I was raised in the years of Little Debbie Cakes, Kool-Aid, Cheese Puffs, and Stove Top Dressing. Most the food made readily available to families in my area came in a box with a long list of ingredients that no one could pronounce.
“Healthy” wasn’t mentioned on the box either!
Fast forward to age 27 and I’ve somehow managed to open my eyes and adopt a healthy lifestyle and healthy eating habits by growing and raising my families food. It sure didn’t happen overnight though…
Let’s take it wayyyy back!
I was always active in high school and even started utilizing the school gym when I was a freshman. Working out made me feel strong and capable. Before getting acquainted with weights and workouts, I never felt very athletic. The gym opened my eyes to a whole new world and it’s been a large part of my life ever since then. You could say this was my first step toward falling in love with health and wellness.
Another turning point in my life happened when I was 17. My appendix ruptured right before my senior year and I ended up in the hospital with sepsis. I was on life support for a few days and my left lung almost collapsed. My organs started to fail and it was hit or miss for a while. Miraculously, I made a turn around! I pulled through and walked out with a new outlook on life and a new mission.
The mission to truly LIVE life and be HEALTHY!
My brisk encounter with the end made me realize I should never take this life or my health for granted. So, I started taking my health more seriously and led my body down the long road towards wellness and fitness.
A few years later when life was getting sweet, my world was rocked again…
A couple of years after my husband and I were married we decided to start a family. It wasn’t easy for us. After a year of trying to conceive and losing several pregnancies, I found some minor underlying health issues with myself. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and Factor V Leiden (a blood clotting disorder). Both likely contributed to my losses.
After exhausting research, I finally found a midwife who was familiar with my situation and she gave me the resources I needed and took me on as a patient. Nine months after meeting her she helped me naturally deliver a healthy baby boy! She believed in my body’s ability to conceive and carry a baby, and she helped me believe it too! Becoming a mother was THE major turning point for me. I was no longer just responsible for my own health, but also the health and wellness of a tiny human!
All of this has led me to now!
Slowly over the last ten years I’ve navigated my way towards health and wellness, delving deeper into the Earth for answers. I’ve gone from processed food everyday to raising my families own food. We use our garden and farm as a grocery store and I cook mostly from scratch. Although I value and respect western medicine, I also try to incorporate as much homeopathic medicine into my life when necessary.
I won’t lie, some days it’s utterly exhausting. I’m often tempted to ditch the kitchen and gas it through the drive thru window in town for dinner.
I get aggravated in the summer when it’s boiling hot outside but I still need to weed the garden and clean out the chicken coop. Sometimes I even think of how much easier it would be if we bought our own meat from the store and didn’t have to process a gazillion chickens on our own.
But then I look back on my journey. I realize by living the way we do and raising our own food, my kids are already a few steps ahead of me on their own health journey. I’m giving them the foundation I wish I had growing up. I’m hoping maybe, just maybe they’ll grow to value their own health and wellness as much as I do. They’ll likely have to go through struggles of their own before they truly value their own health, but at least they’ll be ahead of the game. It’s my goal to expose them to as much “real food” as possible and raise them specifically knowing where that food comes from.
We only have one life and one body! I’m determined to make the most of my life and get the most out of this body of mine. 
Now you all know what motivates me to be healthy! It has nothing to do with vanity, but everything to do with being strong and functioning properly in this fast paced world!
I’d love to hear from you about your own health and wellness journey! Drop me a line…do people still say that??!!!
Farm To Table Mama 