Making changes

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life." I've always liked that quote and the idea that every day is a chance for a fresh start. Most of you who know me probably know that I (along w/ Kevin, Katie & Kyle) was vegan for about 2 1/2 years. It started as a quest for better health that led us to becoming vegetarian and eventually vegan. After losing Kyle and becoming pregnant w/ Kobe, I just didn't "care" anymore about the issues I used to. My emotions were all used up on my grief. I started craving meat during my pregnancy and one hormone free, antibiotic free, free range steak from Whole Foods led to a complete devolving process and now 4 years later we have strayed SO far from our previous healthy way, it's ridiculous. I've been working hard lately to loose the baby weight from my last pregnancy and it led to me to picking up a book at the store called "Skinny Bitch", it looked funny and interesting so I bought it.

Boy was I surprised when I got home and started reading to find out the diet the authors endorse is veganism. They described in horrific detail all the of the realities of factory farming and slaughter houses. Not to mention the putrification process meat takes as it goes through your body. This is all stuff I knew but somehow convinced myself to ignore or forget these past few years. In the back of my mind it was always there though, nagging at me. Reading that book was like a refresher course for my mind and a huge wakeup call. Soooo, my quest for healthier eating and a clearer conscience begins. I'm not saying I'm going to go back to being a vegan overnight. No lie, it is hard to be a vegan, eating out is extremely challenging and that soy cheese sure is hard to get used to. But we ate SO much healthier when we were vegan, EVERY meal included several fruits and/or vegetables and whole grains. Lately, I shamefully admit, my kids have had meals that consisted of nothing but chicken nugget and tater tots. They don't eat nearly enough fruits and vegetables and their sugar intake is WAY too high as well. All that is going to change. I talked it over with them and they are totally on board and actually really excited about making some changes. I have such great kids. Katie had wanted to go back to being vegetarian for a long time and when Kobe found out that "chicken nuggets" come from dead chickens - the poor kid had no idea and had the most horrified face when I told him - happily agreed. Kaleb doesn't get a vote. :)

So yesterday was our first day of our new changes and it went extremely well. We had Kashi cereal w/ soymillk and bananas for breakfast and went to Boulder for lunch at VG Burger - a really cool, all vegan restuarant and had veggie burger, baked fries & agave sweetened sodas. It was really yummy and best of all, when we were done eating we didn't feel like crap the way you usually would if you had eaten a real burger, fries and sugary soda. We were so jazzed by our awesome lunch, we stopped at Whole Foods and picked up a few staples for our new lifestyle. For dinner we made our own pizza w/ whole wheat crust, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives. So far so good!

This morning I was feeling inspired and pulled out my old recipe book and whipped up some whole wheat pancakes and added a scoop of flax meal, a cup of blueberries and a handful of chopped pecans to the batter. They were so delicious I couldn't stop myself from eating them as I was still cooking more. Kevin and the kids loved them and again, we felt great after eating instead of feeling like crap like regular pancakes ususually make us feel. I forgot how good it feels to eat right. For lunch instead of the standard "meat & cheese" sandwich I made the kids lettuce, tomato & cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread and was amazed when they actually ate them and didn't complain. I ate my sandwich on sprouted livegrain bread and sprinkled a little coarse sea salt on it and it was delish.

Snack consisted of apple slices w/ raw, organic almond butter for dipping. The kids LOVED it!

We drank nothing but plain water or water w/ a splash of Acai berry juice all day.

For dinner tonight we had cheese ravioli (not the healthiest choice but I bought it at Costco a couple days ago and hate to waste it) w/ marinara sauce, steamed asperagus and a leafy green salad. The kids actually ate the salad and asperagus (I made them eat it first)! So I think we are on a roll here. We are on 2 full days of no meat and going strong. I'm not opposed to having a steak or chicken breast once in a while, my main goal at this point though is to decrease the amount of animal fat in our diet and increase our fruit & veggie intake. It's actually coming back to me very easily and will be so much easier this time around than it was when we first went veg and I was just learning everything. It's funny how quickly your brain can change it's way of thinking. I saw a Taco Bell commercial a few minutes ago and I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit. lol

Hopefully this will be the change I need to get all the way back to my old weight and size and also make all of us a lot healthier as well.

Anyway, I just want to have a place to keep track of what we are eating and also my exercise and didn't want to put all this on my regular blog. Maybe it will be helpful for anyone else wanting to make healthier choices to get some tips or meal ideas here as well.

As far as exercise - I started my period yesterday, it's the 1st one I've had in TWO years! And I only had 1 in between Kobe and Kaleb so it's really my 2nd in FOUR years! I can't say I've missed it. So I'm giving myself a pass on working out because I'm feeling really crampy. Once I'm feeling better I plan on running 5 x's a week and doing weight training 3 x's a week.

So here we go!