Reality Check! On being a little bit normal.

Folks, this post has been swirling around in my brain before there even WERE posts on this site!

It all started when I was chatting with a couple of my terrific customers: you know the kind. The ones who believe in your mission, buy what you sell, and tell all their own friends and clients to buy from you, too!

These two friends work in the medical field, naturopathic division😂. All of their clients are on their own individual health journeys, and many of them are looking for something outside of the modern food system. So a common question they get is, “Where do you buy your food?”

But they noticed something interesting. When food comes up, many of their clients seem to feel intimidated by the fact that they’re talking to medical professionals, and they try very hard to “talk up” their diets. In other words, they make their diets sound better than they really are.

Oh, they aren’t saying that those clients are LYING, exactly. Think of the last time you sat in the dentist’s chair and he asked, “How often do you floss?” “Oh,” (uncomfortable wiggle) “probably not as often as I should. A couple times a week, I guess.” Yeah, right! A couple times a week 6 months ago…after your LAST appointment! We aren’t LYING, we tell ourselves, because in that moment we suddenly become people who are determined to do SO MUCH BETTER! Have I got a witness?

And I know that there are people out there who just DON’T cheat. Maybe they can’t without dire consequences, maybe they just don’t want to. But I’m sorry: most of us don’t fit into that category.

Not even my friends, the “Medical Professionals.” They eat a good diet…AND enjoy a good burger and a beer at the local pub when they get the chance. AND pay whatever it takes for grass-fed beef and pasture-raised chicken…AND love great take-out from the local Thai joint!

In other words, REALITY CHECK! They just might be… “a little bit normal.”

Years ago I had the opportunity to meet Sally Fallon in person.

Some of you are asking, “Who the heck is Sally Fallon?” and others of you are saying, “Oh, how cool.” If you’re on a health journey that includes moving away from the recommendations of the Diet Dictocrats, check out Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions. It was PIVOTAL in my own health journey. Moving on…

So, as I was saying. Sally Fallon. Sally Fallon and the Weston A. Price Foundation have arguably done more than any other person/group in America to get REAL food back into the American diet. From preaching grass-fed and pasture-raised, to teaching the old skills of soaking our grains and fermenting our veggies (and our fish heads!), Sally blazed the trail.

So as you can imagine, ALL the food on the table that day was fermented, grass-fed, organic, whole, unprocessed, and every other GREEN word you can think of. ALL of the conversation was likewise fermented, grass-fed, organic, whole, and unprocessed!

Actually, on second thought, I think the conversation WAS a little processed. A little fake. A little over-the-top. Yeah, we all liked what we were hearing. Yeah, we all realized she was preaching a better way of life. Yeah, we were all “doing it,” more or less.

But after Sally had given us her spiel and we all talking excitedly about what we had learned and how WE all applied these principles in our own kitchens, I sat down next to an older woman I’d never met before. She said uncomfortably, “I feel so out of place. All these people eat perfectly!”

I think SHE was the most unprocessed woman there.

In that moment, I felt so ashamed. Oh, it was true. We all DID do those things…sometimes. Sometimes even MOST of the time! But not always ALL of the time. (I’ll leave you to figure out that last group of very clear sentences! Brother Johnson - my favorite high school teacher - would be so ashamed.)

“Oh,” I said comfortingly, “every one of these people has Froot Loops in the cupboard.”

Were we LYING? No, we weren’t. We were excited about what we were learning, and we were ALL trying to do better. But if you’ve been on this journey for long, you know it’s just that: a JOURNEY.

A few years ago, as I tried to improve our diets, I went from buying boxed cereal every week and serving it nearly every day to allowing my kids to eat it only on Thursdays as a treat. (Why Thursday? I don’t know.) But NOW? I never buy boxed cereal. It’s been a journey, and I’m finally “there,” on the cereal front, anyway. Now, about those Oreos…

Yes, I make my own homemade ice cream. From raw milk. And YES, we also eat Private Selection Southern Butter Pecan ice cream on Friday nights…from the grocery store. And enjoy every bite.

Yes, I gave up pop years ago. The thought of cracking open a Mountain Dew makes me shudder. And YES, about once a year as I process a deer my hubby or my kids have brought home, someone in my family will bring me a Coke I put into the freezer until it’s slushy, and I crack it open and enjoy it thoroughly.

You see, when we are “righteous overmuch,” it can actually be a turn-off to people who are beginning to show interest in this way of life. It can give a false view of what we REALLY are. It can make them feel like they’ll never be as “good” as we are. And that’s a crying shame.

The truth is that what it means to live “holistically” is a little bit open to interpretation. And if we try to do EVERYTHING all at once, maintain an absolutely perfect diet in this imperfect world, we’ll box ourselves in with a bunch of “touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish with the using.” In other words, we won’t be able to keep up with it long-term.

In MY kitchen? Well, since we’re not combatting any major illnesses or imbalances at this time, we have some flexibility. I’ve gotten to the point where there are relatively few pre-packaged foods in my house. But that ebbs and flows, and the journey has been GRADUAL.

Now, when it comes to my chickens, I really am just as organic, holistic, and “all the things” as I can be. First, for myself and my own principles: I really, really, really believe pasturing them and feeding them this locally-raised organic feed is the best way to raise animals and regenerate land. Second, for YOU. I realize that so many of you are on journeys of healing, and if I start playing fast and loose with their diets, you might not be able to eat my chicken! (Click HERE to get that chicken!)

And I try to do the same with my family. However, my family is - surprise! - made up of people. Adults. And THEY are in their own places on their own journeys! Our teens and early-twenty-somethings are, well, TEENS and early-twenty-somethings. Real ones. NORMAL ones. And while some of them won’t touch fast food (God be praised!) with a 10-foot pole, others haven’t seen the need of that restriction. Yet.

The only peanut butter I buy is Jif. Why? Because my husband eats Jif, plain and simple. He WANTS Jif. I’ve been able gradually to work the dreaded Velveeta out of our kitchen, but it was a process. Now when he brings home junk food from the grocery store because “I was hungry when I went to Kroger,” (ever hear that one, Ladies?) it often sits on the shelf or in the freezer until it expires, because it just isn’t how we eat any more. But it is a PROCESS.

So when you come to my house, you may very well get grilled grass-fed beef burgers…served with potato chips. You know, bad ones, from the store. Homemade pickles…and store-bought ketchup because homemade ketchup isn’t usually worth the trouble. Fresh herb tea or kombucha, oh yum. Or, if the kids are around, a bottle of pop.

Well, then, where DO I draw my lines? First, there is just the principle of doing the best I can. At this point, that DOES mean sourcing the best meat around. I’ve found local organic sources for pork and beef, and of course “I know a chicken lady.” Ha! I’ve got local organic grain and dry bean suppliers. I grow my own fruits and veges, but I still have to bring in bushels of apples and pears for canning. I have NOT yet brought myself to buy five bushels of organic apples at one time. Oof. I buy conventional and peel them to “get off some of the sprays.” 🙄 BUT if I buy a bag at the store, they’re organic. Hm. That’s probably the next step in my journey. And my apple trees are starting to produce, so hopefully that’s a temporary band-aid, anyway.

I bake sourdough bread from scratch. Half white, half whole wheat. Well, the white’s non-GMO, at least. And I’m thinking of moving to that good Italian stuff.

I pay attention to the current Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen! (Google it🤣) That means I buy organic grapes but conventional avocados. Bananas are cheap either way, so I go organic.

Do you hear my casual tone? I hope you do. I hope you pick up on the fact that I TRY, but I don’t stress. My friend Emily has learned in her work in medicine that the STRESS over what you’re putting in your body can be as harmful as what you put in your body.

Destination: Perfection. But I won’t reach that until I reach heaven.

So. I’m not yet what I want to be…but I sure am a heck of a lot better than I was. And THAT’s the journey. And THAT’s real.