This post is not about what I learned exactly. That will come later! But it’s more about how I experienced the weekend. And who I experienced it with!
I started my journey to the Chicago area early Friday morning while it was quite dark. Dark enough that the crescent moon was shining brilliantly. And as it shown, not far above the tree line, the stars seemed to shine just as bright in the cloudless sky. I had the pleasure of driving over an hour through the countryside with barely a car in sight. And as I drove, the sky continued to lighten, revealing the most beautiful scenes. In one particular moment, the sky was black to the west and gradually lightening to a shade of blue to the east and becoming a perfect backdrop for the moon. I crossed a large river, over which the fog had settled and it hit me.
God makes all things perfect.
And in that very moment I was awe struck.
In that beautiful setting, on that specific morning, I was on my way to learn more about His creation and how very good it is.
You see, food is the foundation of life. Without it we can not survive. And God so carefully gave us exactly what we would need to keep us healthy and thriving. I truly believe that because we have moved away from His perfect food, we suffer. We suffer from infertility, cancer, heart disease, auto immune diseases, migraines, autism, and the list goes on.
Getting back to real food is not about me trying to save the environment by buying organic, it’s not about the economy and buying local, and it’s not about me making sure animals have rights and are treated fairly. It’s about me getting back to what I feel is God’s design for our health. For my health. And while, yes, those other things are important and part of being good stewards of what we’ve been left responsible for, they aren’t my focus. If they were, this journey would be meaningless.
With that said, I’d love to show you some of the awesome people I met over the weekend! I’ve already met Kelly (the Kitchen Kop) before and it was so fun to see her again!
I also got to meet (L to R) Kimi of Nourishing Gourmet, Alex of Feed Me Like You Mean It, Jenny of Nourished Kitchen, Kelly, AnnMarie of Cheeseslave, and Kimberely of Hartke Is Online.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Ramiel Nagel (author of “Cure Tooth Decay“). He was so fun to talk to and we had a great conversation! I love that he is so passionate about his work and his family. We talked nutrition, natural parenting, fertility, and about his newest book “Healing Our Children”, which he graciously sent me home with a copy to read.
I also got to meet Kaayla Daniel, who did the session on Sacred Foods for Fertility.
I also got to chat for just a bit with Ken and Annette Fischer of Wilderness Family Naturals over dinner. And how fun it was to find out she had all seven of her children born at home.
(photo by Cheeseslave)
And my roommate for the weekend was Maureen Diaz, who has done the Traditional Food Preparation DVD for the Liberation Diet.
(photo by Cheeseslave)
I also had a great chat with Dr. Rob at the Selina Naturally table, he’s doing some really cool stuff in Chicago – so if you live there, look him up!
(photo by Cheeseslave)
The girls from Actual Organics were a blast to chat with too!
(photo by Cheeseslave)
The folks from U.S. Wellness Meats were a lot of fun!
I was also lucky enough to have a few minutes to stop by and chat with the folks from Corganic (Real Food for Autism)
(photo by Cheeseslave)
And of course, I couldn’t resist asking Sally Fallon Morell for a picture! She’s such a kind woman and so passionate about her work, it’s truly inspiring.
These, of course, are just the ones I have pictures of, I met so many other conference goers and exhibitors that were absolutely fabulous! The family atmosphere was fantastic, even though there were probably only 10 babies or so and only a couple dozen kids in the children’s program. I got to talk about nutrition, health, babywearing, breastfeeding, and natural living with so many people. It was an awesome experience! I hope I get a chance to go again next year, it was that fantastic!
To be honest, I was a bit worried that all the hype over it was just people being a bit dramatic. But not so! This conference has met and exceeded my expectations not only because of the sessions, the vendors, the foods but also because of the people.
And maybe it has something to do with the fact that we all feel normal here. No one bats an eye when you say you want butter in your oatmeal. No one thinks it’s odd that there is a kombucha stand instead of a pop stand! And nobody thinks your crazy when you start talking about health issues and food and toxins and vaccines and….and….and…
The people here are fabulous! And from all different walks of life. It’s also amazing to hear their stories of how they came to eating a Weston A Price type diet. There are stories of reversing infertility, complete healing, people who were wheelchair bound walking again.
Yesterday (Friday) I was able to attend the first 2 parts of the GAPS diet session with Baden Lashkov and I was truly amazed at the information. She started off by telling us about her son. He woke every couple hours at night until he was 3 years old. Couldn’t take more than breastmilk until 2 years old – not even water. Would vomit profusely. Iron level was dismal. Teeth were disintegrating, he bashed his head repeatedly on things, he didn’t respond to communication.
After finally finding the GAPS diet he was able to heal and is now a very normal little boy.
Some of the things she taught us:
- The common manifestations; Acne, Adrenal burnout, Allergies, Anger, Anxiety, Appetite issues, Asthma, Auditory hallucinations (that would be hearing things), Bipolar, Bedwetting, Celiac, Colic, Cravings, Dental enamel problems, Picky eating, Inability to toilet train, Irritability, Learning disabilities, Obsessiveness, OCD, Muscle pain, RA, Reflux, Eczema, Social challenges, Stool abnormalities, Thyroid issues, Short temper
- What the diet does; Allows the gut to heal, restores the balance of bacteria, and relieves toxic load in the body.
- How to poop when constipated. I’m not kidding! (fyi- put your feet up on a stool when going)
- She also touched on how to deal with the die-off phase, where symptoms can actually get worse as your body kills off the bad bacteria and purges toxins.
“All disease begins in the gut” – Hypocrites
I was also able to attend the Food and Mood in children and adolescents with Jeanette Turner. Again I was amazed at how the food that is served to our kids causes so many different issues. Hoe our modern diet not only doesn’t feed the brain but how it depletes these little bodies of what they need to grow successfully.
A couple of points she made;
- We all need fat, but kids especially! Our brains are 60% fat
- To keep mood stabilized one must eat fat and protein each meal.
- Common deficiencies in kids are magnesium, iron, and zinc.
- Food additives like MSG and aspartame cause brain cells to fire uncontrollably.
Donielle Baker
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken Casserole
What a fun post about the weekend, I’m adding a link from mine! So fun to hang out with you over the weekend, Donielle! 🙂
Oh, it all looks so fantastic! I really hope that I can go next year (and meet you there!).
And I love what you said about how your purpose is to get back to God’s design for health. He has really been so gracious to give us everything we need, through REAL foods! I think those other things you mentioned are important as well, but our focus needs to on honoring and bringing glory to God and living out His truth in all areas of life (instead of only the areas that we think are “spiritual”), and not on doing them just for our own ideals or just for the environment, etc.
Can’t wait to read what you have to share about what you learned! 🙂
Looks like you had so much fun. I’m going to have you over for lunch with an ulterior motive of picking your brain for info. LOL Let’s start making plans for next years convention without babies. Smile.
@Kelly, I can’t wait till next year already! And as much as I know I shouldn’t be bringing a 19 month old, that just seems so little to leave her home! Plus, I hope she’s still nursing then……
GREAT post! Thank you for sharing your experience. I look forward to reading your future posts about what you learned. I’m about to get on a plane to go home now!
Hi! I was at the conference and saw you several times! Now I can put a face with the blog. It was a great conference and I learned so much!
oh, I would so love to go next year too!!! keep me informed and I’ll try to save up!
I would have LOVED to go! Keep the details coming about what you did, what you ate, and what you learned!