I have been composing this post in my head for weeks and now that I sit down to write, it has proven much more difficult than initially anticipated. When in doubt it seems best to start at the beginning which is exactly what I am going to do. The first day of MOFO is going to be about my families personal journey and why I have opted to talk about healthy food for the next 30 days.

My dad has always been super healthy and in great physical shape. My sister and I have often joked that our dad is in better shape than either of our husbands. He is an avid outdoors man, Mr. Fix-it, and has had the energy to play with his three grandchildren usually wearing them out. That is until last October when his life was turned upside down.

After having what everyone thought was just a virus, he never quite got better. His muscles began to feel achy like they sometimes do with the flu except for the fact that they didn’t stop hurting. His mobility decreased and the simple acts of walking, sitting, and sleeping became a chore. At one point we went to visit and Anzia, our daughter, jumped up as she always did to give him a hug. A hug he was incapable of returning because he was in too much pain. He finally admitted that it was time to see a doctor.

After numerous test and months of pain he was finally diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica. The diagnosis came after test showed that his C-reactive protein level was extremely high. This is also a concern because high levels can lead to cardiovascular issues. He was prescribed Prednisone, a steroid, which gave him back his mobility but had side effects like weight gain. After he started to feel better he began to ween himself off the meds and the pain came back almost instantly.

Okay, finally, this is where we get to the food part. He knew he didn’t want to take the steroids but was unable to function without them. This is when he decided to look into food as his medicine and came up with a long list of food that he now considers to be toxic, which basically comes down to him eating a raw diet. Fortunately, it is working and he has gone from 20 mg to 5 mg of Prednisone. Unfortunately, my mom is at her wit’s end. Despite the fact that she cooks low-fat vegan food, she hasn’t been able to make anything that my dad hasn’t deemed toxic.

Being as I am staying with my parents while in between houses I proposed to my mom, who was excited to participate with me in MOFO, that we would prepare a month of non toxic food that my dad will eat. I am hoping that in our efforts that I may also help my mom who has Sarcoidosis along with horrible headaches.

Currently we are eating a lot of salads and the plan this next month is to make our new menu a little more exciting without being toxic. We will share our first recipe tomorrow. Maybe at the end we will all be a little more healthy!

In the meantime make sure to check out the Vegan MOFO page and the other bloggers participating.

I have always looked up to my dad.