My research of late is inspired by my man who has declared January 2012

"HEALTH MONTH". 

I generally stay well clear of ambitious pursuits which involve commitments of a month at a time, but in this case - he asked for it out of a heartfelt need for lifestyle change

and I will thus attempt to support his need (and mine) wholeheartedly.

My RAW ambitions are still well placed and supported recently with the addition of a food dehydrator and a food processor to assist in the wonderful making of RAW food snacks.  I am completely sold on RAW and do see it as the support structure which boosts my energy and health to levels of greater efficiency, thus allowing me to
pursue my many ambitious dreams and plans for a more balanced life.

To RAW, I now add SLOW and WAPF

SLOW FOOD promotes traditional and regional foods and encourages farming of  plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local environment.  SLOW is also about taking time to prepare foods in traditional ways which is all about curing,
fermenting and of course growing.

WAPF the Weston A. Price Foundation is dedicated to nutrition education around restoring nutrient-dense foods in the forms which our ancestors ate: pasture fed animals producing
meat and milk, fermenting foods and adding natural fats to our diet  ... to name just a few.

January 2012 is going to be a mix up of all the above.  I have blogged about SLOW before and I continuously realise that without embracing SLOW lifestyle change just cannot happen in any effective way.  I am still battling with this one.  I don't like spending hours in the kitchen, I don't see it as time well spent, I get bored, my energy flags and I hate cleaning up.  It just does not work for me!  I am going to have to find a way to change that mindset.

This is what SLOW looks like - it has a homely, comforting and wholesome feel.

 

Bumping into the Western A Price Foundation and concepts of dense nutrition is a liberation to me.  Foods I've avoided all my life and been taught to avoid since childhood, are revealing themselves as beneficial nutrient dense foods. 

Whole milk, cream, butter, lard and animal fat according to WAPF are healthy!  The premiss is that it is unhealthy to separate food elements out from the whole, from its original state.  Separating food elements is where disorder begins and disease is incubated.  I still have a hard time with eating animal fat and the idea of 'lard' although growing on me, does not feel quite right yet, however I will be ordering 'leaf fat' from a grass fed butchery and I am going to render it, just like I remember my granny doing.  My granny lived till 92 on such a diet and she always fed me up when I visited, trying to counter the negative eating disorder my mother bestowed upon me .... bless her! (the granny that is!)

A few months back I read a Dr Mercola article lauding the benefits of whole milk and have been purchasing organic whole milk since, this after decades of 2% and skim.  I find I like whole milk and I also like cream and real butter, my nutritional history has been devoid of such joys, I am however learning to add these items to my grocery list and I am enjoying the freedom gained from doing so.  As a child I still remember the few inches of cream poured off the top of the milk bottle and how that cream dissipated over the years until no cream was found and nobody remembered that it should be.
I want to return to the wholesomeness of those days:

I have been doing tons of research over the past few weeks and now I must implement.  

I want to document all the changes and lessons here.  It is quite a challenge to me as I prefer making changes with a BIG SPLASH.  SLOW however cannot be rushed into and so I must embrace the wisdom of the east: Kaizen; one small step at a time.