My Story Part I

I have been putting off writing this post for a while now. Busy-ness prevented me, but also working out in my head just what I wanted to convey. A couple of months ago I realized that I've always been honest about my journey, but I never really explained what set me on the path to start. So here it is....or part one of it anyway.....

This...is me. No, not the pretty lady holding the baby. I'm the baby! I was born to two very outdoorsy parents. A Cajun cowgirl and a Creole Bayou boy. I was taught how to "live off the land". Dad hunted, fished and crabbed. He was also a pastor. A lot of his congregants were fisherman, farmers and trappers. They gave to the church in the form of the fruits of their labor. The norm for us was fresh vegetables seafood, duck, marsh hens, alligator, turtle and the like. We would prepare these foods that we had caught ourselves (or knew the person who did) and Dad would say, "I wonder what the poor people are eating!" If it cost money to buy, it was a special treat, not the norm. I used to get so excited over a Pop Tart! I look back and wonder why, but I was little....

Here I am in first grade. Mom never did understand why they waited until after recess to take these pictures.....And so I grew. Healthy. I can't remember ever going to the pediatrician. We didn't take vitamins. We didn't eat diet food. Although my mom always used Miracle Whip instead of mayo. Yuck. We just lived off of what our surroundings provided us. Dad even tried his hand at a garden for a few years. He and Mom grew all sorts of things. Dad and Mom always had to have a little side business going to supplement their income because being a preacher (contrary to popular belief) doesn't really pay that well. There were a couple of times where Dad sold life insurance and he was good at it, but the outdoors always called him back. He ran crab traps. He had a landscaping service. Then a tree business. All along the way, he took us with him for the ride. My parents taught us to love the outdoors too...

Here I am, being a bayou child. Rubber boots and all....I learned how to fish, though I was never allowed to bait my own hook or take the fish off the hook....that's man work.....I enjoyed it. Then our lives changed a little.... 

At about the age of 13 here in this picture, Dad's ministry took us all on the road evangelizing; doing revival meetings from church to church all over the Southern United States. Our diets changed too. We no longer had time to hunt, fish and grow things. Store bought, packaged foods became our norm and homegrown/caught foods became the exception. Trips through the drive through became rather common too with all the time we spent traveling. My brother LOVED McDonald's. I was pretty sure he'd turn into a nugget. Not so coincidentally, I also, started going through.......

"a chubby phase".....I was performing in a drama here so don't make fun of my funny pose. :) I was "chubby". Fourteen years old and already 180 pounds. I carry weight more evenly distributed than some so I was just called "chubby" and "it's a phase. She's still growing". I had pretty much reached my full height of 5 feet 2 inches by then though. And it was not a phase. My poor metabolism was like "What. Is. Happening?!" I gained weight and developed nasal allergies. I had never had allergies before, but all of a sudden pine trees and azalea bushes became my worst enemies! I also had tinnitus, but at the time I didn't know that ringing in your ears "when the room is quiet" wasn't normal. 

Then we moved back home. Dad took a church to pastor again. Our house had 14 acres. About 7 of those acres were water. I loved it there. I was always in a pirogue or on the levee doing something. At 16 I got a job and I started dating this guy. I was a pretty active chick. I slimmed right down. We were home eating fresh real foods again. Although, not like before because junk found it's way into our favorites in the time we spent on the road. When I was a kid the only time I got a Zebra cake was when we went fishing. Now we had them all the time. That is if we could get to them before my brother. A teenaged boy is like a walking garbage disposal. Anyway, I spent most of the last couple of years under my parents' roof very active. I was either walking to work (because I was terrified of driving) or out on the water by myself, or showing my boyfriend what a beautiful place the wetlands of Louisiana can be if you just stop and look. I guess I was determined to pass the love of the land on to someone like my parents had to me. Then the boy asked me to marry him. I said yes! About a month before my wedding my mom brought me to the lady doctor to get checked out and start on the pill. I started eating like I'd never seen food before. My mom says it was nerves. I say it was the pill. It was probably a combination of both, but BOY did I gain some weight in a short amount of time! I had to have my wedding dress let out at the last second because it wouldn't zip!! I didn't care. I was happy and in love and I was going to be married......