For those of you who follow my blog, you may have kept up with my Shadow Work Series this past winter. Just too quickly recap; during my time (the time of the Crone) of inward reflection, I began seriously looking at what I was struggling with in my life, where I was holding back and what needed to be fixed. As I was emerging from this shadow work into my light work period, I made some significant discoveries. Among those were, the fact that since I had stopped smoking on March 14, 2017 I had begun to pick up my previous bad eating habits, ultimately leading to some weight being gained that I previously had a difficult time loosing, which lead to some negative inward feelings and thoughts. I had traced back and discovered the root of so many things I was struggling with. So, to quickly sum up, it lead me to my New Beginnings blog on taking my life back, my health back, to stop making excuses and start making changes. Additionally, most of my followers are aware that I write product reviews for Facing North. I was presented with the opportunity to read and review a completely new and different style book then normally available. This one was titled Turbo Metabolism by Pankaj Vij. While I knew I wanted to make some changes in my diet, I must admit I began this book with a healthy amount of skepticism. I am a Midwestern girl, grew up on a farm raising animals that ended up on our table, I have hunted game in the fall and I currently raise chickens for eggs, etc. I quickly realized this book was challenging me in ways that I eat that I didn’t really think about before. Like many others, I looked at healthy meats, dairy, etc. as part of the food groups. Finishing the book I felt very motivated. Not that I had been completely sold by only what I read but it absolutely made my mind question what I was doing and encouraged me to seek out my own research. Consuming my time for several days I launched my own internet research on all the claims. During this research I came across some recommended television documentaries. At this point I am making big diet changes. I am seeing undoubted evidence that I need to look more closely at a whole food plant based diet. I mention these concerns over this time to my family and they immediately thought me crazy. They were ready to burn the book I’d been reading even with my argument of the supported online evidence. My husband was 100% carnivore. Over the years I had tried the meatless Mondays several times and it always ended in complete failure. He swore a meal was not a meal without meat. One daughter said sure no problem but I’m not giving up bacon ?????? The other said I was crazy if I asked her to give up cheese. My eavesdropping 5 year old son said heck no, he loves cows, pigs, fish, bacon, sausage, and continued for a while with all the other meats he could think of……like father like son. One day I decided to begin watching the first documentary I had recommended to me called What the Health. My oldest daughter and husband had just come home from school and work and watched it with me. We all three ended that show on the same page. WE NEEDED TO MAKE BIG CHANGES. My daughter was now 100% on board; my husband made a big commitment to take steps in that direction although was adamant that he was going to slowly finish the meats in the freezer because he had paid for them. But both were ready to leave right then to go to the store and stock up on more fruits and veggies. This was a pretty pivotal day in our family. My younger daughter saw enough of the show that she was now on board. And I realized my son was taking all his queues from all of us. Over the course of some time we listened, and found more and more research online and on documentaries. Things like the television show Forks over Knifes and Rotten blew our minds and honestly made us angry. They were finally seeing and hearing what I had tried telling them the weeks before that I was discovering. Although it would be difficult we were going to make significant changes to our families diet and their future and I was excited…..and a bit overwhelmed. Keep watch for other blogs in this series to keep up with our progress. Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/susan3032/7522878822/
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Keri Nichol
Founder, Artist, Herbalist, and Writer Archives
August 2018
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