About me...

My name is Kristi Noelle. I am a 27 year old mother of two and wife to one. I have a daughter age 2 and a son age 7 months. I have always been interested in natural health and wellness. My parents raised me on whole foods, having little-to-no processed foods in our home. We never had pop in the house and eating out was a rarity. Growing up I already felt that we were the odd family out when it came to eating. And, of course my parents loaded us up on vitamins and we drank our 2-3 glasses of milk per day. Milk, a term in itself that i consider hilarious. I would now call it Cows breast milk, or baby calf food.... but growing up, it was considered the health drink of choice. Strong bones and strong teeth were only going to be yours if you drank 'milk', and of course flouride watre was always a benefit.... (more about that in a future post also). As a child i was always served a 'balanced meal' of meat, a grain, vegetables and dairy. Now, i'm a food-combiner, which restricts mixing many of the different food groups together, however the benefits to your digestion and health are remarkable. I will post about food combining in the next week. Looking back at my life I realise that most of the food we ate was cooked. We had cooked cereal (which I thought was so healthy), porridge or whole-grain cereal for breakfast. We'd snack on apples for a snack or have banana with our breakfast but I don't think I ever really ate more than 2 fruit/day. Veggies were always with the dinner meal and always cooked. Looking back I am grateful for my parents feeding me whole-grain foods and doing what they knew to be best for my health. Though I see food entirely differently now I do attribute a large part of my love for fruits/veggies to how I was raised. My body naturally craves healthy treats instead of candy/pop and junkfood since fruit was our typical dessert growing up. Thank you Mom and Dad for instilling those healthy desires in me.

Having taken it up a notch and choosing the raw-food lifestyle for me I realise just how different it is from eating what I always considered to be a healthy Standard American Diet. I remember the first lunch I served to my Mom after making the switch and she looked at my plate and the food I served my daughter and said "is that all she gets?" Despite the portions on our plate looking smaller and not being sourced from 3-4 different food groups, my daughter loves the food i feed her, she eats very well and is not very picky, AND she has maintained her chubby-toddler look and has gained 3 lbs in the past 4 months. Our family Doctor isn't concerned in the least and he is always happy to see the healthy snacks I bring with us to the Doctor's office.

I am experiencing health benefits beyond what I thought I would on my diet. I have seen positive changes in my daughters behavior and learning. A girl who I once contemplated in my head to possibly have autism has started to make increasingly more eye contact, smiles more often and has shown the ability to listen to instruction. I think my daughter has done fantastically well on this diet and I recommend it to all parents of children who are delayed, may have behavioral issues or anxiety. My daughters anxiety has decreased by 50% in th past few months. My own depression has completely gone away. My IBS is completely cured. I had insomnia since I can remember and I can fall asleep easily and quickly at night now. Did I mention that I am fitting into my pre-pregnancy jeans after having two children??? I never without food from myself when i am hungry, I eat LOTS of food and the weight just melts off. I have energy... LOTS OF ENERGY, without caffeine and even when I get little sleep at night because of my nursing son. My views on eating are so different now. I used to have a totally different mental perspective on eating. Before, food was eaten for pleasure. We cook what tastes good, despite the additives and fillers that may be in the food. We eat what tastes good, despite the ramification it may have on our health. When we get sick or have IBS symptoms we go to the doctor and get either no-answers or a prescription to take home. I wish i had known the things i know now back then. Back then, when i could have stopped myself from taking pharmaceutical drugs and healed my body with proper nutrition. First healing the deficiencies in my body, then healing the digestive tract and in turn seeing my body respond to live-giving foods and become live-giving itself.

Raw food is a spiritual journey. When you begin it, you will see the truth in that yourself. When you respect and love yourself and your body enough to feed it life-giving foods, untainted by pesticides and herbicides..... un-processed, un-packaged, un-cooked (preserving all the nutrition and healing properties they have for us), you begin to have a lotus experienced. You begin to be enlightened by the process of growing, preparing and eating the food. Watching the transformation take place, where life gives life. And the transformation only continues the longer you stick to the lifestyle. First it is just the food you eat, then it is the products you use to clean yourself and your home. Now we are changing the way we dress and buy our clothes. I am determined to by 80% of my childrens clothes used. My husband and I are buying organic cotton, bamboo or hemp clothing now, though the process is slow to completely turnover our closets, it is coming along nicely. Second-hand and Thrfit stores have become my first choice in shopping when a need arises. I choose to go to ethnic type stores that sell clothing/products that are fair-trade from other countries. I spend less and less time in the malls and department stores as each month passes. I am truly transforming before my own eyes. A girl who once was make-up ridden, dressed to the hilt, full of accessories is becoming a minimalist. Is it hard to let go? NO. I feel joy with each step of the process. I love living this life in harmony with the earth and in respect for the resources that are on it. I urge you to do the same. The peace you feel inside you is worth every ounce of change that it takes.

-- Kristi