Really Very Crunchy: A Beginner's Guide to Removing Toxins from Your Life without Adding Them to Your Personality

by Emily Morrow

Crunchy is a spectrum. It’s not a level or award you achieve. You don’t get a fancy pink Cadillac once you’ve gained a certain number of crunchy points (a Cadillac wouldn’t be crunchy, anyway. It would need to be a Subaru or, better yet, a bicycle).

Unless someone asks me for tips or suggestions on ways to improve their life or their health, I try not to mention my crunchy approach to life except to share about me or my family, and only if it’s a natural part of the conversation. Take, for example, Father’s Day. I made two versions of banana pudding—one for my family and one for my dad. He doesn’t care about all the junk that’s in boxed pudding; he wants it to taste like his favorite memories of eating pudding. I’m not going to shame him for eating it, but I’m also not going to feed the boxed pudding to my kids. End of story.

I try to make sure I’m not scaring my kids away from food. I don’t want them to be afraid of eating something just because I don’t think it’s a healthy choice. That’s a recipe for an eating disorder. It is not a child’s job to worry about food. I want my kids to be thinking about having fun, not about the dangers lurking in sheet cake. And I certainly don’t want to make them feel excluded.

Added sugars are everywhere; it’s no wonder toddlers these days are consuming upward of seventeen teaspoons of sugar each day.12 The recommended amount for children ages two to twelve is less than six teaspoons.13 Worldwide we are becoming less and less healthy as more and more sugar is introduced into our diets.

I made a video about how geese flying in formation honk to encourage one another to keep up their speed. This video showed me honking at a flock flying over my home. While a lot of my videos are exaggerations of reality or scenarios that happen in my brain, I will admit I do honk at geese. I don’t use a duck call or anything, but I do excitedly yell “Honk!” as my boys bounce up and down, honking right along with me. On a scale of mainstream to homeschooled, I’d say our homeschooled-ness shows a bit here, but there is something so exciting about a moment out of your control sneaking up on you and you having a way to celebrate it. I want to infuse my kids’ lives with moments that feel meaningful and connected, a feeling they can carry with them as they grow. We also shout “Water tower!” anytime we see a water tower when we are driving. It sounds so silly, but it’s a way of creating a sense of belonging, and we all know the drill of shouting it out when we see one. Some people are fine with being a family by proximity and genetics, but I want more. I want true connection with my kids. Honking at geese is not the only way to make that happen, but the only way your family can have your own “special thing” is if you make it happen.

rewildcarlyrose on Instagram, that really resonated with me. She said “Humans are not meant to wake up in a box and stare at boxes, eat out of boxes, drive to work to work in a box, while staring at boxes, going home to our boxes to stare at more boxes all day. This is not normal and humans are not meant to live like this.”11All these boxes are causing us to miss the breathtaking displays that God has given us through nature to mark the passage of time. If you want to start thinking outside

I think the first step to breaking the cycle of physical dissatisfaction is recognizing that beauty is found in diversity. We shouldn’t all want to look the same. We are not mass produced. That would be weird and creepy, and saying it feels like the perfect start to a post-apocalyptic novel. We are all uniquely, individually crafted inside our mothers’ wombs, like beautiful works of art.

The opportunity to age is a gift.

We are not meant to simply consume; we are meant to contribute. If you’re looking to make healthier choices for yourself and your family, look past “self-care” and focus on picking up nourishing habits that will fill your cup in a way that allows you to pour out freely to others.

Choosing joy and gratitude and connecting with others are some of the best things you can do for your health. Don’t allow an attitude of negativity, anxiety, or superiority become more toxic than the toxins you are trying to remove from your life.

In short, the crunchiest things you can do are think for yourself, do the best you can, and show love to your fellow human beings.