I’m Denise Sawyer, of WholeseomeMommy.com  I have a Masters in Education.  I am a teacher at heart and by occupation.  That is why I started this blog, to teach others all that I have learned about living a wholesome life.

I began my journey when I had my first child.  Like many moms, I wanted to feed my son the BEST foods.  I wanted him to be a healthy, adventurous eater without food allergies.  I started reading everything I could about REAL food and traditional diets…fast and furiously.  I devoured books like Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, and Nina Planck’s Real Food: What to Eat and Why.

Armed with this information, I continued to read websites and blogs, hungry for more.  I began buying organic produce using the Environmental Working Groups lists of fruits and veggies according to their pesticide load {the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen}.  I purchased beef from a local farmer who raised his beef cattle on pasture – not corn.  I bought organic dairy products and humanely raised eggs.  I watched a lot of food network and read a lot of cooking magazines trying to figure out how to cook from scratch with real food.  I learned new methods for cooking that used good fats like grass fed butter, olive oil, and coconut oil.  I felt great about what I was doing and my son and my husband were becoming much more adventurous in their eating.  Real food tastes great!

Wholesome Food Means Life and Death

Then, on July 2nd, 2010 my husband was diagnosed with leukemia.  Our world was turned upside down.  I quickly, miraculously found peace thanks to God.  I prayed night and day for my husband’s health and our friends and family did too.  Eating healthy was no longer a fascination or hobby, it became more… it became life or death.  I visited the local Whole Foods store which was right down the road from the hospital where we were living.  Yes, living… for over a month.  I bought and prepared food from Whole Foods and continued to try to get healthy foods into my husband’s body whenever I could.  And, praise God, my husband was healed and received a clean bone marrow biopsy in December 2010.  He is cancer free.  The doctor where he was first diagnosed said he never expected him to recover.  But, praise God for a good doctor, good food, and a miracle, he is still here.

Passionate about Wholesome Foods

Now, I am a mother of two children.  And, I am more diligent than ever to feed myself and my family REAL, wholesome food.  Food from farmers not from factories.  I’ve continued my “Whole Food Journey” by sifting through the constant {and sometimes conflicting} research that is available including Rich Food Poor Food, by Jayson and Mira Calton, and other research from Weston A. Price.  I am convinced that America’s health problems,  including heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, largely come from our Western diet and overuse of chemicals, and I am determined to change the way we eat.  I started with my own family and now hope to continue by helping families all over the country by sharing all that I have learned and continue to learn.

I’m a Mom, Like You.  You CAN Do This

I am doing the BEST that I can.  I am not perfect but I am a life long learner.  I am a real mom… a busy mom just like you.  I know that there are a lot of moms {and dads} out there that WANT to feed their families well but life gets in the way.  That’s where I hope I can help.  I have done the research so you don’t have to.  I try to keep it simple.

Cooking food from scratch sounds tough, but it doesn’t have to be.  I cook dinner, from scratch, 5 to 7 nights a week and can get dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less on most nights.  I encourage you to check out my meal plans and recipes to help you realize you can do this too!  I don’t use ingredients that are difficult to find.  You can find what you need at a conventional grocery store, whole foods store, and/or a farmer’s market.

I live on a budget too.  Wholesome food can sometimes cost more.  But not always.  But even when it does, I believe I am making an investment in my family’s health, and besides, if you don’t spend it on your food you’re going to spend it on health care so why not invest it in wellness, proactively, not sickness, retroactively.  But, I believe by making informed purchases you can stay within your budget.  Eating wholesome and organic food isn’t just for the elite and those with frivolous spending habits.  Anyone can make it work for them and I’m here to help you find that way as I go along on my own “Whole Food Journey.”

Real Food. Real Simple

My stance on what to eat is pretty simple.  We eat REAL, WHOLESOME food.  The less processed the better.  I am not in favor of the latest health craze and I don’t forbid any REAL food.  We eat dessert.  When I make dessert I use wholesome ingredients – not mixes, processed ingredients, or margarine. Everything in moderation.  I’ve learned to read labels like a champ, I can find a fake health claim in a under a second, I know which eggs are best, which meat to buy, and where to find raw milk.   I can teach you all this too.

Quality.  Not Quantity.

But changing my diet has created a shift in my mind set, too.  I began to really think about the kind mom I wanted to be and other ways that I could better my family’s lives and environment – while saving money.  My new mantra has become quality over quantity and can be used to explain many aspects of my life from time spent with my family, purchases I make, things we do, and the type of foods that we eat.  I hope you’ll find my tips for wholesome living, wholesome fun, and my thoughts on raising a wholesome family inspiring and I hope you’ll share your thoughts and tips with me too!

If you find this blog helpful and know someone else that could use a little help too, I hope you’ll share this blog with them!