Filling Bodies With Better Food

Photo: Raw For Beauty

So, as you all know, I'm doing the Master Cleanse for a week as a way to get toxins out of my body and kick-start a healthier way of eating. As of this morning, I've lost 5 pounds. Yes, the "cleansing" part finally started, and not to give you too much information, each time I leave the powder room I feel lighter. My hubby was about 12 hours behind me on starting the cleanse, and he's down 4 pounds as of this morning.

Now I'm at the point of planning menus for when we finally get back to eating foods. Our new way of eating is going to include far more fruits and vegetables, more home-cooked meals with REAL foods, and fewer processed and sweetened foods (meaning: sugary foods in general, excluding fruit). We are not so naive (nor do we have the desire) to think we can or will cut out ALL processed and sweetened foods. We *DO*, however, have the desire to find a good balance...at least a balance that works for us.

I have so many great cookbooks with recipes that all of us in the family can enjoy. All of us in this house have been eating far too much crap. I cannot help but think of all the toxicity we've introduced into our bodies willingly. We *DO* have choices about what we eat. We can make healthier choices, and we absolutely should be doing so. I look at my amazing children and feel a bit guilty for all of the crap that I have put down in front of them to eat. Their little bodies are still growing, and I want them to use healthier foods as building blocks.

The holidays are coming, so eating healthy means reconfiguring some of our favorite recipes. I am fine to include a couple of indulgences for the sake of the holiday. There are ways, however, of replacing some of the less-healthy ingredients with more-healthy ones. I am looking at a change in our way of life. Instead of loading the kid's holiday stockings with store-bought sugary candy, for example, I am planning to use fresh fruit and some home-made (with healthier ingredients) treats.

Our every day lives can be healthier, and I guess I'll put it right out there that this is going to be a sort of New Year's Resolution for me.  Time to get more toxicity out of our bodies and our lives. It is going to take some real thought about our every day choices. It will take some pre-planning of things we'd normally not even put thought into.  Maybe that is the key theme: Thoughtfulness. 

We need to put more THOUGHT and more CARE into our lives. This will help us live our lives more purposefully. It will allow us to be more PRESENT and MINDFUL in our lives.