One Of Those (Our All Natural Food and Lifestyle Journey)
Yup, we are one of those people. The people that shop at farmers’ markets, eat organic foods, drink raw milk, rub essentials oils all over themselves, use all natural cleaning products, make their own deodorants, promote breastfeeding, and the likes of that. And to tell you the truth, I never thought I’d become “one of those” but I did and I am so thankful that I am. To boil it down as to why we decided to walk this path almost 5 years ago is simply this: to be healthy, free of sickness, and to care for the earth as best and humanely as we can.
That’s what it comes down to. To live a long and healthy life for me and my family. I know the Lord could take us away any time, any day. But I know I can also try to avoid and prevent sickness and disease from being one of the reasons of leaving this world. If you knew how to do that, wouldn’t you do it?
This whole journey started for us when Gavin was born. I believe that’s when a lot of moms started realizing the food they were eating and were about to give to their babies. It is pretty terrifying to learn what is actually in processed foods, what chemicals are laced on our produce, and the type of treatment and poison that is being fed to the animals that are inhumanely slaughtered and then given to us to eat. I watched the documentaries and cried and vowed to change our ways.
Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight. It took us 4 years to become 100% organic in our consumption. It is very costly BUT let me put it to you this way: I would rather spend the extra money upfront to be healthy rather than spend that extra money later on medical bills. You get what I’m saying? We changed our budget around to make food one of the top priorities of where our money goes to each month. That means no getting nails done, hair done, clothes shopping for me except here and there. We only eat out once every other week. I can’t even tell you the last time we went to see a movie. I pack lunches everywhere we go. And I’m very happy to do it.
Do we slip on our diet occasionally? YES! Very much so. Especially when I’m in school and can’t cook all the time. But that’s where the oils and vitamins and supplements come in whenever our diet is not very good.
I’m just here to write my testimony, not write out the facts. I’ll leave you a lot of links to websites for that! My testimony is this: Ben and I have not been sick in over 2 years except for the occasional colds and Gavin hadn’t been sick in over a year (and he goes to school full time). Gavin hadn’t seen his doctor in over a year except for his wellness check-ups for his birthdays. And we don’t get the flu shot. Ben has digestion issues but when we stick ot a gluten-free and paleo diet, he has no problems at all. I break out in rashes quite often but if I stick to gluten-free, my flare ups are few and in between. Isn’t that amazing?
God is so good. When he made us, he gave us everything we needed on this earth to care for ourselves. That is not to say we don’t see the doctor – we do! I am so thankful for doctors, surgeons, hospitals, I truly am! I believe that there are some amazing life saving things that they are able to do in an emergency and I am so glad that they are there. But our doctor is not who we call up right when we get the sniffles. We battle out the sickness with foods and oils first and 9 times out of 10, that’s all we need to do.
So to all of you that are “one of those”, I made two prints that are FREE to download. They’re my two favorites when I think about this lifestyle that we are on.
I love the first one. Knowing that food is your medicine is not a new thing. We’ve forgotten that food heals us but as technology advanced, we’ve focused one how to do things faster, how to make more of it, and how to make it cheap, food is now destroying us.
The second one should ring true to most of us. I travel to a lot of different grocery stores every week to get food. Or I’ll drive to somebody’s house to pick up co-op meat or produce. And then once every other month, I will drive 2 hours away to a raw milk farm to buy gallons of milk and eggs. Who knew that all this traveling for food would be bibilical?
You can download the Hippocrates here and Proverbs 31:14 here.
Resources
Documentaries to watch: Food Inc. and Food Matters and they’re both on Netflix. Netflix has a lot of great food documentaries so just watch them all. 🙂
Living Water Health and Wellness: My dearest friend, Brandy, writes an amazing blog about her journey in holistic and biblical living. She has a lot of great posts for those who are just starting out on this journey. She is my #1 resource for anything and everything!
Find a Food Co-Op in your area
Find a Raw Milk Farm in your area
Young Living Essential Oils: we buy and use Young Living essential oils for headaches, tummy troubles, fevers, muscle soreness to helping you sleep,
giving you energy, and taking away stress. I cannot live without my oils! And word of advice, don’t buy the oils that are carried in the stores…they are not 100% therapeutic and most of them have other chemicals mixed in…yikes!
Modern Alternative Mama: This is another great blog with a lot of resources and articles on holistic living!
Make your own deodorant: did you know aluminum is now linked to being with of the factors that causes breast cancer? You can read about it here. I find that the natural deodorants in the store don’t keep the BO away and you’ll need to reapply often. I’ve started making my own and it works SO MUCH BETTER!
Against All Grain: my favorite paleo and gluten-free recipes can be found here. This is how we eat at home. And Danielle’s story is amazing! If you or someone you know suffers from Ulcerative Colitis, please read and share!
If you guys think of anything else I should post a link to, let me know! And if you ever have questions, you can email me at ftlojoy (at) gmail (dot) com.
Good health to everyone!
I am Anna Joy. These are the things that make me.
I follow Jesus. He is my life because he has given me new life. The things that I accomplish are because of Him.