I had a request to explain how I incorporate the alkaline diet into my lifestyle. To be honest, I am still learning about it but it has not been a hard transition as I have been changing my habits for a while now. I'll tell you what I do and what I don't do. I am lucky that I have a husband who supports me and doesn't mind the changes. I have some friends who tell me their husband would never eat this or that and who make a big deal about changes.

First I will tell you what I don't buy. I never but pop, chips, donuts, or junk food of any kind. I do get those things on occasion for a camp out though. Normally, they are never to be found. I never buy white bread. I have been buying whole grain bread for so long that my kids don't even know the difference. I am now buying Winder dairy bread and it has no preservatives or anything yucky in it. I never buy crackers or gold fish anymore because those things have terrible stuff in them. The only "junk food" I have in my house is corn or tortilla chips to eat with salsa and cold cereals like wheat chex and bran flakes. My kids don't complain because I don't give them a choice. They can go hungry if they prefer.

I do buy tons of snacks that I love. I am not rigid about what they eat in the house like I am with myself but I only make available to them the things I want them to have. Like right now, I have apples, plums, grapefruit, bananas, cantaloupe, honeydew, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and a huge salad with lots of good veggies in it in the fridge. I only make salads with Green or red leafy lettuce. I never use iceberg lettuce. That is a complete waste of money in my opinion. I have green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and anything else I feel like in my salad so no matter when I am home, if I am hungry, I have salad to eat at least. I always keep soaked almonds in the fridge. They are wonderful and really fill me up.

Fruit should not be eaten with any other food as it needs to be digested alone to get it's full benefits. I love eggs and they are not as acidifying as other proteins so I frequently have them.

For dinner last night we had baked potatoes and a huge salad. At first, I thought I had to add a lot of other fillers to keep everyone happy like pasta or biscuits (since I don't cook meat as often) but have found that everyone gets full on the salad a potatoes! I have also found that my kitchen is so much cleaner without all the meat mess. Weird.

I had heard in the past that you should only combine certain foods. I thought it was a bunch of baloney! It's not after all. Meant need a very acidic environment to digest and usually do that in the stomach. Most veggies need an alkaline environment to digest and that is usually done in the small intestine. When you combine these food, it slows down the digestion of both an causes fermentation and putrefication of the food. This in turn causes a lot of gas and acid reflux.

Since I have been watching what foods I combine, I have almost no gas and that gas I do have never smells!! Believe it or not! and I never have heartburn anymore.

The foods you can combine in a good way are:

Non-starchy with carbs (that's like salad and pasta)
Non-starchy with proteins
Non- starchy with fats

Combine SPARINGLY:

proteins and fats
fats and carbs

eat fruits on their own and never combine if you can help it, proteins and carbs.

Now this cannot always be avoided, just be careful about it.

I am not anal about this . A couple of nights ago I was so tired, it was 6 pm and I had started nothing so I just made pancakes. I truly believe if I follow this way of eating, I will be much better for it. I already am but I do not beat myself up when I eat something I "shouldn't" I just start over. I Do allow myself a treat once in a while of the old things I love like ice cream or chips etc... but it is few and far between.

There was something else I was going to say but I can't remember what it was. Oh, If there is something you don't really like and think , "I could never switch to that" YES YOU COULD! It's all about habits. Like switching to skim. You get to where you like it, then prefer it. I didn't used to like wheat bread. I had to force myself to eat it but I had to since I had quit buying white! Be disciplined! You can do it it! Be firm with yourselves and your kids and explain the whys to them so they are on board. They will get used to it too. You will feel so good.