The first step of a long journey

So here we are... or, I am anyway. If you read the "About Me" section of this blog, you know why I'm writing this, so I'm hoping you're here to either join or support me in my efforts. This is the merely the first of many steps that need to be taken on this journey. This probably will not be an enlightening or motivational post but we have to start somewhere, and I guess the beginning is best.

As I said before, until just recently I lived a very "American" lifestyle. I love convenience, and I love "good" food - Burgers, Pizza, White bread, and pretty much anything fried. And if I'm being REALLY honest I have to say that I didn't think much (okay, at all) about what was going into my body or what I was contributing to my carbon footprint (I am now convinced that being "green" and being "natural" go hand in hand.) Until recently, that is.

A few months ago I stumbled upon my good friend Dana's blog, cleverly entitled "Clean out your pantry". Intrigued, I asked her what it was all about, and what she told me planted itself in my brain and, although I didn't know it at the time, the roots began to grow deeper. Over the next few months I learned more and more about the new lifestyle she adopted and the benefits of that lifestyle, so I decided to test this idea. I started gradually, switching over certain products just to try them out and see if there was any truth to what she was talking about. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I started getting sick and, instead of taking medicine, I followed Dana's advice and loaded up on garlic, water, protein, and vitamins. I kept up a natural immune strengthening regiment throughout the next few weeks and never got sick, even while I watched everyone around me catch a brutal cold. After that point, I became a true believer in the benefits of a natural lifestyle. In the weeks since then I have done more and more research on living naturally and exactly what that means and, with some guidance from lovely Dana, I have decided to make it my mission to make the change to a natural and organic life. I started searching in the Bible to see what God had to say about the whole thing, and that is where I found Deut. 8:7 - 10 - The verse that you see underneath my blog title. I truly believe that we should live the way God intended us to, consuming that which He provides for us, without adding to that with man man chemicals and hormones.

Luckily I have a wonderful man who supports me in this endeavor and provides me with resources to assist me in this journey. A few days ago he shared with me a blog/website he found, www.pathtofreedom.com, about a modern urban household that is now living naturally and are almost completely self sustained. After some discussion we decided that this was something we wanted to do, so we are now planning to move further out to the country where we can have a little more land to implement our plan. That is the ultimate goal. To build a self sustaining life for ourselves and our family and to help others see the benefits in such a lifestyle. This blog is meant to document that journey - the advances, set backs, and accomplishments. I invite you to follow me, in reality if you're brave enough, or here if you are not ready to take that step. After all, that's what this journey is all about, taking one step at a time...