About My Family
Hi, I'm Amber -- a regular wife and mom. When I first started this blog, I was documenting our family's journey from eating "regular" American food to eating whole foods, hence the name of the site. However, our lifestyle soon changed to eating gluten-free. And then our lives took one more change as my husband, James, and I began eating low-carb Paleo.
So how did this all happen? Well, as I learned more about processed foods and chemicals and all that yucky stuff, I decided to cut it out of our lives. And it was great. I felt better; my husband felt better; and the kids... well, they whined for some of their old processed stand-by goodies, but that soon faded.
Then, my youngest daughter, Little A, got sick. Really sick. The kind of scary sick that makes a mother worry until she can barely function during the day. She had blood tests and more blood tests, trips to the pediatrician, and trips to a pediatric hematologist at one of the best children's hospitals in the country. Conventional medicine has diagnosed her with Chronic Benign Neutropenia of Childhood. Basically that's a fancy way of saying one of her white blood cells, the neutrophils (responsible for fighting bacterial infections), is chronically low. Why? Conventional medicine has no idea why, no treatment, no therapies, nothing.
Thankfully, Little A was quite healthy after her bout of severe illness -- no infections, no chronic pneumonia, no skin lesions. Conventional medicine has advised us to keep an eye out for infection or other problems related to the neutropenia, and we've been told she may grow out of it by age five.
Meanwhile, I was delving into the world of gluten. A close family member to Little A had just learned she was indeed gluten intolerant, and I knew that sort of allergy could run in the family. Our trip to a nurse practitioner at a doctor's office specializing in Integrative Medicine forever changed the course of our lives. We became gluten-free in the fall of 2011, and I know I will never go back. By early winter 2012, we were also dairy-free (except for occasional goat's milk products). In the spring of 2012, James and I switched to a low-carb Paleo diet which has completely transformed me from having chronic fatigue to living a life full of energy.
My oldest daughter, Big C, has been caught in the middle of this gluten-free whirlwind but has taken it in stride. After becoming gluten-free and dairy-free, we noticed a marked improvement in her behavior. And a mysterious chronic rash on her abdomen disappeared.
We are certainly a family transformed, and I'd love nothing more than to tell the world that they can feel better, eat great, and live a much happier life by using nutrition to their advantage. Did I mention that I love food? 'Cause I do -- a lot -- and I love to cook, so this blog allows me to share my recipes and my journey and myself.
I hope you stick around and visit often.
-- Amber
So how did this all happen? Well, as I learned more about processed foods and chemicals and all that yucky stuff, I decided to cut it out of our lives. And it was great. I felt better; my husband felt better; and the kids... well, they whined for some of their old processed stand-by goodies, but that soon faded.
Then, my youngest daughter, Little A, got sick. Really sick. The kind of scary sick that makes a mother worry until she can barely function during the day. She had blood tests and more blood tests, trips to the pediatrician, and trips to a pediatric hematologist at one of the best children's hospitals in the country. Conventional medicine has diagnosed her with Chronic Benign Neutropenia of Childhood. Basically that's a fancy way of saying one of her white blood cells, the neutrophils (responsible for fighting bacterial infections), is chronically low. Why? Conventional medicine has no idea why, no treatment, no therapies, nothing.
Thankfully, Little A was quite healthy after her bout of severe illness -- no infections, no chronic pneumonia, no skin lesions. Conventional medicine has advised us to keep an eye out for infection or other problems related to the neutropenia, and we've been told she may grow out of it by age five.
Meanwhile, I was delving into the world of gluten. A close family member to Little A had just learned she was indeed gluten intolerant, and I knew that sort of allergy could run in the family. Our trip to a nurse practitioner at a doctor's office specializing in Integrative Medicine forever changed the course of our lives. We became gluten-free in the fall of 2011, and I know I will never go back. By early winter 2012, we were also dairy-free (except for occasional goat's milk products). In the spring of 2012, James and I switched to a low-carb Paleo diet which has completely transformed me from having chronic fatigue to living a life full of energy.
My oldest daughter, Big C, has been caught in the middle of this gluten-free whirlwind but has taken it in stride. After becoming gluten-free and dairy-free, we noticed a marked improvement in her behavior. And a mysterious chronic rash on her abdomen disappeared.
We are certainly a family transformed, and I'd love nothing more than to tell the world that they can feel better, eat great, and live a much happier life by using nutrition to their advantage. Did I mention that I love food? 'Cause I do -- a lot -- and I love to cook, so this blog allows me to share my recipes and my journey and myself.
I hope you stick around and visit often.
-- Amber