Everything in Moderation, Including Moderation...

Now I don't tend to follow this rule often. Here is an example that makes Curtis laugh and shake his head at me. One Girl Scout cookie season in college I overindulged in Thin Mints. Yeah, just sat there in my papa-san chair in my apartment with a frozen roll of thin mint cookies until all I had was an empty tube of plastic wrapping. Then I proceeded to get sick and throw up a brown, minted sugary concoction that shall have ever scarred me from wanting a taste of his mint (green) chocolate ice cream.

Things you learn are not always pleasant, nor are they pleasing to the ears. I want to be up front about this new journey that I embarking on because I feel it is important and I am toying with the idea of laying it all out on the public line of blog-o-sphere. You must understand that I can be a fence sitter and I can be an all or nothing kind of girl too. I am damn stubborn and have always been cautioned to keep my privacy. The more I read other's blogs, the more I am compelled that what we put out there helps others to not feel as alone!

So the hope is in my on-going quest to be a better person, you can soak in the information with me. On a very quick synopsis in my recent adult life:

• We make the effort to buy in our local community (amazing what politics and city taxes will do to one's opinion)
• I vowed to use reusable grocery bags (great deal at 1 Bag at a Time - factoids are there, then go to products in the top menu bar to buy/see the variety). Confession: I still have an "addiction" to Target bags for mini trash can liners.
• Also to rid our home of the caustic chemicals and go for a more natural/environmentally safe approach in cleaning products (I looked into making soap...lye and lard don't really appeal to me as a hobby).
• A year ago we started using up all the white flour and sugar out of our house (haven't bought any more since--feeling healthier for it)
• This year it is to limit processed foods and go as wholesome as we can

The last one leads to the biggest revolution and one that really my gut has always told me: A wholesome diet is paramount. When I eat too much sugar my body rejects/ejects it. The severe reduction in white/refined sugar makes it now seem like crack - e.g. having a bakery piece of banana bread at an event had me virtually moan over the feeling of little sugar crystals crunching under my teeth. Crazy right?!? But, sugar restriction --that's how my mom even raised us for as long as she had control over what went into our little mouths and I am thankful for it. The extreme of that situation is one summer my sister and I scoured the house for a sugary bit. We thought we had the mother load with a found box of Baker's Chocolate in the top of the pantry...instead we met our bitter end there and my mom could claim victory that our home was an oasis of health.

Dinner time was always a serving of meat, a salad, a vegetable and starch (normally white rice or the occasional potato-something). My mom always cooked dinner, sent us to school with brown bag lunches (sandwich & fruit/veg) and was there to make us a snack when we got home from school (celery with PB and maybe even raisins on top of that) and Dad made sure we always had our breakfast before we were off to school. I am lucky to be so loved and criticize nothing my parents did for our family's nutrition--we had only the best.

Now in reading about nutrition that foundation is confused (to say the least). The little skittles in my head have exploded and I am in the process of sorting out what I want to do. To eat meat? OR not to eat meat?!? I can't even believe I am asking myself this question.