Vegan Wrapup

Well, our month long adventure into veganism is over!  The verdict is in and while we saw some big changes in our health, the energy and money required to go completely is just too much for us. 

Some of the highlights and our takeaways from this adventure:

Health - we definitely saw some improvements in our health.  The biggest change for myself was no longer feeling the afternoon slump once 3 o'clock rolled around.  I'm going to try and not be gross here, but our insides definitely felt cleaner, if you get my drift.  As for my asthma, I didn't notice any improvement at all.  In fact, I found myself using my emergency inhaler more frequently than I would have liked.  In terms of my anxiety, I really didn't notice a difference, but then again, this was a bit of a stressful month for me at work and at home.  My acne was pretty much gone for the first two weeks, and then I had it flare up really badly.  Whether that was due to fluctuating hormones, a couple of slip ups in the diet department, or other reasons, I do not know.  Lastly, I don't know if the diet made any difference on my immune system.  I got the flu last week, despite eating very healthily and it was AWFUL.  No amount of vitamins or fruits and veggies made me feel any better. 

Money - we did not see any savings in our grocery bill. I would say we actually spent about 15-20% more on our groceries than we were used to.  In an era where everyone is watching every dollar, this is huge for us.  While we will continue to purchase more produce than we normally do and purchase almond milk over cow's milk, I am hoping our grocery bill will even out once again.

Time - the biggest thing for us was the time it took doing all of this.  Because dairy, eggs, meat and chemical preservatives are so pervasive in the food available to the American public, it required more time for us to plan our meals and purchase better quality food.  I am a busy woman.  I work 45-50 hours a week and I'm sorry, but my time is precious.  I don't want to spend two to three hours at grocery stores (yes, plural) every week trying to get the best deal or find the needed ingredient for my meals.  Plus, many of our normal go-to meals were automatically out the window (you try substituting cream of mushroom soup in a casserole...it's just not possible) which required a lot of brainpower we simply didn't have to plan our meals.  As the main breadwinner, chef, and homemaker in the family, I felt that all of the planning fell on my shoulders and I was too exhausted most days or too brain dead from work to really do it efficiently, which cost us more money and led to poor diet choices.

Attitude - the general attitude of this household was not a positive one while we did this.  By the end of the month, we were not a happy group.  I think a lot of it may be due to the feeling of deprivation; we couldn't eat many of the things we normally did and liked.  Emotional eaters are us!  Also, it was incredibly difficult to get Billa on board and get her to eat anything we were eating.  And admittedly, there were a lot of things we tried that I just couldn't handle, let alone my child (mushrooms or eggplant).  Michael will eat just about anything put in front of him, so his opinion is a little biased if you ask me.  The lack of variety and feeling bored with our food choices also contributed to a poor attitude.  We felt trapped a lot.  We paid good money for this, so we have to eat it.  And when we weren't at home, it was worse; finding vegan options that are cheap and fast is nigh to impossible, even in a vegan friendly city like Austin.  And because we were bored with our food choices, more often than not, it lead to us not eating at all and getting snappish because we were hungry.

Milk - the one plus to this whole thing was our discovery of almond milk!  We LOVE the stuff!  It's slightly sweet, and it's wonderful in cereal or in baked goods.  Plus, the chocolate almond milk is a dessert in and of itself.  The biggest thing I noticed was how my body reacted to cow's milk after doing no dairy for an entire month; I think I am definitely allergic to cow's milk.  We had hoped to wean Billa off of it to see whether it affected her allergies, but that was not as easy as we had hoped.  It was fine for us at home, but everywhere else, cow's milk abounded.  Plus, with everyone getting sick in the last week of the diet, there's really no way to tell if cutting cow's milk for her made a difference or not.  I think we will keep trying and see what happens.  But we won't be buying regular milk anymore, which was the easiest change for us by far.  I think we will still eat cheese and some other dairy products, but in very, very small quantities.

Hummus - this wonderful spread has become our best friend.  Billa even likes it, which is a freaking miracle in and of itself.  We ate it a lot before the diet, but it's an item we are now purchasing every week in mass quantity.  I tried making some myself which was yummy and had a slightly different texture, but the cost of making it was more than just buying it, so I'll skip the process and save myself some time. Huzzah for hummus!

Weight - another big plus to this diet was that I found myself eating less, eating more healthy options, and consequently, I lost seven pounds and 2% body fat.  I'd like to lose more body fat, and maybe a couple more pounds, but for that to happen I'm going to have suck it up and embrace cardio.  Blech.  But losing seven pounds was nice!

Overall,  the consensus is that being vegan is just not a lifestyle that was a good fit for us.   I found myself missing and craving a lot of things I really love, like cheese, bacon, hot wings, and other not so good for you treats.  I stayed pretty strong in avoiding most of them, but the emotional ties to those foods are really hard to break.  I can see myself consuming them in moderation now, but giving them up entirely was just too much for me.   The time required to make the diet work is staggering and I just do not possess enough hours in the day to do it, plus getting Michael or Billa to contribute to the planning was an argument I just don't want to fight anymore.  The money was also a big factor.

However, we will be keeping some behaviors from this.  We won't be drinking cow's milk, and we will be reducing the amount of dairy products we consume.  We will be eating more fruits and veggies and whole grain dishes.  We will also be cutting back significantly on the amount of meat we eat, probably eating no more than two to three meals per week with meat, and making those lean.  We are also going to eat out less, because we noticed that when we did, our bodies were very violent with us afterwards.  we could see ourselves being vegetarians, but not vegans.  Still, it was a worthwhile experience and I highly recommend that everyone at least give it a go once in their life.

So there you have it!  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Kelly

Sayonara Bacon!

Tonight, I said adieu to bacon.

I finished reading Rip Esselstyn's book, The Engine 2 Diet, this weekend and we have decided to go on the diet for the next month.  That means no dairy, no oils, no sweets and no meats.  Especially bacon!  But since we don't like to encourage wastfulness around here we decided to fry up the last of the bacon and make some gingerbread pancakes as a last hurrah and send off to our old eating habits.  I was trying to be all sneaky like about it, but as if it sensed it's own impending doom (because eating it is not doom enough,) every piece came out perfectly crispy and chewy, with no burnt edges, just the way I like it.

Little bastards.

But no more!

We've already been increasing our fruit and veg intake over the last week, and cutting out some of our dairy.  I haven't had milk or eggs in a week (save for the lone egg that was in the pancakes tonight), and we switched out our usual dairy creamer for a soy one over the weekend.  It's pretty tasty actually, and so is almond milk.  Cheese has been a little bit harder.  I totally bought a wedge of Manchego cheese just before I read the book, and we had a bunch of cheese sticks and sliced Muenster hanging around here too.  And I admit, i bought a small container of feta because while I don't mind veggies on my pizza, I can't stand the thought of not having some semblance of cheese on top of it.  But once it's gone, that's it!  No more!

I'm really grateful to my mother in law for taking Billa on Saturday, because it meant I could spend four hours grocery shopping at the farmer's market, Sprouts, and HEB.  I normally don't take that long, and certainly won't in the future, but it gave me the time to get better acquainted with the layouts of my stores and read labels on a bunch of stuff.  It was super weird checking out without dairy, meat, and especially eggs in my cart.  It was even weirder taking the groceries inside and realizing I don't have to worry about not smashing the eggs anymore!

This week, our menu is going to include a potato leek soup, pasta primavera, a wild rice pilaf, black bean tacos (a regular fave in this household...cheap, easy, and super yummy!), and veggie pizza.  Lunches will be finishing off the leftovers from these tasty meals, but also hummus and pita with veggies and salads.  Breakfast is pretty much the same-ol'-same-ol' of cereal or oatmeal, but adding in fruit.  Dessert has been changed to fruit, and most of our snacks have been too.  I've been buying chips from the Food Should Taste Good brand (soooo addicting!) and stocking up on whole grain pretzels and crackers as we run out of the old not-so-good-for-you snacks.  I'm looking forward to this week's meal plan!

The biggest challenge thus far is Sybilla.  Michael and I have been fairly easy to convince that this is the way to go, but Billa ain't having anything to do with it!  She's been good about eating a lot of fruit and I've successfully added carrot juice to her OJ and other juices, and maybe just possibly convinced her that chocolate soy milk is super yummy, but she's such a picky eater already that it's been frustrating.  We keep telling her that the rule is you have to try one bite and that sometimes helps, although tempers have flared mightily over that one bite on more than one occasion.  I think it will get easier over time as we keep giving her the same foods and show her what we're eating, as well as having her help cook, but only time will tell!

Oh bacon, I would say 'it's not you, it's me', but the truth is, it is you.  You and all your fatty salty goodness.  You're breaking my heart, quite literally.  It's time you packed your bags and moved out.  Goodbye, sweet bacon!  Hellooooo, plant-based diet!

Kelly

SOUND OFF: Weight Loss or How stupid do I look?

While perusing Perez Hilton last night, I came across this gem of a tabloid cover.  I generally don't read tabloids, except maybe while in line at the grocery store and that's usually just the cover.  Had I seen this cover, I might have been escorted out by security for the fit I would have thrown at the checkout:

Do you see what's making me so angry?  Yeah, it's the caption that reads "How I lost 25 pounds in 8 weeks!"  You wanna know how the former Playboy model lost all that weight?  I'll tell you how.  SHE HAD A FRIGGIN' BABY!!!!  As my friend Kellie always jokes, the fastest way to lose 20 pounds is to have a baby.  Ay, ay, ay!

Seriously, it's crap like this that just irritates the piss out of me.  Ladies, please don't let this sorry excuse of a "magazine" fool you into thinking that you can lose that much weight in that short of time by following Kendra's diet and fitness secrets.  I'm sure she did work hard and eat well to some extent, but anyone who is not post-partum won't be losing that kind of weight in that short amount of time through diet and exercise alone.  Plus, it's not healthy to lose so much so fast.

I need to go calm down before my blood pressure shoots through the roof on this one, but I just had to share the outrage.  Grrr!

Huffingly yours,
Kelly

Today is a brand new day...

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Oliver Wendell Holmes

I saw this quote this morning in an email newsletter I receive and I just had to shake my head and smile ruefully when I saw it. It was appropriate given the circumstances of the last 24 hours. I felt really low last night after seeing pictures of myself and my best friend from college and opening my electric bill. But today is a brand new day.

Kellie had told me before that she'd found some pictures on a CD from a few years ago and when we looked at them yesterday, I just had to cringe. Kellie and I used to be able to share the same size shirts and some pairs of pants (unfortunately shoes could never enter the picture, I'm an 8 and she's a 6). Four kids and five years later, neither one of us can share anything and we can't fit into our wedding dresses. I know that a lot of women can't fit into their wedding dresses after having babies and I am OK with that. What I ma not OK with is the pain in my right knee, the double digit number on my pants label, my dwindling wardrobe, and the increasing triple digits on my bathroom scale. So we made a pact yesterday: every weekday night at 8 pm we are going to workout together, no excuses. Our husbands already do it at 5 am, and while I don't think 8 pm is the best time for anyone to be working out, it's all we have. But today is a brand new day.

On top of dreading my mile walk with Kellie this evening, we opened our electric bill to find almost $400 in charges. Granted, $150 of that was actually paid, but the bill was printed before that got reflected in the figures. We've been very vigilant about trying to turn off lights, make the most of daylight, turn up the thermostat before we leave and unplug appliances when not in use. But that bill is yet another reminder of just how desperate our situation is becoming and that we've already done as much as fiscally possible to cut our costs and bring in additional income. It just doesn't seem to be enough. But today is a brand new day.

I cried myself to sleep last night thinking that it was hopeless and that I had no idea how we were going to get out of this mess and get back on track. I prayed like I've never prayed before and I realized something as I fell asleep: 1) that no one was to blame but us and 2) I'm a victim only if I choose to be. And something changed within me last night. Sybilla never woke up once nor did she crawl into bed with us this morning. I woke up on time and despite crazy dreams and occasionally waking up after them, I felt refreshed and renewed this morning. I got to work on time and I got right down to business. Today is a brand new day.

I still have no idea how we'll get through this, but my strength is renewed and my faith in my abilities restored. I can lose the extra 30 pounds I'm carrying. We will find a way to bring in more income and cut our expenses further. We will find a way to live our lives and not just survive from day to day. TODAY IS A BRAND NEW DAY.

Hopefully,
Kelly & the Gang

"Can't you explain to Lady about Sundays?"

Just like the scene from Lady and the Tramp, we must teach Billa about Sundays. It is now 8:10 in the morning as I write, but it feels like 10 in the morning. I have been awake for 57 minutes, made my daughter breakfast, had my first cup of coffee and written out my to do list for the day. [sigh] Such is the life of a toddler's parents.

I think I may have written about this prior (or not, it requires navigating away from this page to check) but we converted Billa's crib to a toddler bed recently as a result of her new sleep habits. Billa had been waking up at about 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep unless she was in bed with us, which isn't that big a deal, but it was really frustrating to have to get out of bed to go get her (that wasn't the only reason we converted her bed, mind you, but it was a big deciding factor). While she has gotten better about getting out of bed and coming into our bedroom at these times, it hasn't come without a price: she has fallen out of the bed twice now (even with the toddler railing--it doesn't hurt her, just startles her BTW) and some nights she just sits in bed crying until one of us comes to walk with her to our room.

I have to laugh though; we've definitely come a long way in 15 months! I remember those long nights of getting up every one to two hours to feed Sybilla and desperately promising myself that my next cup of coffee would be my last (this was of course repeated several times throughout the day). By the time she was 8 months old we had her sleeping through the night and I was no longer experiencing black outs. And I remember naively thinking that we were golden and would never have to sleep train again. WRONG. Apparently sleep training is forever!

We have also reached another landmark in 15 months: it has now been 2 weeks since I have breastfed. Surprisingly, all four of us are doing well. (Four, you ask? Kelly, are you sure that coffee has kicked in yet? Yes, it has and yes, you read that right. Four: Billa, me, Elsie and Daisy, my two breast friends.) Occasionally Billa will pull on my shirt in the very early mornings and say "Beebie? Beebie?" and I gently tell her that Mommy has no more milk, that it's all gone and she ceases and desists. I didn't think it would be that easy, but it was. Out of all the things we've endured, stopping breastfeeding was the easiest. However, the process has resulted in a new name for her pacifier, which at times ranges from Popo to Paci to Bobie. It took us forever to realize that the sound she was uttering when she wanted it was "BOOBIE." Yeah, we never saw that coming.

This morning, she called it Bubba and I am content with that. Personally, I think Bubba is a hilarious name for one's pacifier. I am starting to think that each one of the remaining three pacifiers has an individual flavor, personality and name because she has referenced each of them with different sounds. And yes, we only have three left. Well, technically four if you count the one that lives at daycare. But we have not bought new pacifiers in months and are currently working on getting rid of them after our visit with Dr. Patil on Friday, who harped on us about the paci usage (we were actually prepared to hear this--some of our friends are also patients of hers and they too have received the paci lecture).

Which brings me to well check stats! Billa is healthy as a horse. Unfortunately, she is eating like one too. Because of her weight growth curve, we're now cutting the whole milk down to 2% and increasing the protein and fruit/veggie intake and working on good eating habits. It's not that Billa is fat, it's just that she sits in the 97th percentile for weight now, which is out of sync with her height and head circumference curves. Billa is incredibly active causing Dr. Patil to be concerned with her eating behaviours as opposed to her eating habits and weight. Billa would eat all day if she could and she puts the food in her mouth fist over fist when she eats. To make it worse, Daycare Lady actually told me on Friday that Billa has been stealing food from the other kid's plates when they're not looking! Grrrreat...

Billa's stats were, BTW:
Weight: 28 pounds, 97th percentile
Height: 31 inches, 50-75th percentile (Ha, she's 2' 7"!)
Head Circ: 47 cm, 75-90th percentile

Learning our first lesson on inertia

So there's the latest update. We're now on a family mission to eat right and get more exercise, we're working on eating like a lady, and once we have all that down, then we can start to teach Billa about Sundays... because fielding an angry neighbor's complaint about "owning a rooster" is not on my list of things to do today!

Toodles!
Kelly

My clue phone is ringing...

Michael and I once attended a church service where the pastor used a great analogy for those moments in life when God is trying to tell you something. This man called it a "clue phone." Ever since then, Michael and I love to use that analogy as well and we've used it for everyone and everything. Well, yesterday, it rang for me.

Recently switched over to State Farm for our life insurance needs and Michael got the Super Preferred rates while I was simply Preferred. I never really asked why my rates were Preferred, assuming it was related to my asthma. I've never been hospitalized for an attack but I take meds for it regularly, so I didn't think anything of it. When I called our SF agent to ask about our most recent bill being a little higher than we thought it should, Janet explained what the deal was and that it was only a one time thing. She then raved about how Michael got the Super Preferred rate and how nice it would be in two years time when I lost "all my baby fat" that I too could qualify for the Super Preferred rate. OUCH. That sound you're hearing is the sound of my clue phone ringing...ring ring ring!

Needless to say, I was blown out of the water. I know that Janet didn't mean for her comment to be rude, in fact she expressed surprise over the weight issue because she thought I looked great. But that doesn't negate what the scale and my wardrobe is telling me. I've come to the realization that I have not been making myself a priority and as a result my weight and health are suffering. I've been telling myself that I was fine and putting off for tomorrow what I should have been doing today. Well, I'm not getting any younger and I now understand the importance of taking care of myself. I can't take care of my family if I can't even take care of myself or if I'm not at the peak of my health. Plus, my confidence has dropped through the floor recently and I'm tired of feeling chunky and unhealthy.

With that said, I have resolved to start taking better care of myself and get moving. We're going to start using our calendar again, and planning meals, and now that the weather has gotten really nice, we're going to spend more time outside. Michael has admitted that he has also been feeling a little chunky lately too, so this is going to be good for both of us. We'll keep you posted on our progress. As always, ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Until then,
K & Co.