Now the power is in your hands. Now you must wake up every day and make a choice for you and your family. Is this day going to include you being present and living? Or is this day going to bulldoze right over you? Is this day going to be one about health and happiness or will this day swallow you up by temptation and despair? You have the power to make a choice each and every day of what food goes on your plate and into your mouth. You have a choice every day to take a breath and ask yourself what your body is really hungry for. You have a choice every day to take a breath and check in with your body to determine if your present meal will truly sustain you. The power is yours to take.

I’m from Iowa and where I grew up each town is about 8-12 miles apart and the Iowa farms are sectioned off in acre plots. You fly over Iowa and it looks like the most beautiful patchwork quilt, each square offering its beauty. In Iowa there are many gravel roads and the occasional highway. Your nutrition journey is like an Iowa highway, you cruise along in control and making the best choices you can, but every once in a while you veer off on a gravel road to take the scenic route. To enjoy drinks with friends, to enjoy that celebration at your favorite restaurant, to have s’mores with the kids over the camp fire, to spend the day with your family making and enjoying the family tradition of holiday treats. But, just like in Iowa if you veer right onto a gravel road from your straight highway, you simply turn left a couple times and drive for a bit, and you easily make it back on to the highway. And you begin your journey again. You do the best you can. You choose each day to start down the highway because you have made the choice to not just live your life but thrive.