WOW! It has been so close to forever since I last updated on here - just over nine months!! Cuh-rrraaaayyyyyy-ZEE!!!! A lot has gone on, so let me bring you up to date.
Let's see...by the time Mark came home from his deployment in December, I was at the lowest weight I have been in such a very LONG time!! I was still eating vegan then, but not working out as much as I was during the summer. Once it started to get cooler out and I was more involved with school stuff, working out kind of went to the "back seat" because I wasn't going to give up raising and spending time with the boys. LOL. Then at Christmas time, I don't know what the heck happened, but I ate some meat and cheese when we were visiting family. I guess it was just all of the foods I hadn't even seen in so long made me want them. Needless to say, I kind of got sick from it. Just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach. But I got back on the vegan train, and have been feeling so good!! I started working out again more frequently. I love how I feel when I work out!! Even Mark is working out more and eating healthier!! I love it! I guess I rubbed off on him a little bit. LOL. He doesn't eat vegan [although he will eat some of the vegan foods I make just to give it a try - he's such a trooper], but he does eat a lot healthier than he did before.
So yeah, I am back to being really healthy! I love it! I am very happy that we live in an area that actually has stores that carry vegan foods [and I'm not talking fruits and vegetables - but vegan "cheeses", vegan "meats", and such]!! When we moved back down here in December, I went to stores in Jacksonville, but none of them had vegan foods. But thank God I decided to check out stores closer to our house and in the opposite direction of Jacksonville because they all carry vegan foods!! It's perfect! I am very happy that I can easily keep up with the vegan lifestyle here and not just rely on fresh fruits and vegetables alone!
My mom got me this amazing cookbook for Christmas - "Vegan Planet". It's probably the best vegan cookbook I've ever seen! It has so many awesome recipes! I must say, the vegan Reuben sandwich is by far my favorite!! A few weeks ago, I made pierogies for the very first time in my life, and they were SO good!! But I've also experimented with normal recipes and substituted the vegan version of certain ingredients. Just the other day, I took a recipe for stuffed mushrooms out of a regular cook book, and used vegan ingredients. They came out SO FREAKIN' GOOD!! The filling was the absolute best part, and I am highly considering making some more of the filling and just eating it by itself because it was so good! Just a little bit ago, I made some spinach dip for pumpernickel bread. I haven't made the vegan version of the spinach dip before, but my mom has a few times whenever I've been up there, and it is really good! I love pumpernickel bread! One recipe I can't wait to veganize is potato skins!! I love me some potato skins! nom nom nom
People like to bash the vegan lifestyle - and I get it, I really do, because I used to do the same thing. But after switching to being vegan and really exploring food options, it's really nowhere near as bad as people think it is. I still get my daily intake of protein, calcium, etc. You don't need meat and dairy to get those things. I am eating much healthier than you can even imagine! I can still eat sugary desserts if I want because there are plenty of recipes out there for cookies, cakes, etc. I don't eat that kind of stuff often, so I'm not always "dying" for it. I have been more open to trying new foods since switching to being vegan. I used to refuse to try certain fruits and vegetables before, but now I don't! One thing I used to always refuse to eat growing up was asparagus - it just never looked appetizing to me before! But last summer, I tried it for the first time, and now it is one of my absolute favorite things to eat [even if it does make your urine smell gross LOL]!! There are so many other wonderful things about eating vegan, but my favorite of all is: I can eat as much vegan foods as I want in a day, and when the day is over, I won't feel very guilty for eating it all because it's healthy and I probably won't even gain a half an ounce! Can't beat that!! By no means at all am I sitting here trying to say "You eat meat and dairy, you're unhealthy and gross!" because I don't think that at all - it's your choice to eat what it is you eat. I am just simply saying why I love eating vegan, not why you should become vegan. I've been on both sides of the fence - eating meat and dairy, and eating vegan - and eating vegan just works out so much better for me. I don't worry about being sick all the time anymore and I am much more healthy now than I was before, even when I was watching what I ate and measuring portions and working out.
So now I have some MAJOR NEWS!!!!!!!!!!! In just nineteen days, I will be having surgery!! I will be getting an abdominoplasty to take care of all of the extreme excess skin I have and a breast augmentation to fix my breasts. After having two very rough pregnancies, having two kids [both via C-section], and having unforgiving skin, I need to get this all taken care of. Things just need to be put back into place and need to be gotten rid of that don't belong, that's all. I'm going for a natural look, and I really emphasized that to my doctor. I'm not going for some Dolly Parton look here, people! LOL. I can't wait till the surgery though! I already have a lot of new swim suits, and I can't wait to actually wear them at the beaches around here! It's just going to be difficult for me to have to be somewhat lazy for a few weeks. I am always on-the-go!
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