The past year has been a discovery journey, in many senses, but more than anything some of the discoveries have had practical implications far beyond my own imagination.
First of all, what I have learned is to use my own brain when it comes to the food that we eat. That means bye bye authorities' dietary recommendations and it also mean A LOT of reading to make my brain apt for thinking on its own.
Two, no actually three, Swedish experts have through their books had a major role to play in this journey. Anna Hallen and her personal story (Anna Hallen Blog) opened my eyes and mind and got me wanting to know more. Andreas Eenfeldt's book the Food Revolution (Diet Doctor Blog) made me seriously distrust everything government ever said to be healthy. This is also when I decided myself to change not only my diet but my lifestyle, skipping processed foods, most carbs and embracing proteins and (real) fats as my main nutrion sources. First the change was inspired by the hope of getting rid of all sorts of craving, stabilizing my terrible mood swings and I won't deny it, also to loose some weight (see Patiperra's post in Spanish "Pan da poto"). In hinsight the change in diet was quite easy, while I followed the strategy later explained to a friend interested in the diet ( "Pan da poto - pero como eliminarlo?").
After 3-4 months of strict low carbing I started to feel hunger when I was actually hungry, satisfied when my body had had enough and my mood swings were almost gone. My body seemed to be in a balance it had never experienced before. But I was also a bit bored with the high (animal) fats and the restrictive LCHF rules which excluding many valuable foods from my diet. Also, after 4 months of label reading I was painfully aware of all the additives and sugars included in the rest of the family's food. On a day of open crossfire confrontation with Kidone, I just so happened to come across Ulrika Hoffer's book about the Wise Choice family (The book, the Blog, and Patiperra's discovery: "Reclaiming the hoods"). Her message went straight to my spinal cord. Things were about to change for the rest of the family as well. But it was only almost two months later when Kidone's mood swings got worse that I decided to give Hoffer's suggestions a real try ("Let the challenge begin"). Almost over one night was sugar, wheat and most milk products thrown out of this household with remarkable results (About changing lifestyle 1, About changing lifestyle 2). Kids suddenly started eating much more veggies, real food, and just seemed so much more balanced. Gone were the days of "pataletas" (serious tantrums) and instead we had a fightfree summer! Incredible! Kidone gained weight like never before and Kidtwo, well he continued growing and eating as before.
After this experience I started investigating even more what wrong sort of food really does to our body. I watched Robert Lustig's Bitter truth about sugar (Toxic sugar, Sugar - deceitful and dangerous), all episodes of Sugar Trap from the 80's (Kids and sugar) and I started following Doctor Davis's Wheatbelly blog ("A Must Read!", Wheat Belly Blog). There was no turning back; I was hooked on information about food and its impacts on our bodies.
Since September the food issues have been of primary importance in practice but also much more challenging, as Kidtwo started daycare and I myself went off on my own endeavors. Sweetdreams has been my freetimee hobby, helping to sort out my thoughts on food but also sharing my insights and doubts with those truly interested in the subject.
We have not looked back since that last week in May when we introduced the wise choice diet in this family. It's really impossible to think we would ever return to the old habits again (which I would says were never unhealthy to begin with, we ate mostly homecooked foods, but also a lot of pastas and bread, which I know now have a bad impact on our wellbeing). But we are still accomodating ourselves to this lifestyle. I am still looking for the ultimate recipe of healthy, sustainable, and most important of all, EASY living. To accomplish all this, there is a need of activating the brain, planning weekly shopping lists, where and when to buy what, and find the time for cooking from scratch. All for the healthy, easy living. My latest blog discovery, Wellness Mama, seems to be covering much of these topics.
In 2012, I aim at more excercise (untile now this has mostly been biking from point A to B) and start sleeping decent nights again. As for food, I hope the ingredients will be more organic and locally grown - abandoning our dependence on the big hypermarket ("Going Green") and exploring alternative food supply chains, such as the community food circle and the open markets. But that,my dear friends, will be the story of 2012!
Happy New Year 2012!
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