Foodie pick me up!

Well, it turns out we are all human, and on those tired days, when encouragement is needed to get to the next one, sometimes, just sometimes, the right thing comes our way and we can think past hurdles. That's right - food can be a problem, even for a dedicated foodie. Most days I enjoy swimming against the current, but others I wonder - is it really worth the hassle? I wish it was easy to find, and afford, good quality meat and produce. I wish my kids didn't beg me for "normal food, like what the other kids are eating". I wish I could bomb my budget and not think about it when I shop! So thank you, Lindsay, for writing me out of the blue. And reminding me that it doesn't need to be complicated, or bring kids to tears, or break the bank.

"I wanted to offer some insight into our food journey. We started really making changes last summer I guess. We actually saw a couple of books one night at Chapters (Skinny B%*&$). The title caught our attention, and I didn't realize until after reading it that it was a vegan book. After reading it we both wanted nothing to do with meat and so we completely changed our eating and became vegans for a while. It was basically Food Inc (movie), in book form, with more swearing, but it really got our attention with everything. It was really hard to completely switch to vegan, but it really broadened our food options a lot and gave us a better appreciation for everything. Eventually, we eased back into having some meat because we really missed it.

Since then we've tried a few things (no carbs, vegetarian). It was really after watching Food Inc and Food Matters that we made more drastic changes again and have stuck with them. We completely stopped buying meat at the grocery store, and we go to our butcher now which is right close to our building. Everything they have is organic and free range, and they make their own sausages. I never realized that meat could actually be THAT delicious. I feel a lot better about not eating meat that's coming from big huge corporate farms. There's a little veggie market across the street from us in the plaza and they have a lot of organic and local veg there, and we usually go a couple times a week. One of the things in Food Matters is eating a lot of raw veg as well. I'm not a huge veggie person, but we've been getting lots of use out our juicer and making yummy concoctions.

So, we've basically gone from eating out and eating garbage, to eating bags and bags of fruits and veggies and only organic free range meat. We shop at Whole Foods and Planet Organic for the other bits and pieces. It's funny, it actually works out cheaper the way we eat now and we are filling ourselves up with healthiness rather than garbage, even though some of our friends criticize us for shopping at expensive grocery stores and buying "expensive" meat. I've noticed a huge difference in how we feel and our energy though, and eating so much more than just something we "have" to do now... it's like an adventure. Aaron has always loved to cook, and I feel like everything tastes so much better now because we're choosing good quality. I think the true taste test was this weekend, we had my family over for Mother's Day and Aaron cooked a roast chicken and I did some roasted veggies. My niece, who is a notoriously picky eater (taking after her Aunt Lindsay... lol) cleaned her plate! There wasn't a speck of food left! She's 6 1/2 and I have never seen her do that before at a family dinner."