Lauren Kiszie’s Health Journey
I believe we all want to live “Healthy” but for most of us we do not know what that means, much less how to live a healthy lifestyle! That is where I found myself for years. I worked out and ate a low calorie diet and got good results on the outside, but there were still things wrong with me...headaches, skin rashes, tiredness, etc. I felt like I was in good health, so I just continued on with what seemed to be working for me despite my side effects. Can you relate?
My name is Lauren Kiszie and I am a wife and mom to three kids! I love my jobs as a homemaker and homeschool mom. These roles have helped me on my journey towards healthy living. Being a wife and mom meant that I wasn’t just responsible for my health, but for the health of my family! I grew up eating Little Debbies and drinking Coke. They were just part of life, but as I became a mom I had the understanding that I knew more than my parents about nutrition and it was my responsibility to teach my children according to my knowledge. A common quote at our house is, “To know better is to do better!”
My husband, Phil, and I met in 2008 and got married in 2010. He is a physical therapist, and really enjoys working out and eating healthy. When we met, I did not enjoy those things! In fact, exercise meant sweating and I did not like to do that! Salads were not my thing. I preferred cheeseburgers and fries! I had some choices to make...eat cheeseburger while he eats salad or make some changes! So, that is when I began my journey towards healthy living. I started working out and eating healthy and found it to be a much better lifestyle for me. I enjoyed the time we spent together at the gym. I lost weight and felt better, so that gave me the motivation to keep going on my journey. I developed a deeper love of cooking. If I was going to eat healthy, it needed to taste good. So I did just that, learned to cook new things and enjoyed this new lifestyle!
As time passed, we had children, and we knew that we wanted our children to know what it meant to be healthy and to know how to make healthy choices. Having children placed a new desire in me to learn more! I didn’t want them to have to stop bad habits in their adulthood like I did. I wanted them to make healthy choices their whole life and enjoy healthy food. I looked to other moms who had children that loved healthy food and did what they did. My kids learned to read nutrition labels and make choices based on what their bodies needed, not based on what they wanted. There were definitely some tears along the way (both mine and theirs), but it was worth it! We can sit down to a family dinner, and no one complains about what they are eating! I will admit, that took several years to accomplish! However, now they eat it and enjoy it because they know food is meant to nourish their bodies, not please their taste buds.
Like most journeys, there are unexpected curves that test your stamina to maintain the course! Our journey to healthy living threw us a major curve when my husband developed a skin rash that covered his face and head in 2021. Doctor visit after doctor visit left us with no answers. A year passed and we had no answers only more frustration. We knew it would be up to us to find out what was wrong and how to treat it. The more we learned, the less we felt like we knew! Have you ever studied something and felt like everything you once thought was right was actually not right? If so, I can relate! I realized health was so much more than what we eat!
At this time I began to realize that what we had been considering healthy living, exercising and eating healthy foods like meat and vegetables, wasn’t really all that healthy! We started looking into natural medication and holistic practices that would heal the body. We realized that our health wasn’t only about what we put in our body, but also what we put on our body and how our bodies respond. While our food selection looked healthy, under the sinks in our home and the laundry room sat products with a slew of toxins! We started switching our products in order to help Phil’s skin condition and realized the largest organ of our body, the skin, was not being taken care of. This was a long process of trial and error, but with each step we learned more. The more we learned, the more we wanted to learn. Eventually, his skin irritations subsided and we were left with a wealth of information!
I believe God created us to be healthy and to thrive, but I didn’t really understand the relationship between my health and God’s creation. Our God loves us and cares for us and planned creation in order to meet our needs! Through this long trial of Phil’s skin disorder, we learned how to use food, essential oils, and natural products to help our bodies heal and stay healthy. My long journey has lead me to learn and share with others what I have learned. I believe we are meant to prosper within community. We can help each other and learn from our successes and failures! Time is precious, we should’t waste it making the same mistakes as others. We should learn from each other and encourage one another towards greatness.
There is hope regardless of your circumstance! Hope is “a desire accompanied by expectation of our belief in fulfillment.” I believe God created us to be healthy and there is hope that we can achieve that if we make changes in accordance with His creation! Live Transformed Co was developed out of a passion to help others “Live Well and Be Well”. We would love to help you discover new ways to improve your health. Health is a journey, not a destination, and we’d love to help you on your journey!
