I grab a hat and mittens from the closet, my jacket from its hook and my keys from theirs as Koda dances beside me.  I put on my boots, throw the ski poles and the snowshoes into the back of the Subaru.  Tell Koda to jump in.  And we’re off.

I am so lucky to have Mount Wachusett in my backyard.  It’s a 10 minute drive to the trail head.  We park, get out, say hello to a friend who’s just finishing up her walk with her dogs, and head out on the trail.  This morning I decide I’d like to get a picture of the windmills and so we head to a field which offers a view.  Along the way, though, I set my ski poles in the ground and get a picture of Koda with the sun rising in the background.  She patiently obliges but she’d much rather we keep moving.  And so tomorrow, I tell her, we will have more time.  We will get up early to beat the weekend crowds and walk for a couple of hours.  Non-stop.  Just me, God, and my dog in the woods.  It’s my happy place and I can’t wait for tomorrow morning.  Neither can Koda.

It’s taken me until now, however, to process and post some pictures from that day.  I haven’t had a lot of time to work on my photography lately.

The two models are Ashley and Priya.  Very pretty girls.

Here are some pictures from the day:

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Fast forward to my new Eat to Live way of eating.  I told my doctor I was following this plan and asked him to check my cholesterol numbers while checking some other things.  He said I wouldn’t see results this soon.  Well, both of us were surprised.  My total cholesterol went from 215 to 172!  Finally, I did it.  I just had to use food as medicine. The right food.

172 is still the highest range of normal, but it reinforces that I’m on the right track.  And I’m glad to have that to hold onto, because sometimes I just can’t figure out what I feel like eating.  The rest of my family is eating bakery French, Italian, Sourdough breads.  Oh man.  They’re eating meat, which doesn’t do anything for me, but the smell is sometimes very enticing.  They are eating cheese.  I miss a nice grilled cheese and tomato sandwich on bakery bread.

So, I will be diligent.  I will figure out what foods are pleasurable on this diet that satisfy me like a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich used to.  I love a nice baked sweet potato.  It comes close.  I sometimes have to go off the diet when I’m out and there are no other options and I don’t feel as good afterward.  It’s hard eating different than most of the rest of the world.

I CAN do this.  And my numbers are down!  Not only my cholesterol, but my weight.  I’ve lost 12 pounds, and I like my slimmer figure.  All positive reinforcement.  I WILL Eat to Live!

One thing I like to do is cut up an apple and add raisins, chopped walnuts and cinammon.  This morning I made a fruit concoction (see picture, above) from an orange, a kiwi, a date, some pecans, some unsweetened dried coconut and some ground flax seeds.  I’m having a lot of fun thinking these things up and they taste delicious.  It almost feels like I am cheating and having dessert for breakfast.  Which reminds me.  These are also great options for desserts - although you would definitely want a smaller portion.  That apple concoction, especially, really fills me up.

1. Add frozen fruit to the blender.  I freeze any of my fruit that is starting to go bad (well, not citrus, I wind up juicing that) to use for these shakes.
2. Add filtered water to make the right consistency (you’ll figure this out over time).  You can also use juice, but juice is high in sugar so I’ve switched to water.
3. Then you get to add some extra health!  Here are some options - wheat grass powder, grated ginger, ground flax seeds, protein powder.
4. Blend and enjoy!  (Even if you wind up with a funky color)

Here’s another shake I make when I need my chocolate fix:

1. Add a frozen banana to the blender
2. Add enough almond milk to make a full glass.
3. Add a dash of vanilla.
4. Add a scoop of Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa.
5. Blend and enjoy! (this one looks good, too.  Just like a chocolate milkshake.)

After reading that book I started using healthy beauty products - ones without parabens and sodium lauryl sulphate.  I found a deodorant without aluminum in it.  I switched to Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, although I think I could actually even go healthier than that.  I think it was also around that time that we switched to an organic lawn service (yes, we have a lawn service.  I feel a little weird about that, but it really is nice knowing that our lawn is being fed all good things).

Next up.  The food.  This book is where I first learned about food combining - eating foods in proper combination so they move swiftly through your digestive tract.  I don’t really practice that too much anymore, but I was able to cure my reflux disease and get off of medicine by following this recommendation.  I won’t go into the principles here, you can search for them online if you would like to find out more.

This book says sugar, refined flour, processed oils, caffeine, and dairy are bad.  Dairy, wow.  That was a new one for me.

Over the years I’ve really tried to figure this out.  What were we made to eat?  What foods will best nourish our body?  The conclusion I’ve come to that makes sense to me amid all the nutrition noise is that foods in the closest form to how they are found in nature are probably the best for us.  Man, in all his infinite wisdom, has mucked around with our food supply and our health.  We now have fake butter, fake sugar, fake oils, fake food color.  Those can’t be good for us.  I know it deep in my soul.  I’ve always felt this way since the days of growing up with margarine in the house.  Even as a kid I never felt that margarine was healthy for you because man made it up.

So, here are some of the diets I’ve read about on this journey.  And some of them I’ve tried.  Southbeach.  The Zone.  Eat Right for Your Blood Type.  Nourishing Traditions.  The Mediterranean diet. Ultrametabolism. Vegetarian. Vegan. Raw. Eat to Live.

Some of these felt like they had pieces of what I was trying to find.  But it wasn’t until I read Eat to Live that I felt like all the pieces fell into place.  And I’ve decided on a Vegan diet for myself, because I’m not a huge fan of meat and I love vegetables to death!  I’ve really been a vegetarian at heart my whole life, although I’ve denied that part of myself as people questioned my diet.  I remember my doctor, when I was pregnant, telling me to eat some meat.  As far as the milk goes, a LOT of sources say milk isn’t good for you, and even the Nourishing Traditions book says your milk should be raw.  Pasteurization changes the structure of our milk.  Once again, man interfering with something natural.  For me to find and make use of raw milk and cheese (and I really don’t even LIKE milk), it’s just easier not to eat/drink it.  And I love my almond (or rice) milk.

So, even though I am not choosing to eat meat and dairy, I believe if you (or I, at some point) do choose to eat these items you should choose organic, grass-fed, free range meat and eggs and dairy sources.  And don’t buy pasteurized milk.

My current dietary guidelines are these:

• No sugar, or if sweetener is needed, use honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, or dates.
• No refined flour.  I use wheat tortilla wraps or wheat flat bread.  I use brown rice.  I use brown rice pasta (like it WAY better than whole grain pasta and so does my family, who aren’t really on this journey with me yet).  There are a lot of other nice grains such as Quinoa that I am going to try to integrate into my diet.
• Limited processed foods.  I say limited, because Trader Joe’s has some pretty healthy frozen foods for those times when you need to grab something quick.  But actually, I’ve started cooking and freezing my own “processed” foods for quick meals.
• Eat beans and dark green vegetables for protein and calcium.
• Eat a variety of raw and cooked vegetables.
• Eat (raw) nuts and avocados for healthy fats.
• Drink water, unsweetened ice tea (decaf if possible), decaf teas, green tea.
• Dried fruit (and fresh fruit) is my new “candy.”
• For my chocolate fix (I do still need that, but not as often) I make a health shake with unsweetened cocoa - Ghirardelli makes the yummiest cocoa - or I have a square of Lindt dark chocolate (but I’m not enjoying that as much as the shake.  Good for melting and dipping fruit pieces, though).
• A multivitamin so I get vitamin B12 (this is missing from the vegan diet) - plus I take extra vitamin D and fish oil.

That’s it.  My diet in a nutshell.  At this point, anyway.  I will keep researching health because it is a passion.

You couldn’t gain weight as a toothpick of an adolescent, but that hasn’t been a problem since you had kids.  As a matter of fact, for most of your adult years you’ve been carrying around an extra 10 to 20 pounds.  Actually, probably 30 at the worst times.  It bothers you, but not enough to do something about it.

You wonder at the body you see in the mirror.  Wrinkles.  Why already?  Gray hair.  Why already?  And it’s not just what you see in the mirror it’s how you feel.  There are aches and pains in your body.  Joints, bones.  If you sit in one position too long you stiffen up.  Sometimes when you bend down you grunt as you stand back up.

You go to the doctor and your cholesterol numbers are on the high side.  She suggests medication.  You don’t want to go there yet.  You figure you can get your numbers down with diet.  That’s a good plan, yeah.  Only you can’t seem to stick to the diet.  The memory of your grandfather who had a stroke and lived for 10 years without being able to walk or talk niggles at the back of your brain.  But you still can’t seem to stick to the diet.

There is so much confusing information out there on diet.  High protein, low carb, low fat, low glycemic load, food combining, soy is good, soy is bad, dairy is important, dairy is poison, eat meat, don’t eat meat.  It makes your head spin.  You cut out sugar and refined flour and you loose weight.  But then you cheat.  I’ll just have a little ice cream.  I’ll just have a little more.  Sour dough bread isn’t supposed to be as bad as white bread, I’ll just have a little piece.  I don’t have time to cook a healthy meal, I’ll just make some spaghetti.  I should make a salad, too, but that will take to long.  Tomato sauce is made from vegetables….

You wonder what is wrong with you.  You know what you need to do.  But you still won’t do it.  You aren’t eating right.  You aren’t walking much anymore.  What happened to those daily hikes that made you feel so alive?  Why can’t you get back to that place?

Then it happens.  One of your best friends gets cancer.  On top of 3 other people you know that have cancer.  And they are all your age.  It’s the wake up call.  It’s the “enough is enough” moment.  It’s the push you need.  You buckle down and start researching diets again.  You talk to people.  You finally find a diet that makes sense.  Something you can do for the rest of your life.  Only you rename it a “live it” since you want to be living with it forever.  And you start to follow it.  Really follow it.  Even though it’s not easy all the time.  But you stick with it.  Because you’ve had enough.  Enough!

That’s my story.  Sound familiar?

1. Because I’m trying to get my cholesterol numbers down with just diet.
2. Because a good friend has breast cancer and I told her I would do a nutritional component of her treatment with her. Really, we’re at different places with diet right now, but we’re both trying to eat healthy and maybe at some point our “live its” will converge. Maybe not.  But we can still support each other in our efforts because there are a lot of common principles.
3. Because I knew I wasn’t eating the right things for optimal health. Our human bodies are amazing and survive on less-than-optimal nutrition. But do they thrive? Nope.  And if you don’t believe me, just look around you.  How many people do you know who have diabetes, heart disease, cancer?

And so I’m trying to figure this all out. Right now I’m basically on what most people call a vegan diet. No meat (not a problem for me, a vegetarian diet is my preferred way of eating). No dairy. Yipes! No yogurt? No cheese? This part has been the hardest. No processed foods. Takes longer to prepare food, but this is healthy eating. Very limited sugar - any sugar is mostly natural sugar like honey, agave nector, and maple syrup. But I’m really not using much of that, either.  I’m mostly satisfying my sweetness needs with real fruit.

So, lots of vegetables, lots of fruit.  Complex grains.  Legumes (a.k.a beans).  I’m feeling good.  I also take a multivitamin because this “live it” doesn’t supply adequate amounts of vitamin b12.  More on that another time.

The basic concepts are to eat foods that have a high nutrient-to-calorie ratio and that vegetables and fruits provide phytochemicals, which are powerful weapons in fighting off disease.  Turns out this “live it” is also helping me loose weight.   Which wasn’t my primary goal, but it sure is a nice side benefit!

I plan on posting more about healthy living on my site.  I’ve not been actively blogging for awhile, but I hope to change that.

If you want to find out more about this “live it,” pick up the book “Eat to Live” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  Or visit his website.

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I sat there amazed, and this incredible peace came over me.  Suddenly the crazy world below was out of sight and now it was out of mind.  Instead, I enjoyed a visual feast for the eyes.  I felt so close to God and was reminded that this is the world He created and He is in control.  And His work (this world) is beautiful, no matter how much and how often man messes it up.

I didn’t miss church on Sunday, after all.