There’s a change in the air ….

There's a change in the air. A change in the way we view food, where it comes from and the health of the animal and the impact that food has on our lives. More than ever we want to look after our home, our planet, our budget and our health and we want to live a life of sustainability that embraces all these factors. Changing habits, from mob based actions to habits that nourish us and choices that sustain the world that we want to create, is the key. I grew up with the typical 1950's diet of the day. White bread and butter, mutton every which way five nights a week, the veggies boiled and boiled and plenty of mashed potato (sorry Mum but that's how it was!). Chicken only on special occasions and casseroles in winter served with rice (1 cup serves 4). Salad consisted of a sliced tomato, a piece of cheese, some iceberg lettuce, some tinned beetroot to accompany the cold meats. All served with buttered bread. Breakfast was porridge in winter, Weet-bix in summer (we loved to get the Weet-bix cards and absolutely not allowed to open the next box until the last Week-bix was eaten in the old box). I have a memory of my father sitting on a stool cooking toast in the open door of the Aga … we got an electric toaster when we gave up the generator and got the electricity hooked up. Mum cooked lovely slices and cakes (all white sugar) and lots of apples and oranges. 

Today, our diet is multi-cultural in nature. We still have the chops/sausages and veggies a few times a week but we also have curries and stir-frys and the amount of fruit and veggies we eat is amazing. I have gradually, through reading, realised that a lot of the food that we were eating was making us fat. In my home, sugar and processed foods and white bread/rice/flour have gradually been replaced with brown alternatives where palatable, and we have all but stopped eating sugar. Evolution happens incredibly slowly. We don't have the triggers in place to indicate when we are full when we eat sugar. As a result we eat far more than we really require and we're doing it from a really young age. Obesity is a massive epidemic in Australia and the developed nations and sugar and processed foods are the reason. I am making every effort to change our diet to reflect this. Also, I just want to eat real food. Food that is made on a farm, not by a chemist. Food that I have grown, or by locals and know that no chemicals have been used in its production. I want my family to be as healthy as possible so that we can get the most out of life. 

Mum was a product of her generation, as I am. She was a child of the depression and thrift was the order of the day. Many of the embedded habits that I grew up with I highly value and have willingly passed onto my children. I can’t bare waste and I love to make do. I have a complicated relationship with my desire for abundance. I don’t desire the feeling of scarcity but it is my friend. It is what I know and my desire for abundance was born from this.  Even when I have all the abundance that I desire I know that a small part of me will want to make do in some part of my life, purely from habit.

There is a change in the air. My family's diet is reflecting this change and in so many other parts of my life there is a shift happening.

I can viscerally feel change coming … and it's coming fast.