Feeding My Family

With my new commitment to healthy eating, I have made family meals my mission.  At first it started out as a chore that I had to do and now I'm overflowing with a desire to fill our bodies with nourishing food.   Through this process, I have found the joy of cooking.  The actual joy, not the cookbook.  I've been experimenting with flavors, baking my own bread, and loading our plates with veggies.  This joy comes in part from the creation of new and interesting dishes, but mostly because I am feeding love to my family.  It feels good to take care of them.  To care for the health of their body and mind.  Hopefully this is just the first step to a long-term love relationship with cooking.

I have also relaxed a bit as to what we eat at each meal.  As long as the majority of each meal is healthy, I am satisfied.  I am satisfied because I have realized through this process that it is also important to feed the soul.  Maybe it's the Italian in me?  Whatever it is, it's important to enjoy the food we eat and be able to sit around the dinner table together saying "mmm, this is good."  I've been loving that too. 

Josh and I also made a new rule of eating out on Sundays only and that doesn't mean every Sunday.  Even just once a week is more than what was the norm back in the day.  We also found a little treasure called Strawberry Hills Farm at Greenbluff where we can get organic, fresh produce that we pick ourselves.  That alone has encouraged us to eat better.  When you're out in the garden picking those fresh vegetables, it just makes you feel healthier.  It's like you're soaking up the nutrients through osmosis.

I have also become a little more relaxed about our diet because I found something interesting the other day.  As I was filing some paperwork that had piled up on our desk, I found the ER report from my hospital visit with our third baby.  They did some detailed blood work as well as a detailed urine analysis.   By the time the miscarriage happened, I had been slacking a little in regards to what I ate. When I started doing research on balancing my hormones naturally and ran across how pH can effect hormone levels, I felt maybe I was too acidic and that was causing my lack of progesterone.   Well, while looking at my ER report, I saw my pH levels listed.  Wow, why didn't I see this before?   Guess, what!?  I couldn't have had a better pH balance.  I was perfectly alkaline and that was after eating some chocolate the night before.   So this quest for a more alkaline pH level was pretty much unnecessary because I already was.  That doesn't mean it can't become unbalanced though.  However, I am thankful for the path I took because it really has renewed my commitment to healthy eating and has stirred a passion in me to not only cook but also to create delicious meals.