A Spoonful of Good Living: The Road to Eating Vegetables is Paved With Good Intentions!

A couple of days back I found myself massaging collard greens (per recipe instructions), and began to reflect back on how I got to this point.

If someone had told me a year and half ago, much less 6 months ago, that I would be "relaxing" collard green leaves to make them edible raw, I would of laughed out loud. Fast forward to today and here I was talking to my greens letting them know how tasty I was going to make them. I know, I would also lock myself up.

The road I traveled to get to today was actually quite simple, but fraught with many no's and don't think so's. It all began with a visit to the doctor, desperate to figure out why I could not lose weight, among a host of other issues. The prognosis was "hormone imbalance", which brought about the response of "duh" from my husband.

I am eternally grateful to my doctor who chose to treat my symptoms without medicine and instead prescribed a diet which included a boat load of vegetables. I am eternally angry at said doctor who chose to go practice in a small town in Kansas that had no doctors and do good. The nerve!! :)

As my symptoms diminished and in the process lost weight, my wonderful doctor once again intervened. He reminded me that I knew what to do and how to do it. This is what I was certified to do, but you know the old saying, " A cobblers kids has no shoes"? I began to practice what I knew and preached. I lost 30 lbs and my hormones were back in balance and here I stood massaging my greens.

Don't think you can do this on your own? Check out my 30 day program at http://renewwholehealth.com/events/2012/01/making-healthy-the-new-normal-30-day-program

I LOVE my veggies and I am very particular about where they come from and how they are grown. This way of thinking led me to become a member of a local CSA. CSA stands for Community Support Agriculture. One commits to buying a "share" each week or month and in turn the farm is guaranteed a set number of customers. There are several in the area, but my favorite by far is Johnson's Backyard Garden.

JBG is a local farm in East Austin which grows all there veggies organically. They are a family run farm and they are the real deal when you think of farms and harvest, etc. You can also buy their produce at many of the area farmers markets in and around Austin.

I chose to go this route buying my vegetables so I would be challenged to try new ones. I couldn't eat salad greens and broccoli forever, and every week I am confronted with trying something I would of otherwise never picked up.

With Fall/Winter veggies coming in, one vegetable that has made an appearance is Kholrabi. Ever heard of it? I hadn't. Believe me, when I opened the box my first reaction was "no way", but it is now a favorite around here. Even my 9 yr. old will eat it.

Of course, this time of year brings my favorite of all time.....beets! I LOVE these and could eat them everyday, every meal. I especially love them roasted, YUM!

So to make a long story a bit longer, I found myself with a box of collard greens, kholrabi, beets, and green onions and decided to challenge myself and make a lunch with all ingredients having come from my CSA box.

I worked off the recipe from the link below, added my touches and the result was fabulous. http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/2011/02/marinated-collard-green-salad/

I am continually reminded of Hippocrates quote, "“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” . I am a huge believer of this and a walking example of it's truth.

Are you ready to make healthy the new normal? Feel good and lose weight in the process? Well you can and you will!

Don't think you can do it on your own? I am here to help. I am starting a 30 day jump start program(Jan. 9th) to get one of their way to making healthy the new normal. Whether you want to get, lose weight or both, check it out at http://renewwholehealth.com/events/2012/01/making-healthy-the-new-normal-30-day-program