Imagine
for a minute, you’re married for 8 years to the love of your life, and you have
lived your life your way for all these years; unaware of the food that you had ingested
was full of preservative chemicals, filler additives, and genetically modified
food. No one ever taught you that there are big differences in the food we eat.
Looking
back at my childhood, I was raised the “southern way”, the only way I knew. My
family never went out to eat. We were too
poor to afford that luxury. It would have been considered a luxury if we were actually
able to have such a blessing. My mom would save every penny she could by buying
food from the grocery store instead of eating out. The nutritional choices we had
to choose from were never really the best, simply because unhealthy food options
tend to be cheaper. She would buy white bread, whole milk, and very little
fruits and veggies. Now she didn’t make all unhealthy choices, understand that,
because she wouldn’t allow much candy or sweets in our home. (Only on occasions
such as holidays) She never allowed us to have sodas, and made water, milk, or unsweet
tea the staple of our drink choices.
My
sister and I, however, did live a very active lifestyle full of play and imagination.
I can recall us having cable one time as a child, and that didn't last long. We were the family that had
the 3-6 channels that worked and were free before the government regulated
that. My sister and I would always be outside roller skating, riding our bikes,
playing with the neighborhood friends, and getting dirty. If the weather wasn’t
great out we played with our Barbie’s or board games. Not sitting in front of a
TV playing video games. My sister and I had always been skinny. We never had
anyone that was obese at the time in our family. The only illness or disease we
knew our family having was Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Growing up I had seemed to
have had a great immune system. I went through Elementary-High School with only
missing one day, and it was due to chicken poxes when I was 5! When I graduated
I was actually awarded $500 threw the state and got the honor of sitting on
stage with all the A+ kids that did great things in High School. I thought it
was quite ironic, a C grade student on stage recognized for only perfect attendance.
Ha!
It
wasn’t until I started to date Chris that I learned of another person who wanted
to change their diet habits and their physical appearance. I was right there
with him. I told Chris that I was going to be supportive of anything he wanted
to do for himself. He tried many things: The Adkins, Weight Watchers, calorie
cutting, and I think he even tried a citrus diet in there as well. He started
to become more active and working out, but the diets worked for a while and
would then he gained it all back faster then he lost it. I knew then that this
was never going to be an easy task. I been skinny my whole life teased and ridiculed.
I took it for granite that I was thin.
Years
went by, and we had teamed up with a company called Usana. By this point I
thought nothing was going to change his weight. After all this time, why would
this be any different? I was so wrong! He lost weight and started to keep it
off! Usana also started to educate me on how diets were bad for you. I had the
light bulb go off in my head. I thought
I was healthy, living my whole life as “skinny” as I was, and not stumbling to
major illness. I wasn’t healthy…I was
lucky. But my time, if I didn’t make a change, was coming. I learned that if
you don’t eat organic fruits and vegetables, healthy lean meats, and proper supplementations
in your diet, your body will feel the effects, maybe not right away, but one poor
conscious choice at a time.
(old pic from 2 yrs ago will be taking new ones soon)
Having
Usana in our lives has saved my family from another uneducated sick generation.
After all, when families do something, good or bad, it tends to duplicate to the
next generation. When Chris and I had Brayden we didn’t want him to be raised nutritionally
like we were. We want him to be aware of why certain foods are not good for us.
Why we don’t eat at places his friends probably would. We’re not showing him it’s
something he’s not allowed to have; rather something he will proudly choose not
to have. I can be proud to say that Brayden has never ate at a McDonalds, never
been served a coke, and can choose yummy fruits and veggies with his meals. Our
family chooses supplementation, whole grains, fresh fruit and veggies, and lean
meats. Not processed foods and a sedimentary lifestyle. We go running together,
play in the backyard, jump on the trampoline, and enjoy having good old
fashioned fun. Now that’s something worth duplicating for generations to come.