If you missed last week’s post about our journey to living The Spirited Fresh Timeless Life, you can read about it here. This is how it all started 15 months ago.
We all have those moments that change our life forever. The day, 13 years ago, that I met my best friend. The afternoon, 8 years later, that I finally got to marry him. The day we put everything we owned into a moving truck and moved across the country together. The mornings I wake up and get to see his face close to mine and thank God that He has given me such a gift.
This post is not just about just love or just life. It’s about having more love. And more life.
It’s about how I never really realized how much of my life I was missing until I started getting it back.
I’m not even really sure how it happened but one day about a year ago I decided I wanted to look up how people detox. It wasn’t really something I intended on doing, I was just curious. I had heard about those crazy “let’s drink only lemonade for 10 days to lose weight” some brides do and so I started scanning articles when I happened upon this detox drink. The more I read, I started finding lots of information about raw food detoxes…eating only raw, uncooked food for 2 weeks (raw vegetables, fruits, nuts & beans basically). I didn’t really think I had a reason to do this but decided to give it a try for fun. Why not?
This post is not about a raw detox.
It’s about what happened after those 2 weeks.
After starting the detox I realized that the recipe had actually come from a natural health doctor in Nashville and by random, crazy events we ended up at a dinner hearing him talk about health. And not just the “lose weight and stop eating doughnuts” kind of talk. He was talking about God creating our bodies for a purpose. And God creating a world, foods and resources around us to take care of our bodies for those purposes.
Hearing the doctor talk about people with diabetes, cancer and all sorts of obvious health issues I started to exempt myself from those in need of this advice but couldn’t help but listen intently, as Matt had battled cancer as a teenager and numerous other health issues since then.
So we embarked on an adventure. In the beginning, it was for him. We gave up processed foods, gluten, pasteurized dairy and most sugars. We started eating all organic. We got rid of all the chemicals in our home from shampoos to laundry detergent and replaced them with all natural cleaners. We packed our diet with raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, raw cheese, grass-fed meats (cooked, don’t worry :), wild-caught fish, eggs, cultured dairy and natural fermented foods. We started doing quality exercise and getting corrective chiropractic adjustments.
This post is not about how hard it was for me to give up bread. (I was the biggest bread lover OF. ALL. TIME.)
It’s about how a couple months into all of this, suddenly I realized that I hadn’t had a migraine in over a month. How I realized I wasn’t yawning or feeling exhausted every second of the day. It’s about how I didn’t even realize that I had been living 25% of my life, almost a week out of every month, in pain that I thought was just part of who I was.
Regaining life I didn’t even realize I had lost because it had been gone for so long. Watching my husband, who has struggled with his health since he was a child, throwing away prescriptions, smiling and not in constant pain and not in need of another surgery.
Those months were the beginning of this journey we find ourselves on. It’s been over a year now and so much has happened.
Piece by piece, I plan to share it all. Why we eat what we eat, what we’ve done to change our lives, what was easy and what was and is still difficult, what we’re still learning and what we’re dreaming of doing.
.
Hi Kristyn: I’m looking forward to what you share about this in the future! I, too, LOVE bread and all the stuff that’s terrible for you, however, I LOVE the way I feel when I eat fresh veggies, fruits, etc. :) So happy for you and Matt. Can’t wait to hear more! ~Krista
You do know that you won’t be able to wait long to begin sharing for those people out there who you’ve now sparked a huge amount of curiosity in. It has been an interesting journey and one that I would never have believed my little “lover of all things bread” would take. I admire your commitment and have loved seeing first-hand the changes in your health and in Matt’s. Loving you always and everyday across the miles :)
This is so wonderful! Good for you and Matt! I was wondering when you did the detox drink how often did you drink it and for how long? Just before meals?
Thanks!
EJ
So glad we got to be a part of the random, crazy events! Love you guys!
Loved reading this. It really encouraged me to change our way of living… In a different way than anything else I’ve ever read about this sort of thing. :) can’t wait to read more!
Emily, we do the detox drink every morning before breakfast. You can do the whole glass and drink regularly or put all the ingredients into a smaller amount of water and take it as a shot, which is what I do :)
So awesome!! Thanks for sharing..it’s encouraging for me to get back on track! Can’t wait to hear more about your journey. :)