So here’s where I get to tell you why I started this crazy idea of writing about nourishing the next generation!
My name is Renee, and my heart just beats to see the next generation of kids grow up knowing where their food is coming from, and how food affects their bodies.
Do you *really* know how good your body is supposed to feel?
Years ago, I did not. I grew up on the “standard American diet”. My parents did what they were told – we ate our fruits and veggies (doused with transfats and corn syrup dressings), were served meat and milk at dinner (full of hormones and antibiotics), and, since I was born smack dab in the middle of the low fat craze, I munched on processed low fat snacks and boxed cereal for breakfast.
I spent the greater part of my 20’s in search of feeling better. Why was I so sluggish? Why couldn’t I concentrate? Why couldn’t I go to the bathroom? Why couldn’t I lose weight?
Half of my problems were solved in my gut healing journey right before I had my first daughter. I spent over a year eliminating various foods and working on healing a gut lining that was damaged from years of processed foods, thyroid issues, and not taking care of myself with stress and lack of sleep.
The other half was solved by a blessing in disguise. I did “everything in the book” to get breastfeeding to work with my firstborn, and by 6 weeks there was just nothing left for her. I stood in horror as I looked at the box of formula I was given. I may not have a nutrition degree, but it just didn’t sit right with me that the first ingredient was corn syrup, not milk.
My mama bear instincts propelled me into the biggest research project of my life to date. I found the Weston A. Price Foundation in my search for a better way to feed my baby. I learned about healthy fats, and traditional foods, and why they were so critical. And although I was already years into my gut healing with great success, this was just foreign language to me.
As I learned more about traditional food, light bulbs kept going on for me. How was I functioning on my current diet???
The fact was, I wasn’t.
When I started getting friendly fats and traditional foods into my diet, and finding replacements for all the processed “diet food” I was eating daily, I started feeling better. I didn’t even know I could feel this good. I started noticing weight come off effortlessly, more energy, and better sleep.
Simple, nourishing food can start a healing process. I have seen it with my own eyes.
SO. What does this have to do with nourishing the next generation?
Everything.
I now have 3 daughters. And I want them to grow up with nourished bodies. I want them to be able to operate the way they were designed to. With guts that are healed. Minds that function. I want them to know what it means to really feel their best.
And my heart just cries every time I see the marketing tactics at our children. Did you hear that?
AT. OUR. CHILDREN.
It is time to get defensive.
It is time to take the blinders off.
Back in the day, my generation was labeled “Generation X”, and, for various reasons, I always took offense to that. Sort of like we were the lost children. Maybe we were so lost because our brains were not able to function without being fed the healthy fats they needed to work. Maybe we were so lost because we were in a daze of corn syrup and red dyes.
Well, I am resolving to raise up a different generation. One that knows where it’s food comes from, and how it effects the body. One that has healed guts, functioning minds, and solid health.
And it needs to be able to be done in the “real world”. You know, the one with tight budgets, busy schedules, crying newborns, demanding toddlers, and school parties.
Let’s raise up Generation Nourished.
Who’s with me?