Re-evaluation

It has been seven months since I decided to change my life. We have focused on financial changes, health changes, and changes in our relationship with god. It seems for me, that a lot of these changes have come to a head over the past two months.

After working at our finances on our own, we decided to start one of Dave Ramsey's financial peace university classes. The class officially finished last weekend and I feel like we gained so much from it. Even though we had already made a lot of changes, it pushed us even more. It got us both on the same page, helped us to create a really good budget, and gave me more hope for our financial future. We feel fortunate to have jobs we enjoy, and even though we aren't debt free yet, I am excited about the idea of it. As the year comes to a close we will focus on our last debt (student loan). It's so easy to get discouraged and think it is taking forever, but when I look back and see our progress and how we have come to better understand finances and our financial future, I'm happy with all we have learned. Yes I wish we took this class in high school, or at least before we got married, but we didn't and we can't dwell on that "if only's". I'm just happy to have all this knowledge now.

After about six months of working with my doctor on my health, I was re-evaluated a few weeks ago. It was great to see the progress I have made in my health. Changing my diet was huge, until now I had never really realized how miserable food was making me. I love food, and I had a diet heavy on cow's milk dairy (cheese, ice cream, milk) bread, chips, boxes and cans. I never really realized that I was eating so poorly. I would eat salads, fruit, and veggies. I thought i was healthy, but I was just fooling myself. I felt bad on a regular basis, my digestion was poor, I was tired all of the time. But I didn't link this to my diet or really think much about it. When I decided to change my diet and incorporate whole foods, load up on fruits and veggies, and good meats I was hesitant and skeptical. I cut out traditional flours, most gluten, grains, traditional dairy, processed food, sugar and a lot more. People thought I was crazy and assumed I couldn't eat anything. But the thing is, I have more freedom, I am more creative with my meals. Now that I have fully detoxed I have added by in some grains (brown rice, and occasionally oats and sprouted grain, or sourdough bread). I don't feel deprived, I'm not starving. For breakfast I usually have eggs with greens or some kind of veggie, whatever is on hand. Lunches are salads, or leftovers from dinner. Dinners vary all the time from grass-fed beef and chicken, to soups, chili, wild caught fish, greens, beans, quinoa, curry, sweet potatoes, squash, peppers, pretty much anything we can think of or any creations inspired by our CSA produce. I also juice fruits and veggies a few times a week. My doctor took me off all of my digestive enzyme and some of my other supplements, and I feel great. A year ago if someone told me I would be drastically changing my diet, cutting out the foods I did, I would have laughed. Now, I can't imagine it any other way. Yes I have cheat meals but honestly I don't crave the things I used to. I don't feel like a slave to food, I eat the foods I want to eat when I want to eat them. I can't believe as I look back how much our diets completely impact our lives, out bodies, everything.

My spiritual life has also really come into focus for me. It's a constant journey. Sometimes I feel lost in it and distanced from it, and other times I feel connected. Through out all these changes I was learning how God really helps create a balance in our lives. Biblically it is important and necessary to take care of our bodies and our finances, but it is an area that is often neglected. I've been reading great books like the Purpose Driven Life, that have helped show me areas in my life I need to be focusing on. God has been teaching me a lot through this journey and I know I still have so much to learn. But I am pleased with the progress I have made in this life change.

The Passing Months...

It has been far too long since we have updated our blog. Time has gotten away with us, with the summer and vacations and hectic schedules. Our lives have been going through many changes and we are working hard to achieve balance in all areas. Not the easiest task, but our efforts seem to be paying off.

Health Update:
Where we are at: We are three months into our personalized "12 weeks to wellness" Plan. The plan was given to us by our doctor Dr. Jana. As I have mentioned previously I heard her speak at a wellness conference. If you are looking for a personalized plan to wellness I would highly recommend checking her out. Even if you are not local to the greater Nashville area she does consultations over the phone. We have moved into the second phase of our plan and we are adding back more foods and feeling the benefits of the supplements we are taking with our cleaned out bodies.
What I have learned: While I can't speak for Colin on this one I am discovering how food affects my body. When you are starting with a clean slate you can discover what works and what doesn't for your body(whether it's an upset stomach, a headache, change in energy levels, etc.) I am learning to be more creative with foods. As you know this spring we joined a CSA. I love it! It's exciting each week to see what fresh and seasonal produce we'll be getting and deciding what to make. We both love cooking and it's nice to know we're supporting local farmers and getting produce that is so fresh. I have learned to trust in God made things. While I believe modern medicine is a result of the God given talents many possess, I also recognize as a society we have come all too accustomed to running to quickly to the doctor, the pharmacy, the medicine cabinet. There can be a natural solution to a lot of things and the herbs and supplements we have added to our lives has helped me to realize there are other options. And maybe one of the biggest things I have learned is I can survive without grains, commercial dairy products, and traditional flour products! I never thought that could be possible, but it is. And i don't feel like I'm deprived of anything and in fact my body seems much happier.

Financial Update:
Where we are at: We are continuing to work hard at getting out of debt completely. We have made a lot of progress since we began the journey to being debt free 2 years ago. We are working on paying off the last of it and no longer feeling like we are slaves to money. We are very diligent with following Dave Ramsey's plan. I value his opinions of money and like his philosophy. We just started the 13 week Financial Peace University course. It is being taught at our church and we figured we have been working this plan for a while now and we want to make sure there isn't anything we are missing. I also recently read the book Automatic Millionaire. It's a good read. There are some things I don't really agree with and I prefer Dave Ramsey's plan but it was a very useful and informative book.
What I have learned: If you have a financial plan you will succeed. If you are on the same page with your spouse in terms of finances you will succeed. Life is unexpected and financial emergency will come up no matter what, if you are prepared for them and have an emergency fund you can succeed. You don't have to make 100,000 plus a year to save and retire with wealth. Again, if you have a plan you can succeed! I really believe that and everyday I feel we are a little closer to financial peace.

Spiritual Update:
Where I am at: I have almost finished a book I have been reading for a while now Total Forgiveness.
What I have learned: The book has been very eye opening and I feel like I am  learning so much from it. I highly recommend it. A good friend gave it to me several years back and I just filed it away with a bunch of other books thinking I didn't really have anything to learn about forgiveness. But I was wrong. As we continue to go thru this journey to balance it all comes back here to God realizing if that component is off your whole life is out of whack. There are always moments of disconnect and and lack of faith where I think I am fine on my own. But when it comes down to it I recognize it is impossible and exhausting to try and do it all alone.

So long story just a little bit longer. These past three months have been such a learning experience. I am grateful to have my husband along for the ride with me.

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction" Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Flood

For those outside on Tennessee you still may not know the devastation Middle Tennessee as well as surrounding areas have faced over the last week. It has not received much nationwide coverage until recently and it has been almost a full week since the disaster took place.

We live in Nashville and May 1st and 2nd are dates that will burn in our minds forever. Over the course of those 2 days we received just shy of 15 inches of continuous rain. the rainfall and rising of the local rivers all reach record breaking amounts. The Cumberland River with is the main river in Nashville and fairly close to our home crested at 52 feet which is 12 feet above flood level. A large amount of our downtown area was underwater, historic landmarks destroyed, neighborhoods under water, hundreds of water rescues, loss of power and lives. It has been shocking and saddening to watch so much of our beloved city destroyed. The economic impact this flood will have on our state and city is still unknown, but they are estimating the damages are around $1.5 billion.

Due to the flooding the CSA were planned on joining was affected and wasn't able to make it's delivery the first week. But we are so happy to hear that they are up and running again. So we will keep you all updated on our experience with a CSA. If you are a part of one tell us what you think about it. We are excited about the idea of eating seasonally and having fresh organic, local produce, eggs and meet delivered weekly. Our little garden was also damaged in the flood. It appears we still have one tomato plant standing but we will have to replant green papers, lettuce, and everything else.

I am so proud to see Nashville and the local communities ban together in this tragic time and re-build this city together. So many volunteers, so much good coming out of a disaster. I have never been so proud to live in Nashville than I am now and at this point in my life I am so happy to call Nashville my home. This is a true demonstration of a city taking care of itself, and I love it. We Are Nashville.

Tropical Traditions

I have mentioned Tropical Traditions a few times on the blog but i wanted to talk more about them. We get all of our coconut products from them from coconut oil to skin care products. Aside from selling great quality coconut oil at a good price their website is full of tons of resources from free coconut recipes to articles and research on coconut oil. They also have great specials all the time from 2 for 1 products and free shipping!

We use the expeller-pressed coconut oil for all of our cooking. it has been steam deodorized so the coconut smell has been removed, which makes it good for every day cooking. we use the gold label coconut oil when we want the coconut taste such as in smoothies or baking. we also use it on our skin! in addition to the oils we have ordered coconut flour (which we use in baking, to coat fish and chicken for cooking and even as a protein addition to smoothies). we have also purchased coconut lotions, deodorants, teeth cleaner and natural coconut insect repellent from them. all of which we love. so far we have been pleased with all of the products we have tried and we highly recommend them. they also have a great referral program.

Referral Program: Once you have placed your initial order, you are then eligible to earn free products by referring your friends or blog readers to them as well.

Plus when you take part in the referral program, you will receive the book Virgin Coconut Oil, How it has changed people's lives and how it can change yours! By Brian & Marianita Jader Shilhavy for free. The book contains interesting information about benefits that people have experienced in using the coconut oil in their daily health and diet plan, plus it includes 85 great recipes!

Here is how you get the book: When you place an order with them as a first-time customer, please select "Referred by a friend" and then in the box that says "How did you hear of us?" enter our sponsor ID number #5958808. By telling Tropical Traditions that I referred you, you will receive a complimentary copy of the book with your first order!

Doesn't get much better than that. give coconut oil and try. we hope you'll love it as much as we do. as i mentioned before coconut oil has so many health benefits from regulating thyroid to making your skin look great. if you have any questions about coconut oil please feel free to ask us.

Organic on a budget?

eating healthy on a budget can sometimes be a challenge. it is often the biggest excuse people make not to eat healthy, "i don't have the money", "i can't afford organic". and i'll be honest, i have made that argument many times especially when it comes to buying organic. a lot of people think it's overrated or a waste of money. and when you don't really think about what you are really eating, it's easy to turn the other cheek and eat whatever is the cheapest. and we have been guilty of that for a long time.

with our new lifestyle we are eating lots of fresh fruit and veggies which has been taking a toll on our budget. we avoided buying organic by planting a small vegetable garden and have been washing our non-organic produce really well(which reduces but doesn't eliminate pesticides) but our small garden hasn't produced much crop yet and it probably isn't big enough to sustain us through the summer. so we have skirted around buying organic, trying to hold on to as much of our money as possible. we shop at our local farmer's market whenever possible, but we have found it so hard to spend extra on local and organic produce sold in stores and pass up non-organic strawberries for 99 cents in the grocery store. i am slowly realizing that strawberries for 99 cents might be easy on our pockets now, but in the long run we are only hurting ourselves. the pesticides that soak into the produce we eat on a regular basis is so harmful.

Dr. Axe has a great article i just read which has helped convince me to grow more of our own food, buy organic for certain foods, and eat more local produce. Dr. Axe has included a list in this article provided by the Environmental Working Group of the "Dirty Dozen" & "Clean 15". this is a condensed list of the top foods that you NEED to buy organic and 15 foods that are "okay" to consume non-organic in order to save money. therefore you can still stay on a budget while eating healthy. you can read Dr. Axe's article HERE, and check out more info on the dangers of pesticides and why you should avoid them HERE for more in depth info, but here is the list:

WORST(buy these organic): celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, grapes(imported)
BEST (lowest in pesticides): onions, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mangos, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potato, honeydew melon

another option for eating healthy on a budget is becoming a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). basically you pay a membership amount generally $400 - $700 for the growing season and in turn you will receive fresh produce from a local farm once a week. some CSA's offer weekly programs so you don't have to pay the whole fee upfront. we have looked into them before, but in the past they seemed too expensive. this of course is before we realized the dangers of what we were eating. when it comes down to it $400 for a weekly supply of fresh and in most cases organic produce over a 6 month period is a great deal. you can find out more info about CSA's and how to join one in your area HERE. we are considering doing a weekly payment option and getting produce, meat, and eggs. this in combination with our little garden should help us get through the growing season more healthfully.

Sun Protection & Coconut Oil

i have changed the way i think about sun and sun protection. i used to love lying out in the sun. when i was younger i would slather on a thick coating of sunscreen and spend hours outside. as i got older i would worry about cancer and put on even more sunscreen and limit my time in the sun. i bought daily lotions that had SPF in them so whenever i was outside i would be protected.

as my view on health has changed i have been thinking more about not only what i'm putting into my body but what i'm putting on my body. we have started to use coconut oil for everything from cooking to skincare. coconuts are one of the most incredible super foods and i am discovering more each day on the benefits of coconut. we have replaced all of our cooking oils with coconut oil. and have started to use it as a skin moisturizer as well. Benefits of coconut oil include: improving digestion, reduced inflammation, supports thyroid function, promotes healthy hair and complexion, etc. we get the bulk of our coconut products from Tropical Traditions, they have a lot more info about the benefits of coconut oil on their site as well as great recipes! another incredible benefit of continuous coconut oil use is providing protection from the damaging effects of UV rays from the sun. If you ingest about 3-4 tbsp of coconut oil a day as well as apply it to your skin after 6 months to a year you can start using it as a sun protector. we tested this out the other day, we were out in the sun for 30 - 45 minutes at the pool and we didn't burn.

Dr. Axe posted an article on his site the other day about sunscreen which drove this point home for me even more.

we'll continue to try the coconut oil as our sun protection throughout the summer and report back.

a note on coconut oil: you can purchase the oil in stores but it's pretty expensive. Tropical Traditions has the best prices and different variations of the oil. more on coconuts and coconut oil later.

The Journey

it all started about a year and a half ago, this shift in thinking. it crept up on us as we were in the process of buying our first home. and it hit us hard when we got said house, moved in, and starting living our new lives as homeowners. DEBT. the house, school, some stupid decisions, etc. we were determined to live debt free lives and enjoy the things we had rather than see them as a burden. i started listening to Dave Ramsey and getting serious about debt. i shared what i was learning with my husband and we decided to make some changes in our lives, get a "real" budget and start paying it all off.

in the process of paying everything off we began to see how important this new lifestyle was in relation to our relationship with God. we have been Christian's for a while now. my husband for 13 years and me for almost 8. we were quickly beginning to see how a cluttered life is distracting. when you are worried about paying off debt you become obsessed with it. we wanted to be better off for being debt-free and find a healthy balance between hating debt and obsessing over it. i should mention we were not in a terrible place, we weren't struggling to live, or pay or mortgage or anything like that. and if we continued down the route we were on we would have probably just ended up like most Americans with a balance on a credit card or two not thinking too much about it. but the point was we didn't want a balance on a credit card, or school loans, we wanted to have the freedom that comes with being debt free.

So we began the journey and started dreaming of a future sans debt. more time to do the things we loved, more money to do it, a future, more to give to causes we wanted to support. along this journey that we are still on (but we see the light at the end of the tunnel) we have learned that as we started shedding these small debts we were understanding more about God and ourselves. if we were responsible with the things God had given us, how much better and more rewarding our lives could be.

that journey in part lead us to a new one. a little over a month ago i went to a women's wellness conference. I've been to conferences before but most either focused on health or spirituality alone, but this conference brought both topics together. it only echoed what i had already been thinking, that every decision we make, or don't make, all these things are tied together from where we spend our money to how we treat our bodies. what if we could be debt free, healthy, and spiritual. what if being spiritual is already encouraging those things in us, and therefore it is God's plan for us to live that way.

So again we have expanded our thinking. past getting out of debt to encompass healthy living. and realizing that healthy living to us was is having no debt, treating our bodies as temples, and having a relationship with God. we started seeing a "natural" doctor. one that didn't want to put my husband on medication because his cholesterol was slightly elevated, one that thinks there is a better fix for problems than swallowing a pill and moving on. just like how we learned to see paying for something with a credit card is not a solution. it's just a big band-aid.

so here we are now, a few weeks into our new nutrition lifestyle which our doctor calls "12 weeks to wellness". we are in the first phase of the process which helps to get all the toxins out of our bodies that we have been accumulating for years with medicine and heavily processed foods. Our food options are a little limited right now, but it is forcing us to think about what we are putting in our bodies. we'd like to use this blog to talk about our journey to a less cluttered life. we want to share articles we love, the food we're eating, tips, observations, frustrations, decisions and anything else we may encounter along the way.