No labels please

There are many different culinary lifestyles out there: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Lacto-tarian, Ovatarian, Raw Foodist, Primal, Paleo...there's even one cheeky blog where the woman claims to be a "could I stab__to death". When I first began altering my eating styles I tried to identify with one group or another as I looked for new recipes and methods of food preparation.  Eventually I decided the need to identify with a culinary label was taking the old adage, "you are what you eat" a little too far. While it might be true that we actually are what  we are at a cellular level, what we eat isn't who we are.

What do I eat? SO much! I eat a plant based diet with greens, vegetables and fruits. I eat grains, seeds, and nuts. I eat dairy mostly in a cultured form of homemade Kefir and sometimes yogurt. I occasionally eat cheese (that has been made from cows not treated with hormones).  I never eat margarine, I will occassionlly eat butter (also from untreated cows). I grind my own wheat and only use that in my baking. Only whole wheat bread in our house. I don't drink any soda. In place of white sugar I use coconut sugar, raw honey, stevia, molasses, agave and on the very very rare occasion brown rice syrup. I use real sea salt. I make rejuvelac, I go through phases of sprouting my own grains. I make green smoothies (basically a blended salad with fruit.) We eat local grass fed beef maybe once or twice week at most (more if we go to a family member's house for dinner and that's what's being served.). Chicken-maybe once a week at most, if that.  We only eat farm fresh eggs from a local neighbor (the same family we purchased our quarter of a cow from and keep in the deep freezer.)

Yeah, I'm that Mom, we are that family. The really CRAZY thing is that sometime I wish I was doing MORE! I have to laugh at myself because only a few years ago one of my friends was living a life like this and I thought she was actually certifiably insane! I remember saying to my husband I didn't know how anyone could really live like that.
All these "crazy" culinary habits I have I will pick apart later. The point is I have come a long way, and I wish I hadn't been so stubborn to be more nutritionally open minded sooner. As a result of these changes I have so much more energy. I feel awesome. I don't have adult acne once a month. I haven't had pain or discomfort from a para ovarian cyst.  I lost my pregnancy weight SO much faster than I did with my first and even lost the weight I had gained between my first and second child. I have had an improved mood, and I feel empowered in regards to my health physically and emotionally, and the confidence that comes from setting a goal and achieving it. I would never have thought I'd be able to make the changes I have. I've been most surprised by the decrease in my sugar cravings.
I come from meat and potato stock, and grew up eating fabulous southern cooking. I've been amazed at how much more varied my diet is, not limited once I opened my mind and my plate to new ideas.
A little food for thought:

“Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”
― Samuel Smiles

My hope is that I may fulfill my  destiny with energy and health and that I may be a source of strength in helping those I love do the same.