Going vegan...ish

Idly flipping through Netflix one weekend I came across the documentary Forks Over Knives.

With John's heart problems, weird tumor things, and previous exposure to all kinds of cancer making things it seemed kind of no-brainer that a vegan diet is the way to go.

So I did a ton of research and discovered that all of what they say in that documentary is fact... and that it's kind of scary.

After depleting our store of non-happy food in the house, John and I did our first grocery shopping trip. Two days in, and so far so good.

Here are the strict guidelines as laid out in the film/research:
- Vegan diet (no animal protein of any kind).
- Low sodium diet (the caloric intake must be equal or more than the sodium mg)
- No oil
- No sugar
- No refined foods.

That's pretty extreme, but ... so is cancer and heart disease. However, I just don't think that diet's realistic to jump into - especially whilst almost 5 months pregnant. So I'm doing something a bit different...

- Lacto Vegetarian (cutting down but still trying to get enough servings as recommended for preggers. No fish, no chicken, no eggs, the only animal anything will be from dairy)
- Low sodium (1:1 calories:sodium mg)
- Minimal oils (No oil for instance, in the hummus I made, but a drizzle while sauteing veggies)
- No "fake" sugars. No HFCS, no corn syrup, no aspartame, etc. Cane sugar / organic sugar / honey is preferred, but plain old sugar in moderation allowed.
- No MSG, or anything on the label you don't know what it is.

John is a bit harder to win over to the dark side... so he's changing things up by doing the above with the below modifications:
- No red meat. Limited land animal protein, most protein from seafood.
- Reduced sodium intake (1.5:1 calories:sodium mg)

We'll see how it goes. It's been two days so far and it's not that big of a deal for me. I've found the texture/taste of meat pretty gross in the last several months. If baby wants to be a vegetarian, I'm okay with that. I have a pretty large need for cheese though, which I'm trying to cut back on...we'll see.

I'm just as content with grapenuts as fruit loops, with apples instead of pop-tarts, with hummus and veggie wraps instead of chicken and pasta, as mushrooms and rice with low sodium soy sauce instead teriyaki beef.

We've also decided that one day a week we'll allow ourselves the indulgence we've been craving. Whether that's chicken wings (Wing Tuesdays anyone?) or a steak or a bag of potato chips... who knows. So far I am content knowing I'm putting good food in, getting good nutrients, and making myself healthy (and by proxy the baby healthy). I want John to be old enough to see his kids get married and have kids on their own and there's no way that's going to happen if it's all steaks and cheeseburgers.

So..it's written down, now I can hold myself accountable. :) Wish me luck on my healthier trails!

3 Years

March 22nd, 2009 is when it all began....

Three years together.

Just about as long living together... (shhh we don't break social norms!)

One year, eight months since forever I do.

Eighteen weeks into "Oh my goodness, what ever shall we do?!"

Growing, learning, loving. Praying, hoping, wishing. 

It's been a wild ride, this love. Everything seems to always be happening, yet never at the right time. Or... things seem to happen at the right time, then everything else falls apart. 

Hand in hand, we remain. Two heartbeats against the world....three heartbeats against the world. 

Here in a few months hopefully I'll be able to write about all the joy I have for something else as well.

I get to find out the sex of the bell-pepper sized acrobat growing inside of me. Then we'll be able to formulate and scheme just a little bit better, be able to narrow our gaze to just a few names, and finally know whether 'it' is a he or a she. Whether we're into tiny little suit vests or big ol' tutus. 

Three years we started this... and here's to three more... and so on, and so on.

♥ 15 months ♥ 20 months ♥ 36 months ♥ Eternity to go ♥ 

Baby names and updates on life

I've gotten a lot of people asking me if we have any names picked out, so I figured this would be a good place to share the list we have so far.

Chances are the name we decide on hasn't been thought of yet, we tend to flip flop back and forth. Middle names are in parenthesis if they apply. And for ones that don't have middle names, just go with Lee .. that's a good middle ground. Or Francis, one of the best teachers from my youth gave everyone the middle name of Francis....

Girl Names:

Bellana (Paris)
Laureli
Victoria
Faye
Lily
Reagan
Elizabeth
Jean
Anna (Marie)
Megan (Gwynn)
Chloe
Quinn
Annika

Boy Names:

Bradley
Brandon
Elijah
Peter
Warren (Kenneth)
Oliver
William (Thomas)
Wesley

and... John says no but I say they're still in the running....

Zefram
Nicolai / Nicholas

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This past week hasn't been the greatest for me... starting to show even more than ever and it's starting to kill my self esteem. If I stand up straight... I can't see my toes....

John pulled me into the bathroom to stare at myself in the mirror, told me I was as beautiful as ever, and made his hands into a heart on my tummy. So, you know, at least there's that.

It feels good to have support from most of my family as well. I think a few think we're too young, maybe foolish for the timing, I don't know.... but for the most part it's congratulations and war stories and it makes me feel happy that we told everyone. I know the biggest critic of my life will always be me, and I know I'm too young, and I know the timing is horrendous. I also know that despite the fact I feel like crap 24/7 and want a sling to help hold my tummy up... I've never been happier. Never more in love, never more excited for the future. And really, it's not necessarily that I'm too young either, just that I don't have a workable degree. Had I gone for dental hygiene like I had originally planned out of high school, I'd be a lot better off and the perfect age. I don't want to work once the baby is born anyway, and Johnathan is a breath away from 27 and has a workable degree that can make six figures if he wanted it to. So... yeah. We were finally caught up on everything and getting ready to pay down debt when we got pregnant, life was looking good. Fate had it we'd both be unemployed a month later. Such is life.

Anyway, thanks for all the kind words! We'll know here within a month or so the gender of the baby, and then we can really start scheming ;-) I've got a low paying job to finally bring in something since unemployment was denied, and Johnathan's applying and hoping. If you know of any places needing an IT guy, he's your man.

Smiles and Sunshine.