The Green Mama - Part One - The Beginning

So how does one become one of those crazy "green" people? How do they come about? Were they raised by hippy parents? Did they smoke too much pot? Are they just super good people that really care about the environment?

Here is my tale of how I have started to be become one of those people. Really this is mostly mindless babbling about myself...but I at least compartmentalized it so it wouldn't be too overwhelming for anyone who might decide to read it...

I've never been a particularly eco-friendly person. I haven't cared all that much about global warming, I used paper towels to my heart's content. I've thrown away things that easily could have been made into something else...I've ceaselessly run the water in my shower to make sure it was extra hot before I even got in it, etc. I have at least routinely recycled for pretty much my whole life.

In addition to not be eco-friendly I've never given too much thought to what I ate. I'll admit, I've had an addiction to crap foods like top ramen and kraft mac and cheese. I've eaten a cheese danish and coffee for breakfast on more than one occasion...somewhere in all this, though, I've been pretty good about taking vitamins. I think my love for crap food comes from having grown up eating super healthy food.

A traditional breakfast when I was growing up might have consisted of whole grains topped with fresh honey (we had a giant tub from my mom's friend who owned a honey bee farm) butter and cream. Or eggs and bacon, etc. When we had peanut butter and jelly, it wasn't Jiffy...it was Laura Scudder, with the chunks. You know that peanut butter you can hardly get out of the jar (that's after you mixed it to get all the oils from sitting right on top) let alone spread it on your super whole wheat bread. My mom always cooked home-cooked meals (that part I loved) and we never had things like cereal or pop tarts or anything of the kind in our house. Sugar was on a lock down...my dad would literally give us (my little sister and me) Halloween night to eat as much of our candy as we could and then it went into the trash (silly as we ALWAYS kept a stash hidden somewhere). (Did I mention this is Los Angeles I grew up in?)

Now you might have not been able to find sugar in our house, but vitamins were EVERYWHERE. By the time I was 2 I think I'd overdosed twice on Niacin...somehow the first time I got into the vitamins ate half the bottle didn't teach my dad to put them somewhere I couldn't reach...My little sister and I would eat Vitamin C (not the chewables) like they were candy. We also loved Vitamin E and lecithin. Another vitamin we'd chew up was one called Core Level Health Reserve. This was essentially a green multivitamin. Oh how we loved chewing those up. I don't even mind the taste of them now as an adult.

Anyhow, as I became a teen, being able to access and buy with my own money things like soda, chocolate, etc. is what started my downfall on the quality of food I enjoyed. Now this isn't to say I didn't enjoy a gourmet meal. Trust me, I did. I love cooking and I love being cooked for. I just also loved junk food.

So, fast forward to more recent times. I recently had a baby and it's amazing how something like that can completely change your perspective on health and the environment.

It was always important to me to have a natural birth. I didn't want any drugs--not for me, but for my baby. I knew anything going into me would also be going into him. And I figured that women have been popping out babies for thousands of years and the majority of that was without any form of drug. So, why couldn't I? It was incredibly hard and excruciating, but I did it and I'd do it again any day.

The day my son was born was the beginning of: The Eco-Friendly Mama. I started noticing the ingredients in everything. From sunscreen to shampoo, to the clothes I was buying. It opened up a whole new perspective for me.