Going raw.

I promise this post is not as scary as it sounds. Don't un-follow me until you've read it all. Ha.

Let's just talk for a minute about food, shall we? Modern humans ... we have such a bizarre view of food. We use it as a reward, we withhold it as punishment. We entertain ourselves with it. We abuse it when we feel bad. We load perfectly good foods up with salt, sugar and oil so they'll taste better. As if they're not good enough on their own.

It's kind of sad to think about, really.

Now, don't get me wrong. I looooove cake, cookies, candy, donuts, chips, Indian fry bread, French fries and all those oh-so-yummy things. I do. I am not here to tell you to stop eating them.

I just think we should all eat more fruits and veggies and less junk food. That's all.

A little backstory: When I had Smush, I decided I wanted to breastfeed him. Mostly for money-saving purposes. I only nursed Bubs for a month and a half due to some intestinal difficulties she had. With Baby Guy, I was determined to make it work. My bank account depended on it.

Well, that little stinker decided to be all lactose-intolerant on me. Sheeeeeeeesh.

This time, I decided to go ahead and cut all dairy out of my diet instead of putting him on lactose-free formula. Dairy is a common culprit in causing infant digestion issues like reflux, gas and diarrhea.

I tried going dairy-free with Bubs and it didn't help her issues, so the formula was a life-saver in that case. But with Smush, eliminating dairy worked like a charm.

For BOTH of us.

Since I've already told you everything about my lady parts, I don't feel the least bit sheepish to say I have had problems, um, going #2 since I was a wee child. I have tried everything to no avail. I just could not go sometimes. Ok, no, a lot of times. Pretty much every day. It was awful.

Well, guess what finally worked for me? Abstaining from dairy. Who would have thought?

Anyway. Enough about my digestive tract. When I went off dairy, I ran into a little problem. I had to replace a lot of my favorite past snacks (yogurt, ice cream and cheese) with other things. Instead of crackers and such, I opted for carrot sticks, apples, bananas, pears, peaches and grapes. But when you're nursing, you have to keep your calories up so your body can produce milk, so I found myself eating quite a bit of these plant foods. Not surprisingly, they (along with going dairy-free) have also helped move things along in my innards. How nice!

Not only that, but I noticed when I started eating more fruits and veggies, I started to feel better in general. I have more energy, I sleep better and my skin looks really good. I don't get bloated anymore.

Recently, I started reading about raw food diets. Like most trendy philosophies and lifestyles I encounter, I've decided to take some of it to heart but abandon the rest. Like, I'm sorry, but I will not eat uncooked meat. EVER. Sushi is about as close as I'll get, and even that scares me a little. I am not going to soak my rice overnight so I can eat it. And I cannot just forego all baked goods. Can't do it! Not to mention, what happens if someone offers me a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie? "No thanks; I only eat RAW food."

NO. WAY. They would cry, and so would I.

But here's what I can do (and have done): eat more raw fruits and veggies.

It's actually easy once you take the plunge. You just have to BUY fruits and vegetables and NOT BUY other snack foods. That way, when you've got that mid-morning urge to eat a cookie or something processed, you'll eat a handful of grapes and a banana instead. And your body will love you for it.

For the past two weeks, I've eaten non-raw meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and ate raw fruits and veggies for my snacks. Basically: normal foods for my meals and raw foods for snacks. It's amazing how great I feel. And it's not that hard. I did notice that I get hungry more quickly, but that's rather simple to fix: just eat MORE. Remember, things that are good for you don't have as many calories and are easier for your body to digest, so you have to eat more of them than you do processed foods in order to feel full.

Another thing I've done recently is to make almost all our grains whole. We use whole-wheat pasta whenever possible and I only buy whole-wheat bread (I hope to get a wheat grinder soon so I can make my own bread. Nothing smells quite as good as a loaf of homemade bread in the oven. Mmmmm...).

Of course, I'll still indulge in a donut or a white roll or whatever occasionally. And it's OK to eat out once in a while as a "treat." But I don't feel bad about doing these things because usually, I put good things into my body. And it's funny, because the more "good" food I eat, the less "bad" food I crave. Plus, I've learned to love foods I once hated, like raw broccoli! I could barely gag it down a year ago.

Soon, I am going to tell you all about Bountiful Baskets. It's a local, volunteer-run food co-op I recently discovered and I love it. It's a cheap, easy way to get a ton of fresh produce.

Anyway, see if you can make half of your foods raw fruits and veggies. Or maybe if you currently eat very little of them, start at 25 percent. Eat two raw food snacks a day and see if you notice an improvement in how you feel.

Remember, you don't have to change overnight. As Dr. Leo Marvin says, "Baby steps."

(P.S. -- What About Bob? One of my favorite movies of all time, ever.)