Coming home after vacation to an empty fridge and pantry meant I was able to restock with new foods. Since the move, since we live so close to many restaurants and are in a highly social area, our diets went to crap. Too much alcohol, too many processed and restaurant foods. I joke that I am now five months pregnant with a cruise ship food baby.

That stops now.

I was so inspired by the foods I was served in class at Joshua Tree, and the foods of the Mediterranean. My first order of business yesterday was to go to our local healthy foods store, and fill the larder. No more sugars, grains, or processed food in the house. Fresh greens, fruits, nuts, seeds, beautiful meats and cheeses and huge pitchers of fruit and herb infused water.

Roasted asparagus, uncured bacon, poached eggs for breakfast. Proscuitto wrapped around sprouts and cheese with horseradish mustard, watermelon on the side for lunch. Carne asada hot off the grill with black bean salad for dinner. Handmade yogurts, farm fresh eggs, local pasture raised meat, butter soft lettuces from the farmer’s market, summer squashes, peaches so perfect that make you sigh. There is so much beautiful food available to us!

What we eat makes us who we are. Reading research, I am more convinced than ever that our gut bacteria has everything to do with our health, our behaviors, our moods. My Sugar Biscuit has some sort of eczema type rash on his body, and it is spreading. A clean diet should fix this. My older kids need to eat more healthy fats for their developing brains, to balance their moods. I need to be more intentional about what goes into my body. Since I work as a healer, I need to have more integrity about my food choices, the energetics of what goes in my mouth. My husband, as he approaches fifty, needs to make different choices so he can age optimally.

We are still going to eat out, go thorough a drive thru every now and again. We have to live our lives as Americans, which means we can’t duck around the corner to our local market or cafe for a fresh and healthy quick meal. But we can make better choices at home. Less sugar, more water. Less grain, more healthy fats. Less processed, more protein. Let’s be honest, I’m not giving up champagne and cake, but I can pay more attention to how much I drink, or bake a cake with healthier ingredients. Baby steps, being mindful, paying attention- this is my intention.

I also intend to show my family what I’ve learned over the  last year. I want to teach them to take a minute to be grateful for their meal, just to take a silent second to bow their heads in gratitude over what Mother Earth has provided them in the form of nourishment. We are lucky to have access to this bounty and we need to show respect and be appreciative.

It’s simple, but it’s also huge- the food we choose. We need to take care of our bodies by what we put into them, honor all the things our miraculous bodies do for us by providing it with foods that make us the best expression of who we are. We need to vote with our dollars against Monsanto and corporations that tell us to mindlessly consume chemicals.

I’d go so far as to say that what we eat is a form of prayer, telling our bodies what we want for ourselves, informing our cells, infiltrating our entire beings with either trash or treasure. When we are mindful about what we eat- grateful and intentional- we give ourselves an opportunity to choose how we want to look and feel. As for the way I feed my family, I’m choosing to change, and I look forward to seeing our lives transform for the better.