Day Thirty-One: Success!

Ah, the Finish Line.

Or is it the Starting Line?

Concluding that life is better when real food - and only real food - is consumed, the decision has been made. A new lifestyle was begun on October 1; it shall continue.

Mostly. I'll get to the 'mostly' later.

Here is what my family and I have noticed:

- A general sense of improvement in well-being, energy level, digestion, moods, mental clarity, and skin health.

- A diminishing of cravings, irritability, minor aches and pains.

- The grocery money goes farther.  Yesterday, we bought a shopping cart full of produce at the farm market for $18. Also, as real food satisfies completely, we don't snack and nibble like we used to.

- We've all lost weight - I've lost five pounds, myself - without even trying. We feel hungry when it's time to refuel, then we eat. I only felt deprivation during the first few days when I was detoxing. Once that was over, it was smooth sailing. Milk-chocolate doesn't call to me as it did, either. That's a biggie!

- Our familial relationship, while already good, has improved as we've worked together planning, prepping, and enjoying meals together. Plus, with higher energy levels and better frames of mind we feel like doing things together both here at home and in the community.

- Lastly, we are convinced that eating mindfully makes a larger difference than we imagined and we intend to keep going with this unprocessed lifestyle.

Now, for the 'mostly'. Strict adherence to just about anything opens the door to temptation, to an urge to rebel for rebellion sake. We didn't rebel this month, but sometimes we wanted to, for split seconds here and there. Temptation was resisted because the Challenge presented a good reason to stay on the straight and narrow. Plus, it had a definite end to it.

To eat this way - religiously - for the rest of my life means feelings of deprivation and defiance will rise up, not to mention awkward social moments. So I free myself to eat whatever I want to eat, anytime I want to eat it. And I know that in my freedom I will choose the unprocessed, real food path...most of the time. Maybe all of the time, most of the time. This way, if I choose to consume something that is not ideal, there will be no guilt. No guilt means no beating myself up. No beating myself up means no emotional reaction that ends up lasting for days or weeks because of irrational thinking ("Well, I've slipped up! May as well fall the whole way! Bring on the crap!")

That being said, I have no intention - no desire - to go back to eating the way I used to, which was pretty good, compared to most of this country's eating habits. It's better now. My mind rests in the fact that I am stacking the deck in my favor health-wise. Only God knows how my life and health will play out, but at least I know I'm doing the best I can today. That means a lot to me, it matters, it improves the quality of my life.

So, besides staying the course, where do I go from here?

Back to balance. Body, Mind, Spirit. Now that I've got a good grasp of diet, I can incorporate my discoveries into the care of my body without the intensive focusing. The work's been done for now. Time and life are freed up to pursue all the dimensions of me.

I do like a specific experiment, though, a project. Having to blog each day this month meant too much time in front of this screen. I enjoy writing, but I don't like to have to write. I am currently reading three books about the human brain. Simultaneously. It's the way I roll. These books reveal to me that screen time - whether computer, television, or cell phone usage - are literally changing our brains, the way they operate, the actual, physical way in which they function. And not for the better. It's much more complicated than I can explain here. But this is my next undertaking. Learning about the effects of 'screen time' and experimenting within the parameters of my own life.

It's going to exciting, I can tell. It already is.

But I'm not going to blog about it. If you want to know what I discover, talk to me. Email. Call. Drop a snail mail. Text. I'm still going to be on-screen. Just not as much. (Or so I say. I really like the social media aspect of the internet. It's the milk-chocolate of screen-time. Ah! A challenge!)

Lesson for Today: Give unprocessed a try! You'll feel better.

And now, as I cross the finish line, energized, happy, content, satisfied with a job well-done, only one word comes to mind....

...FREEDOM!