The Importance of a Healthy Diet

Boulder, Colorado is notorious for its healthy lifestyle and clean eating as resident Gillian Ehrich knows. She has created a life for herself and her family that prioritizes healthy eating as less of a habit and more of a lifestyle. 

Ehrich has lived in Boulder with her husband and two daughters for over 20 years. She prefers to shop at the local farmers market or Alfalfas because she has a desire to know exactly where the food she buys comes from.

Eating healthy is a trend in Boulder that many people idolize. People eat healthy for different reasons. “I feel so much better when I eat well,” Ehrich said. “When I eat food that’s a match for my body, I just simply feel better.”

Ehrich has been eating healthy since she was in high school. In college, she made an effort to make healthy decisions, but now healthy eating is a lifestyle that comes naturally.

“I remember when I was in high school and my friends and I would go out together and we would swing by McDonalds and they would get burgers and fries and then we would swing over to the local grocery store and I would go to the salad bar and get salad,” Ehrich said. “It was important to me at a pretty young age.”

She believes healthy eating gives her more energy, helps her feel emotionally stable and helps her sleep better. She noticed this trend when she was in college and her healthy eating habits grew upwards from there.

Ehrich introduced her eating habits to her husband, Jake Schepps. They work together to teach these routines to their two daughters, Lucia and Zinnia.

“I think it’s really important to teach healthy eating to my kids, but what’s most important is that I model it from a place of being very genuine and authentic,” Ehrich said. “I do this because it feels right to me, not because I think it’s the only right thing to do and everyone should do it. It’s important that my kids find their own way with it.”

Ehrich wants to assist her daughters in finding what foods feel good to them. One of her daughters tends to eat more vegetarian and one needs more meat, so the family adjusts their meals to each member’s specific needs.

Ehrich wants to teach them how to find a relationship with their bodies and know what it feels like to eat certain foods. This will help them find what it means to eat healthy in their own ways.

Schepps, her husband, also believes it’s important to share his knowledge of healthy eating with his children. He wants them to know why they are eating what they eat and how local it is. He wants them to be educated about what they fuel their bodies with.

Ehrich stated, “I don’t think there’s one way to eat, one way that’s healthy, I think different people need different things.”

Ehrich knows everyone requires unique diets, but her ideal diet consists of mostly vegetables and fruits, a variety of whole grains like brown rice or quinoa, and local meats. She wants to know exactly where her meat came from and what it was fed.

Ehrich also understands the importance of diversity in one’s diet. “Focusing on eating just one kind of food creates imbalance, so variety is very important to me.”

There are certain rituals that hold a special place in Ehrich’s heart. “I like to be mindful when I cook because I find when I’m not, the energy of the food doesn’t taste as good.” Ehrich said. “I also like to bless my food. I like to bless it and thank it for giving up its life to nourish me.”

Healthy eating and cooking take up a large part of Ehrich’s life. “I get excited to go into the kitchen and see what’s in the refrigerator and take my time with the vegetables. I tune into thinking about if this is something that wants to be steamed or sautéed and realizing what my body wants.”

“I feel so good eating this way and my life is organized around it,” Ehrich said.

Ehrich and Schepps believe that living in Boulder is one of the best places to get local food while having a variety of options for diverse foods. Ehrich grew up in Maine and remembers coming to Boulder and being astonished that almond milk was an option at local cafés.

Boulder is innovative with its food. It is easy for the community to buy local groceries and make sure they have organic options. Healthy eating is a habit that is essential to Boulder locals.

Schepps recognizes that his wife was the one who introduced healthy eating into his life and over the years, he has adapted to make it a priority as well. The two have very similar views on what it means to eat healthy.

“I think there’s a huge spectrum in terms of what’s healthy eating.” Schepps said. “Half of our family is gluten-free and one of us is dairy free.” Every person needs a different diet in order to be truly healthy.

Schepps has become educated about the different reasons why a person eats healthy. “Are you eating healthy because you want to lose weight, or because it’s good for the environment, or are you eating healthy because you have a problem that prohibits you from eating certain things?” All of these scenarios require different diets that are all healthy in their own ways.

Ehrich and her family truly believe that eating as many local foods as possible is the best option for them.

“I love going to local farms,” Ehrich said. “We go to Light Root Community Farm every Friday and get a half gallon of milk in a glass container. I drive up their driveway and see all the cows that produced this milk. I just love that; I love that connection with my food.”

In an article by ProQuest, it is determined that eating local food can help individuals overcome nutrition barriers. “Long-term solutions for nutrient deficiency problems are to be found in local food systems rather than in new food, plants and diets.” Buying food locally is crucial for individuals aiming for a healthy diet, as Ehrich knows.

Although healthy eating has many benefits, it comes with burdens, too. Ehrich said that there are time constraints that come with eating healthy. It takes time to prepare, cook, and clean up from dinner every night. It is also very expensive, but it is a sacrifice that their family has committed to.

Ehrich also feels an emotional and psychological stress that comes with eating healthy. When she wants a meal to be easy and gives her children a hot dog, she questions it. “I have to remind myself that it’s okay, they eat so many good things.”

Another value that the family upholds is growing their own food. “We have a small garden,” Schepps said. “It’s as local as you can get, you just walk outside and get it.”

Ehrich loves the fact that the family grows their own vegetables. “One of my favorite things is watching the kids eat the vegetables out of the garden. I just love that,” Ehrich said. “Not only does it taste so good, but there’s also something empowering about the fact that this just came from our backyard and it’s beautiful.”

Ehrich states, “These vegetables come right off the plant and go right into my mouth and I think to myself, ‘this is gold.’”

The family loves shopping at Alfalfas. Trevor Arellano works at the local Alfalfas and is proud to work at a grocery store that supplies such local food.

“Most of our food is organic and most of it is local,” Arellano said. “It’s all really good stuff, we try to stay away from the non GMO and it’s kind of our selling point.”

Arellano believes that most local residents shop at Alfalfas is because of how fresh the food is. “I feel like we are a good representation of the Boulder community as a whole.”

Ehrich has a passion for eating clean and putting the right nutrients into her body. She loves teaching this to her kids and husband. They have built their lives around healthy eating and Ehrich feels so much better everyday because of it.

“Healthy eating just feels better,” Ehrich said. “I have more energy, I sleep better, I feel emotionally better, and I’m just better overall.”