Just say "NO" to GMO!

So, now that I've taken off my blinders and started looking at the food I've been feeding my family I have a vast range of feelings.

I am angry

I am scared

I feel HOPEFUL!

I feel EMPOWERED!!!

I'm making a push to switch over to an organic diet. I've already started making a lot of what we're eating from scratch, but it's time to take things further. I never realized how much of the processed crap in the stores is made using Genetically Modified/Manufactured/Mutated ingredients! What scares me is that companies are not required to tell you that their products are made using these GMO products. In fact, one way to guarantee that you aren't buying these kind of products is to buy Organic. I also discovered that Trader Joe's line of foods are all GMO Free. I found quite a few resources on "How to avoid GMO" and a shopping guide with a detailed list of Brands containing GMO and ones that don't.

We don't have a big budget for groceries so it's hard sometimes to think about spending more money on Organic Milk ($6/gallon) versus Generic store brand milk ($3.49/gallon). However, if spending a little more money on quality, healthy, and natural products will make an improvement in our health, I'm all for it. If spending a little more money helps support our local farmers, I'm all for it.

Every time we go to the grocery store, we "cast our vote" and what we buy lets the big food manufacturers know what we want.... and if we're buying crap, that's what they'll g ive us more of... an if we want some thing better than what they are offering... they'll hear us! Maybe then a real Food Revolution will start... and just maybe more an more people will start taking back their kitchens!

Wake Up Call

I've struggled with my weight my entire adult life. Shoot, you might even say my whole life. Looking back I always felt like I was the bigger kid. In high school, I know I had some kind of eating disorder. I wouldn't eat breakfast, would have a diet coke for lunch and would eat whatever the family had for dinner. I managed to stay thin, even underweight for my height, but I wasn't healthy.

My whole life I've had some man in my life telling me I wasn't good enough... pretty enough... thin enough...

"Don't eat that, you'll end up fat like your mother!"

"Do you want to be UGLY for the rest of your life?!"

"Just look at you, how do you think I could be attracted to you?"

"When did you get so fat?"

To my best friend from my boyfriend:
"You need to take her to the gym with you, she's getting a little thick."

All of these comments were either said when I was a child or when I was 115 - 145 pounds! At 5'6 that's a BMI range of 18.6 - 23.4. (Normal weight = 18.5-24.9)

Never once was I able to enjoy my body. The last two comments were the most catastrophic to my self esteem. I immediately started gaining weight. Once I started gaining weight, it was hard to get it under control again. I lose and gain and lose and gain the same 20 pounds over and over again.

Once my daughter was born, I forgot how to focus on my needs and health. Here we are 3 years later and I'm a mess. I weigh the same as I did when I was pregnant with her. I'm unhealthy, unhappy and feeling like I've been beaten. I know everything I need to do to get my weight under control. It's really simple.... burn more calories than I eat. I know I know I know. Just do it already!

Well, last night I got a bit of a wake up call. I had some blood work done yesterday and discovered that I'm on my way to Type 2 diabetes. If I don't start eating better and working out... I am sentencing myself to a shortened unhealthy miserable life! My body doesn't process glucose like a normal healthy body does. Now I need to figure out how I'm going to tackle this... because I refuse to live like this anymore! I got the call..... and I'M AWAKE!