Who we are and what we're doing

I'm Nicole, and I'm kick-starting my family's move towards completely whole foods, and mostly whole living. We've been trying to be mostly healthy for years now, but our commitment has waned at times. My husband and I each have our 'junk' vices, which are not the same, so it means we have double the amount of junk floating around! And when life got busy, we'd end up eating out or making crappy, easy to fix foods. Our older son also saw enough commercial tv to know that there's an endless wealth of kid foods with cartoon characters on the packages and fun commercials that exist to entice little ones. So I caved into that more often than I should have.

(Our family at a wedding the weekend after my husband started chemotherapy.)

And then, in the midst of an already difficult time, we got the devastating news that my husband(at only 42 years old) had cancer. This led to us moving from our home in Virginia to Georgia for employment and insurance reasons, and going into survival mode. We did our best to get through it all in one piece, and made some concessions along the way. We all got a loss less active, and we gave in to a lot of convenience items.

(My husband and kids mid-way through the chemotherapy process.)

And now we're on the other side! In the first week of December 2009 my husband was declared to be cancer free! There's still going to be a lot of monitoring, and I think we'll always be a little bit wary that something could be there, but now is the time for us to make strides to be a healthier family. I want more for us, especially for our children.

My husband has a leg up on me, as he's always been a physically active person. His weight often fluctuates, but he has an easy time of losing pounds once he puts his mind to do it. I, on the other hand, have struggled with my weight since I was a teenager. Having children has exacerbated the problem, and I find it embarrassing to even acknowledge the significance of the issue. But I'm hoping that this outlet will help me to feel better about accepting it. I have no reason to be embarrassed so long as I am actively working to resolve it.

I expect a bumpy journey. We all have our vices. But we're taking charge of it, starting..... well, starting this past Monday! (post of that to follow as soon as I can manage it!)