We are What We Eat - Really?

In my adult life, I've been pretty health conscious and an important part of keeping healthy is getting good wholesome foods.

Sometimes, as when my husband was away working and living in camp, our diets aren't the best and we are limited to when we can eat - he would be working late, have his supper and then it wasn't long before he went to bed.

After a long stint of camp life he noticed that he had put on a lot of weight with most of it around his belly and chest. Not a good sign and with some previous issues with high blood pressure I realized that we had to take action.

We started with a major cleanse (a bowel cleanse and a candida cleanse, for we both had been eating a lot of sweets.) This would also do the job of getting our bodies in shape so we can better utilize the foods we take in. We were going for more high quality, organic foods which are more expensive. No more junk foods or highly processed foods, we would be doing more of slow cooking (making a lot of our own stuff from scratch) or no cooking - raw foods.

Because we didn't want to fall back into old eating habits we cleaned out our cupboards and pantry.

No more white sugar, white flour or processed foods. We grew a lot of our own food or bought from local producers so we knew what went into our food.

Funny after that cleanse I lost all my cravings for sweets and my husband lost the weight he needed too! We were feeling better and those health concerns dropped away.

Until...

My husband got a little carried away with all these good healthy oils, incorporating it into all different parts of our meals. Plus we were having a lot of sweet fruits with our smoothie binge. He was putting on weight around his chest again and his abdomen plus I was putting on weight in places I didn't want it, which was making me a little uncomfortable.

He was becoming concerned about his health again and one day after I had returned from a weekend with my son and granddaughter, he sprung on me that he was going on this Keto diet. He had done all the research and he was into doing some of the cooking involved with it - he wanted to be a gourmet chef type! That sold me on joining him on this Keto diet which is basically High fat - low carb diet. This meant cutting out those sweet fruit which had become a big part of our diet that was a big change for me.

Once again we cleaned out our cupboards ( my daughter-in-law lucked out there for she was the recipient of a lot of those foods.) We cleaned out our grains, the dried beans, chickpeas and lentils, our dates and raisins (they were way to sweet, for the idea with this diet was to change from our body burning sugars for fuel, to burning fat), pastas, maple syrup, my husband's stash of Demera sugar for his coffee ( he was switching over to bullet coffee) and anything we had made and canned that had sugar in it.

Our Pantry Stocked for Our New Keto Diet

We cleaned out our grains, the dried beans, chickpeas and lentils, our dates and raisins (they were way to sweet, for the idea with this diet was to change from our body burning sugars for fuel, to burning fat), pastas, maple syrup, my husband's stash of Demera sugar for his coffee ( he was switching over to bullet coffee) and anything we had made and canned that had sugar in it.

Benefits from this Keto diet...

The Keto diet simplified our menu and grocery shopping which I liked. It's great to be cooking meals together and to see my husband enthused about meal prep. We lost the weight we wanted and now, after being on the diet for a year, our bodies have become fat adapted. With these high fat meals it lasts a lot longer, so you don't get hungry so quick. I have no problem having those extra blobs of ghee on our veggies and I'm generous with the oils I'm using. No more worrying about eating too much fat!

As part of this Keto diet we incorporated intermittent fasting along with it. That just entailed that we leave a period of at least 14 hours in between our last meal of the day and breakfast the next day. This would give our digestive system a break.

With this I was more conscious of my eating - mindful eating. No more just grabbing a snack out of the fridge. Old habits would start to arise and I would ask myself "am I really hungry or am I eating out of habit?" When we are eating, we are mostly eating to satiation, so we don't have those cravings for anything extra and I've learned to balance my food intake with my activity level.

All in all we are pretty happy with our diet, we have some pretty fine dining and we're both feeling better on this diet which we have completely incorporated into our lifestyle.

You are what you eat?

I think so. If you stuff a bunch of junk in your body you can't expect to feel too great but if you are eating healthy, wholesome foods, live, vibrant foods, you can expect to have better health and be more vibrant!

Pantry image my original, heath and nutrition image from Graphicstock

This post is in response to @naturalmedicine's 'Food as Medicine' Wisdom Challenge. You can read about it [here](https://steempeak.com/naturalmedicine/@naturalmedicine/exploring-the-healing-power-of-food-win-over-40-steem-in-prizes). It's sponsored by Curie and there are over 40 steem worth of prizes on offer. You can write about recipes, particular foods, family memories, special diets - anything you like! Entries until 27 July.

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