Our intention for this blog is to share our experiences in the kitchen, backyard, garage, and with children, as we educate ourselves on realistic and sustainable ways to feed our family and stay in good health. We eat as locally and as seasonally as we can.
We like to explore. Finding dietary ideas that are new to us and incorporating them realistically and sustainably into our lives is important and if nothing else it is entertaining.
Since we started, we have created a method of spending time together that invests in a healthy lifestyle through gardening and preparing food together. We have rediscovered a culture that has been lost. We focus on not being too busy for our own good. Stephen and I want to avoid common ails of society that have become prevalent problems for not only Americans, but other countries that have developed the so-called ‘western diet.’
After feeling like my insides had joined the circus and my stomach was the leading act, I came to the conclusion that something had to change. It didn’t occur to me that when I go the theater and eat the popcorn, with that very distinct taste that is the same every time, it was not normal to be sick for hours after consuming it. It also didn’t occur to me that there is a solution to IBS when running in populated areas, other than planning a route around restrooms within the third and ninth mile, or carrying emergency tp. That is until I started researching the condition our food. Yikes!
I used to go back and forth from starving myself for weeks to participating in hours of extreme sports to maintain a healthy weight. But according to those BMI charts the “experts” publish, I am still considered borderline obese as a size 8. I am active. I run twice a week, do yoga, cycle occasionally (not enough this year) and I picked up skiing. Something has got to give, if I starve myself, I can’t properly train for marathons or make it through the day as a normal human being, and I can’t participate in hours of cycling as I have in the past.
Once I realized the diet yo-yo and extreme sports was not a sustainable lifestyle for me I had to find something that worked for both of us. First, we watched documentaries about food, nutrition, and gardening. Then we started reading books and watching lectures, we acquired a community garden plot and started cutting out sugar and the high fructose corn syrup.
We began doing the things that are realistic and sustainable for our busy lives of working full and part-time jobs while going to school. Stephen and I have a fundamental disagreement on basic staples (of the bachelorhood) such as spaghetti. I believe it should have lots of vegetables and little meat and the noodles can be made of many different vegetables. Stephen could not disagree more so when he gave me the stink-eye on exploring new ways of cooking; I had to make him a believer. I took him to a raw restaurant in town (kicking and making a fuss because he wanted an all you can eat Indian buffet) and after he tried a completely raw meal, he was a believer (I ordered the noodle dish so he could try it).
My new favorite pastime is to read cookbooks and try new recipes. There are some great ideas out there. I have made a few of the recipes with success and a some were utter failures, but all were learning experiences. We have been doing this for ten years now, and I feel amazing, my skin is clear, and when we take a weekend sabbatical from our regular (healthy) diet, I am reminded why we started this in the first place.
Stephen still gives me the stink-eye when I make new or experiment dishes, but he is a good sport and will at least try it. After incorporating green smoothies into our daily routine, I no longer have to plan my runs based on where the closest latrines are, but I do choose to skip the popcorn when we go to the theater.
~Janine
