A few weeks ago, our family went on vacation to Idyllwild and had a blast. We did lots of hiking, exploring, and relaxing in a cute little cabin with a panoramic view. The owner of the cabin was kind enough to supply us with breakfast and a full refrigerator/pantry of food. At first, I was super excited. But then as I always do, I started reading the ingredients of every item I was going to use. Everything, literally everything had tons of chemicals and a giant list of ingredients. I’m not exaggerating. Even the oil had chemicals. I grabbed the olive oil to cook dinner and sure enough, chemicals.
Know that I’m not ungrateful for this person’s generosity but because I never buy these things I realized that she was not being frugal and bought the worst foods. She was simply purchasing mainstream American products. This IS the average American pantry and it’s been so long since we’ve consumed these foods that I was in utter shock.
Sure, I teach good nutrition and how to read labels but it’s been decades since I’ve been in a kitchen full of nothing but chemicals and these brands fill up most American kitchens. What people don’t realize is our convenient, highly processed foods have tons of toxins that when consumed, gets stored in our fat so it protects our vital organs, then the body produces more fat to dilute the toxin in order to keep us alive. Hence, weight gain when eating all the wrong foods no matter how much we exercise.
Eat real food! Enjoy the fresh air. Move the body daily. And laugh lots. Thankfully, we packed lots of produce on our trip and spent four days hiking and laughing. It was a beautiful trip!
Changing habits take knowledge, accountability, support, and mental shift. If there are changes you’d like to make in your stress level, eating habits, exercise, and overall health and happiness, start with a free health consultation at www.HappyFoodHealth.com or (619) 876-2655. See if this is the right match for you. I do things very differently to make health a natural lifestyle and this is not for everyone. Check out Yelp for other people’s opinion of Happy Food.
~ Samantha Hua, Nutrition & Holistic Health Coach, San Diego, CA
