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Do your family dinners count?
I was 33 and I had five major dreams attained. Handsome husband, check. Three beautiful kids, check. A design company of my own, check. Home owner, check. A white picket fence, check.
These were dreams embedded deep in my soul, since the days of lemonade stands and doll play, and 90210 episodes.
But all the sudden they felt not enough.
My dreams were changing.
I was struggling in my role of mom.
I was exhausted.
I did not know how to cook, and I was being tested by a long list of home items that simply did not exist before kids.
My new dreams included a full night’s sleep, 10 minutes to take a shower without being interrupted, a day away (anywhere) from my family, I'm kidding, a little, but really, what I most wanted was a personal chef..., who would feed all of us and wash the dishes. But somehow those dreams felt wrong. I was a mom, and moms happily make dinner.
The thing I have not mentioned is I gained 85 pounds in my first pregnancy and did not lose it.
One day at my office, at about 3pm. I remember looking up at a stack of Starbucks cups — maybe five — that had collected over the course of the day. I remember thinking I have to get home soon to the kids. I remember wondering what they should have for dinner. I remember feeling exhausted and wondering how that was possible after all that coffee.
I remember knowing that something had to change.
So that day, staring at the coffee cups, I decided to tackle the one thing that felt tangible, my weight.
And the next day — with a little help from a coach — I changed my food.
I had been on a few diets in my life, but this one was different.
I was eating real food.
I tell people the weight melted off. but I am not sure that it was that it happened so fast or it just did not matter.
Within days, I was off 3 medicines that I took daily, and my energy was off the charts (with no coffee!)
I understood for the first time in my life that what I ate was attached to how I feel.
How could I not have known this?
I had added in foods that I had not known existed 2 weeks prior, or if I did, I would have definitely not known what to do with them - kale, collards, cacoa, nori, saurerkraut. .
I needed to get my oxygen mask on first, and once it was securely on, I turned my eyes and heart to my 4-year old daughter who was not thriving.
She did not pay attention in school, she had a hard time sleeping, and she was covered in eczema. And nothing that doctors were prescribing was working — from therapy or cream.
Luckily, I was able to turn to food. One week after no dairy and no gluten, we had a different child. She was rash free, and her teacher felt she had a new child in the classroom.
Meanwhile, I had dove into the world of food. I did this by talking to every health “guru” who would take my call. I learned so much about food and ingredients from this group, but the thing that stuck out to me most was that lots of their kids rebelled and left the house to eat crap.
And this is when I realized my work as a mom was one part food and one part parenting. My goal became learning how to raise kids who would someday become healthy adults.
And to be clear, by healthy I mean mean using all the tools that are in our control and come from the natural world to avoid sickness and brain fog — food, sleep, water, exercise to name a few.
We almost always look at what we need to eliminate when we think of getting healthy, whether it’s our health, our kids health or our family’s health, but it is...
4.9
7878 ratings
Do your family dinners count?
I was 33 and I had five major dreams attained. Handsome husband, check. Three beautiful kids, check. A design company of my own, check. Home owner, check. A white picket fence, check.
These were dreams embedded deep in my soul, since the days of lemonade stands and doll play, and 90210 episodes.
But all the sudden they felt not enough.
My dreams were changing.
I was struggling in my role of mom.
I was exhausted.
I did not know how to cook, and I was being tested by a long list of home items that simply did not exist before kids.
My new dreams included a full night’s sleep, 10 minutes to take a shower without being interrupted, a day away (anywhere) from my family, I'm kidding, a little, but really, what I most wanted was a personal chef..., who would feed all of us and wash the dishes. But somehow those dreams felt wrong. I was a mom, and moms happily make dinner.
The thing I have not mentioned is I gained 85 pounds in my first pregnancy and did not lose it.
One day at my office, at about 3pm. I remember looking up at a stack of Starbucks cups — maybe five — that had collected over the course of the day. I remember thinking I have to get home soon to the kids. I remember wondering what they should have for dinner. I remember feeling exhausted and wondering how that was possible after all that coffee.
I remember knowing that something had to change.
So that day, staring at the coffee cups, I decided to tackle the one thing that felt tangible, my weight.
And the next day — with a little help from a coach — I changed my food.
I had been on a few diets in my life, but this one was different.
I was eating real food.
I tell people the weight melted off. but I am not sure that it was that it happened so fast or it just did not matter.
Within days, I was off 3 medicines that I took daily, and my energy was off the charts (with no coffee!)
I understood for the first time in my life that what I ate was attached to how I feel.
How could I not have known this?
I had added in foods that I had not known existed 2 weeks prior, or if I did, I would have definitely not known what to do with them - kale, collards, cacoa, nori, saurerkraut. .
I needed to get my oxygen mask on first, and once it was securely on, I turned my eyes and heart to my 4-year old daughter who was not thriving.
She did not pay attention in school, she had a hard time sleeping, and she was covered in eczema. And nothing that doctors were prescribing was working — from therapy or cream.
Luckily, I was able to turn to food. One week after no dairy and no gluten, we had a different child. She was rash free, and her teacher felt she had a new child in the classroom.
Meanwhile, I had dove into the world of food. I did this by talking to every health “guru” who would take my call. I learned so much about food and ingredients from this group, but the thing that stuck out to me most was that lots of their kids rebelled and left the house to eat crap.
And this is when I realized my work as a mom was one part food and one part parenting. My goal became learning how to raise kids who would someday become healthy adults.
And to be clear, by healthy I mean mean using all the tools that are in our control and come from the natural world to avoid sickness and brain fog — food, sleep, water, exercise to name a few.
We almost always look at what we need to eliminate when we think of getting healthy, whether it’s our health, our kids health or our family’s health, but it is...
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