The final frontier

Back story – I occasionally get to hang out with some very passionate and dedicated moms.  They all have adopted children who struggle in various ways and degrees.   A number of years ago, several of them were extremely dedicated to making major diet changes on the continuing journey of helping their children heal.

A confession – when they would start to talk about this, my eyes would glaze over, my mind would shut down and I would cover my ears and run away screaming from these conversations.  Well, I didn’t literally do this, but in my heart, soul and mind, that was my posture.  Life was challenging enough; this was way too hard; no way we are going down that path.

Fast forward to today – with a tremendous amount of gratitude, along with heart and mind that still question and rebel, our family is now walking this path.  We have connected with a naturopath, listened to her expertise and wisdom and the results have been quite astounding.

The truth is that I, mom, had to be in a much healthier place in order to even remotely consider this option.  It requires a great deal of time, resources and energy with a big dose of “doing the best that we can” mentality that I simply didn’t have in years past.   My former self might have gone down the path of lots of regrets, thoughts about time lost and a mental beating up of my inadequacies.  Thanks be to God, today it is clear, most of the time, that we truly are doing the best that we can, the timing was never right before and we were just not ready to go there.  Grace.

I promise not to harp on all the failings of our food system and how much process has messed up nutrition.  It is just wrong that “natural flavors” on a label is code for MSG.  There is plenty of info out there on the topic for anyone who wants to know.  No judgment from me if you cover up your ears and run away screaming.

Suffice it to say I now spend a lot of time reading labels, cooking from scratch and trying out new cookbooks and blogs.  We rarely eat out or take out – I really miss it – and when we do, we have to have a lot of dialogue with whichever poor soul waits on our table.  Thankfully there are, in this day, grocery stores and restaurants that are sensitive to such things – it wasn’t very long ago that such a lifestyle commitment would be almost impossible.

Inspired by our children, I am more convinced that food is pharmacy.  It is now time for me to personally explore healthier ways of eating and living.  The challenge is to incorporate what I learn, navigate the sweet spot between obsessive black and white and anything goes nutrition, give myself lots of grace and enjoy the journey.  This new frontier may hold lots of surprises.

 Who knew there were so many flour choices in this world?  Just a small sampling.