The new us..

So around here we've been working pretty hard on creating a healthier lifestyle for the whole family (Martin, Jen, Etta, and myself of course); most of this includes how and what we eat.  Martin and I decided a long time ago we were going to try our best to have our children eat healthy and naturally, even if that meant we ourselves had to change quite a bit, and we needed to change quite a bit.  This year Martin cut out soda, candy, and icecream, and I have somewhat kept up with him.  But in order to really make sure I'm doing the best I can I took it a step further and decided to cut out all artificial colors and flavors, at least to the best of my ability.  I've always felt that anything artificial should not be put into our bodies, but it really is just so hard to avoid!  In our house it hasn't been a problem at all, because we do most of our own cooking and from scratch, but ANY where else, it's an issue.  I know that if I go to a baby shower, or a dinner invite, or birthday party that a majority of the food will be something that I would prefer to not eat, as well as Etta, and that doesn't bother me.  What's really hard is when people make you feel that you're making a bad decision by eating healthier, how does this make sense!?  I've always known and realized that sometimes others don't support good decisions, perhaps because it makes them feel bad for their decisions and lifestyle, but regardless, we're doing this!  The last few weeks I have felt so much better (less headaches and body aches, less abdominal cramping, more energy) and I think that with keeping the artificial out of my diet, it makes the decision of what to eat or not to eat so easy.  I see desserts and candy and I can just easily say no.

Well with all this being said, my recipes that I post are going to unfortunately reflect this.  I have a lot of growth to do, in terms of recipe knowledge and what not.  Trying to create delicious and fun recipes but that keep out the artificial, the gluten, the sugar, a lot of the dairy, and even less meat as well, is going to be tough, but so far, we're figuring this out.