How a goal to cook whole foods changed our family’s health (and weight) for the better.

I hope you enjoy this post from my beautiful wife, Jen. Here she highlights what got us started on a healthier lifestyle. Enjoy, Nick

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I was recently teased for eating Kale.

Crazy thing is, if you would have told me 2 years ago that I would be eating Kale, I would have laughed.

I didn’t even know Kale existed, except perhaps in Zuppa Tuscana Soup at Olive Garden.

So what happened two years ago that led me to this point ?

Truth is, nothing major. In fact, my husband and I were busy working on others areas of our lives…..specifically goal setting and motivation.

We had reached a point in life where we were questioning our direction. How did we want the next 5 years to look? What about 10 years?

To help us navigate these questions, we turned Old School…..Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy and Zig Zigglar (if you have not heard these names, please look them up)!

We purchased audio programs from these inspirational men and listened to them in the car.

We were listening to a program on goal setting by Brain Tracy. He took listeners step by step through the goal setting process.

I was skeptical.

I had never before written down my goals, much less followed a sequenced process.

Turns out, the step by step process would lead to a significant and positive life change for our family.

As I wrote and narrowed my list of goals and future plans, one of them stood out:

Excellent cook with whole food

I really did not give it much thought, since my goal list was long.

Then the clincher.

The final step was to circle the ONE goal that would have the most significant impact on my life and the life of my family in the next year.

I circled:

Excellent cook with whole food

I remember staring at my notebook and thinking how strange that goal was. Not what I expected when I started the process.

I knew nothing about preparing whole food. Nothing except that it felt right.

So there it is. No crazy drama.

To what extent this goal changed our lives…. that was the surprise for us all!

Over the next year, I learned how to prepare whole foods. I lost 10 lbs.

My wonderful husband lost 40! Yes, 40.

We changed. Our kids changed. It was not always easy, but completely worth it.

Kale? Yes, we eat kale. We even like kale.

One year ago, while grocery shopping, my three year old son said, “Look mamma, they have kale today! Can we get some?”

“Of course, buddy. Which one should we get?”

“Dinosaur kale”.

Tease on, friends, tease on.

Jen

Image Credit: Kale by Mike on Flickr