Frankly, I was not a good candidate for a naturally minded lifestyle.

I went everywhere with an over the counter medicine cabinet in my purse.

I read all the labels; I knew all the things.

I knew what I was doing and why.

And once I'm there, I'm very unlikely to change.

But--I have a very naturally minded friend who was changing her food.

And she was willing to answer all my endless questions.

And frankly, her reasoning was good.

The American food industry isn't what it once was. It was worth looking into and making changes, so—slowly—we did. And that natural mindset moved into other areas of our life. We’re trying to avoid synthetics. So eventually the OTC meds got tackled too.

Now we're at a place that works for us. And it's not the same place as other people we know. We've picked what we wanted from a long list of options, and we regularly evaluate.

And I will tell you this: I feel better now, in middle age, than I did for a whole lot of my 20s and 30s. And I absolutely see the positive impact of the changes we made. I wouldn't take them back.

My food tastes better and is better for me, and the ways we support our health don't come with a bunch of icky side effects. (I'm very sensitive to medicines!)

We feel more better more of the time.

And that's something worth striving for.