Well here it is, the blog I've been thinking about making since I started this journey. After the suggestion of several friends that loved my Facebook pictures of recipes I was playing around with, I decided maybe it's not such a bad idea.
Against my own judgment, I'm going to keep this blog public. I don't like feeling like a bunch of people are reading my mindless ramblings, but I'll run with it for a while.
Sooooooo...... it all began with a fast. A 24 hour fast at that. I ate a small meal on a Tuesday, planned on fasting until wed. night. Wednesday night came and went and I didn't feel hungry so I figured "what's one more day?". Well!!! Thursday was AWFUL. I mean so bad that I couldnt stray from home longer than the time it took to get my boy to and from school (which took 4 minutes max). And even that time was sketchy. Of course I chose to do that the first day of his soccer practice I was helping coach. Luckily it was only 45 minutes. But I was so sick. Stomach flu, wanted to die sick. I had this feeling deep down that it wasn't a sickness like a virus but a sickness like I had been poisoning my body for years with over processed garbage, dairy and horrible sodas/coffee. So I stuck it out that day. The next morning I woke up with more energy than I'd had in YEARS!!! I was ready to go!!! I ran around and did errands, cleaned the house, went walking, then napped! The thing with fasting is you get exhausted so quickly. Especially when it's 100+ out. But luckily you're much more in tune with your body at this point and just need to listen. Listen when to drink water. Listen when to lay down. Listen when your body says enough is enough.
I'll keep this short - I stuck with this fast for 10 days. I DID juice as well. Not until the third day and not a ton of juice, just enough to sustain me and reduce the dizziness and only when my body felt it needed more than water. I might come back and add more on the fast later. I kept a journal but don't want to put it out in cyberspace right now.
I knew I needed a lifestyle change and researched different diets for when I started eating again. I kept going back to plant based, but refused to entertain that thought. Who in their right mind lives without cheese???? Then I made myself watch Forks Over Knives. At that point I decided to challenge myself with plant based eating for just 2 weeks. I never had been able to go without dairy before. Meat was easy, cheese not so much. Which is ridiculous because dairy makes me so sick!! But hey, I'd already gone 10 days so what's 14 more?! A few days before ending my fast I started to look up recipes (which I should say is torture when fasting but cooking is my life and cooking is what I missed most in the fast. NOT eating! There are even a few times during the fast I cooked for when I assumed I would break it! But then I kept continuing and had to trash it, but still worth it - as stupid as that sounds. I realize now how much cooking/eating is purely social). I committed to the "challenge" and drove all the way out to central market 3 days prior to ending the fast. I honestly could've kept going with it, but I was so dang excited to try all these new recipes, that's the reason I broke it. Stupid I know. We all have our level of crazy =)
ANYWAYS- 3 weeks later and I'm still a plant eater. I'm starting to think I might just be an herbivore the rest of my life. My son loves it. And "loves" is an understatement! I send purely plant based for his lunch and he comes back with nothing but crumbs. When I try to hide flavors of veggies or meat alternatives I make (such as tonight's hummus nuggets), he wants them plain. He's embraced it more than me and his 5 year old self doesn't even realize what he's doing!!
One of the strange things I've noticed is how much more I taste artificial things - when I drink the same tap water I've drank for 4 years now, all I can taste is the plastic from the water bottle. When I drink it out of a glass (NOT PLASTIC), it's delicious! It's like I'm suddenly sensitive to all the unnatural chemicals!! I'm definitely more sensitive to tastes that never bothered me before. And, as silly as it sounds, it's a slap to my ego because I've always made fun of those people that insisted on water filters. I might just have to swallow that pride and get one!!!
Onto the fun stuff - RECIPES!!!! I'm going to post what I've been feeding bubs and myself. I started by using lots of the fake cheeses and processed vegan foods but in the past week have made an effort to do without. What's the point of eating no cheese but substituting "fake" cheese that's just as bad, if not worse for you? (Ahem horrible, no good soy) So I'll save that for the cheat days, if needed. The weird thing is I dont feel the need for cheat days because this doesnt feel like a diet!!! I love what I eat. I love cooking these foods. And mainly - I never feel sick or that gross heavy feeling from tons of meat and cheeses!!!
It's late (and by late I mean 10:15), so I'm calling it a night. I'll start posting pics of what we've eaten the last few weeks in the morning!!!!
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