and we're not willing to give that up.  I for one don't want to go back to feeling like a zombie day in and day out.  I like having a clearer mind.  It's got me thinking about LOTS of things!

Since our son was born, we've had quite a bit on our plates, and the bulk of it had little to do with the new baby in the house.  We work pretty diligently at keeping drama out of our home, and when it worms it's way in, it's pretty difficult to deal with.  I don't deal well with stress (and that's an understatement, just ask my husband). Luckily, my husband takes pretty much anything in stride, so he's usually a great balance for me.  The last two years though, have kept me out of sorts quite a bit of the time.  Some probably find that surprising.  I usually put on a pretty calm face for the rest of the world, but inside, I've been more stressed than I could ever put words to.

When our son was born, we knew there would be quite a bit of family coming to visit to meet the baby, and we were prepared for that.  It was most helpful in the months after he was born really, especially since I had a c-section and wasn't allowed to cary anything that weighed more than my lil man, including him strapped into his lil carrier car seat.  So it was great having family here to help me get things done that I couldn't do, and help me get my son to and from his doctors appointments and such.  I am truly grateful for the help I got in those early months, it really made things much easier.

The problems really started a few months later... I'm not going to get into the details of what exactly happened because it's not my dirty laundry to air out.  Lets just say, we voluntarily agreed to help some family members out with some important situations that they could not deal with on their own.  We got involved because we were needed and there weren't any better options, and we love our family no matter what.  The thing is, things never work out the way they are planned, and we knew that going in. We are pretty flexible people so that wasn't initially a problem, but some of that flexibility came back to bite us in the fanny later on.  What we were terrible with, was setting boundaries when it comes to helping those we love.  It's something we're really still dealing with, and it will probably always be a struggle.

As often happens when drama is involved things pretty much snowballed on us, and we dealt the best way we knew how.  Now, we're dealing with cleaning up the mess we've made of our own lives in the process of helping others.  We opened up our home and our lives to those we love, and put too much of ourselves into it.  We gave and gave, physically, financially and emotionally, and in the end we are the ones paying the price.  Our finances are in shambles, our home is a disaster, and I for one am too emotionally spent to put any more emotion into anyone else's problems at all.  All I can manage for the time being is taking care of my immediate household needs.  My son is my focus throughout the day, and when my husband isn't working as much overtime as possible to make up for our financial difficulties, I spend as much time with him as I can.

I'm still working through learning the lessons in all this.  I know lesson number one is to remember to take care of myself and my family even when I'm trying to help someone else.  I can't put all of myself into someone else's problems, no matter how serious those problems are.  My husband and my son need me and the only way I can be there for them, is if I'm taking care of myself too.  I have to take care of all of myself though, my emotions, my spirituality, my whole being.  I talk a good game, people probably think I do pretty good remembering those things.  The truth is, I am just as bad as the next person at remembering that I'm an important person too, and I suffer for it sometimes.

Going forward, I'm taking things one day at a time.  Some days I have to force myself to get dressed and get things accomplished though.  I do know that  we'll get through these challenges, we seem to pull through pretty well given enough time.  I just hope that we learn the lessons well because I don't need any repeat performances.  Only time will tell.