My New Experiment: Fruit

I think it’s time for a little background:

I grew up a hunter’s daughter. My father grew up a lumberjack’s son. He learned quickly in life that there was not a ton of money, and so my grandmother grew a vegetable garden, and whatever my grandfather was able to hunt was the meat they served (rabbits, deer, moose, partridge, etc…).

Thus, I grew up a heavy meat eater. In fact, stews or beans with biscuits, and the typical “meat and potatoes” were quite frequently a supper meal. Of course with the younger generations and slightly more money, pizzas and junk foods made their way in the diet as well. But it would not be uncommon for me as a child to sit down and eat a pound of bacon myself. That’s just the way it was.

I remember when I met my first vegetarians. They were like celebrities to me because the only people I ever knew of that would even think of not eating meat were celebrities. Nobody in the “real world” would ever think to live without eating meat. It must surely be a way to die!

However, seeing these people live, and healthily, gave me a spark that continued to grow. One morning, in my teenage years, I simply woke up, and told my mother never to make meat for me again.

Did I exactly know what I was getting into? Absolutely not. In fact, eating some vegetarian junk food without learning the proper way to eat healthily vegetarian landed me with intensive stomach pains and a visit to the hospital where the doctor informed me of some key staples I should be eating to be healthy. Oops. Learned that lesson the hard way.

And so it began. A somewhat healthier 10-11 years of being a vegetarian. Cold turkey. No going back.

It wasn’t until I met my husband, and found out he had grown up vegetarian that I went back to eating meat. Sounds weird, I know. But he met my family at my university graduation weekend, and my stepfather is notoriously known for his bbqing skills. My brother convinced him to try a “real” burger, and he was hooked. Of course, eventually it got to me, and I began eating meat again.

Of course, since I had been studying the Bible more and learning about healthier ways of eating, I still did not eat pork or animals considered “unclean”. I stuck with the basics of chicken, turkey, beef, and some fish. I am an Atlantic girl, and fish (specifically Atlantic Salmon) has always been a favourite.

Now recently, I’ve been reading and studying more into health. I’ve been looking at vegan diets, raw vegan diets, the details of what is going on with the meat that is served to us these days, the packaging, the handling, the processing, all of these things that are completely vital for us to know truly what we are putting in our bodies. And I’ve come to a conclusion: I need to get rid of the meat and animal products.

I could go on forever and ever about the toxins, poisons, and everything that is being put into animal products. I could tell you all about the fact that the majority of the meat we buy in stores has already gone bad and we don’t even know it. I could go on and on about how safety inspections are unrealistic, and how really, at the end of it all, we can only do the best we can with what we’re given. A hot topic, especially for someone who works out is of course how you get in enough protein.

But I’ve decided, the only true way to convince people is not a lecture, but to simply be a living example. And that is what I’m going to do.

Now, my husband is not quite on board with me on this, and I have promised to never ask him to change. If my life leads a perfect example, I figure that should be proof in and of itself. But little by little, he seems to be a little more supportive, though maintaining zero interest in it for himself, which is totally fine.

My plan is to still workout, to still continue researching how to eat properly, and to still continue on with everything else the same, except for how I eat. One difference. I’m getting the junk out of my system!

If you’re interested in this topic and wanting to know more yourself, the following are some of the links that I refer to frequently:

1. http://thebananagirl.com (she has other links from this site as well)

2. http://veganbodybuilding.com (some athletes even provide examples of their daily meals in their profiles)

3. http://www.thefrankmedrano.com (a man who chose to become vegan)

There are many more, but those are just a few to get started. I will keep you posted on how this goes!

#onajourneybacktoEden

Gym Adventures: Rowdy at the Gym!

I had the most frightening gym experience this past weekend.

It was Saturday evening, and our gym closes at 8, so we were only there for the last couple of hours.

There is an open balcony section to our gym which just happened to be where my husband and I were talking when we – all of a sudden – heard a big commotion going on downstairs. We looked over the balcony and noticed everyone else staring as well.

To the side of the gym, it appeared that a fight was about to happen. There was yelling, what looked like threats, looks of disbelief on faces, and many people looking uneasy. We watched as the two jacked-up guys walked away from the smaller ones twice. Both times, the other men followed and continued to yell.

Thankfully, a man that seems to be friendly with everyone at the gym calmly walked over and said something to diffuse the situation. However, as can be imagined, the mood of the gym was changed.

After listening to the members talking, it seems to be unanimous that this was an occasion of where the younger guys want to take down the “big guys”. The gym worker called her manager, and the ones who started the fight will have their memberships reviewed. She also apologized to the “big guys” but of course, they did not blame her.

It was crazy: to think a fight was about to happen at your gym where testosterone is an obvious high. Would everyone jump in the fight? Who knows?

I’m so happy a fight didn’t actually happen. But I think it’s important to look at the safety of the members because this isn’t the first time those younger guys have caused problems. My husband and I saw (and reported) when they put holes in the walls of the group class room, and walked through trainer’s offices when they weren’t in them. I do agree with second chances, but I think that people do need to understand that there is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour no matter where you are. There are consequences that come (or at least should come) with disrespect and causing problems.

I’m not sure what the gym’s decision will be, but I am interested to find out. Stay tuned…

I Always Seem To Catch Those “Good” Flights

So yesterday, my sister and I flew back to the West Coast. Of course, this means one layover as always.

Our first plane ended up being over 1/2 hour late. Naturally, everybody is watching their clocks to see if we’ll make our connections.

We arrive at the connecting airport with 25 minutes to departure time: enough time to run and make it. However, we did not pull up to a gate, but rather sat on the runway waiting for a gate, watching the time tick away.

Thankfully, my husband was able to go on the internet and find they postponed the flight 10 minutes. So we got off the plane and RAN.

We arrive at the next gate, and NOBODY has started boarding yet. So we sit and wait a minute, only to find out that something is wrong with our next plane. And so we go grab some food quickly and return to wait.

Eventually, the gate attendant announces that our plane is unserviceable and that we have another plane at a different gate awaiting us. Thus begins the mass crowd moving through the airport.

Of course, when they say they have a plane “waiting” for you, you assume you’re going to start boarding right away. Hence the reason most people stood around the gate rather than deciding to sit down. Yet we remain waiting.

As time goes by, we are told the flight crew has still not made the transition but they are working on it.

You know the look of people running late.. quite like this!

Awhile later we are told they are on the aircraft but are doing their safety checks.

Eventually we were able to board and did so quickly. But instead of leaving right away, we sat. Of course, the longer you sit, the more people begin looking around for the reason we have no left yet. Lo and behold, two men with red vests get on the plane and head to the back. We received an announcement of some “cosmetic” repairs that needed done to the flight attendant’s radio station, and that because we have been so delayed, we were losing a crew member and will have to wait for another. Oh boy.

I’m happy to say that eventually we did get away from the gate and off the runway, and somehow only managed to be 1 hour 15 minutes late, but man was I happy to finally make it home. It makes such a difference when you spend your time waiting vs. knowing ahead of time how much time you have to go do what you want. However, it is what it is and I’m thankful that God allowed them to fly us safely and comfortably. Always look for that positive thing even when it may be hard to find!

Finally on our way.

Do I Know the Feeling of a Plane Failure? Not Quite… But Close.

Ever heard the expression, “When it rains, it pours”? It is so true, over and over again. Now that you know a little bit of my car history, understand that I live in a large city where the drivers are known for their bad driving. Accidents are increasingly numerous, and since I’ve had a rough vehicle year, it only increases my fear of driving.

So tonight, when I came home from work, I found my husband in some pretty serious pain. One of his fillings had fallen out, leaving the nerve exposed. Now, my husband DOES NOT cry, DOES NOT complain about injuries and is your typical “tough” man. So when he is almost in tears, you know it is serious. Normally he would have tried to tough it out, but tonight the pain was so bad. So, I quickly found an emergency dental clinic and we were on our way.

As far as the dentist visit, everything seemed to go pretty well. They basically froze his mouth and gave him prescriptions for pain medicine to last until our personal dentist could fix the problem. No big deal. I would call the dentist first thing in the morning and hopefully have him in by the afternoon.

The drive home was approximately 13 minutes long, driving at no more than 60 k/h. We didn’t even make it half-way home when it began.

I’m already paranoid about driving the car with the problems it has. But it started with the battery light coming on. The battery? Really? Well, yes. The lights on the dash starting dimming, so I can only imagine my headlights were dimming as well. It was hard to tell because the streets are very well lit, but I can imagine they were. By the time I got home, I almost had no lights on at all. But let’s not stop with the battery light. Then came the airbag light. This is where my husband became concerned. Both of us were pushing back against our seats. Then the engine light came on. Seriously? Pretty sure the car was falling apart. Then a 4th light came on of only which I can imagine what that was for. I began praying big time!

Now this is not a joke. I had JUST put gas in the car when we left for the dental clinic, so I definitely had gas. BUT… in the last minute of the drive, the car started “sputtering”. I was losing power, momentum, and everything else. The car is a manual, and I only had it in 2nd gear from going around a corner, and I was still losing power. I began freaking out that somebody would hit me, the car would die in the middle of the road… so many things. That feeling of a plane failure and not knowing if you’d crash/blow up/die? That’s what I was experiencing.

This is how I felt. “Oh no! What next?”

I don’t know how, except by God’s good grace, the car seemed to “kick” in just to make it down the road, into our parking lot, and slide into our parking spot. Will the car turn back on? I have no idea.

My nerves were shot. I think I’ve finally calmed down, now that we’re inside safely and I’ve made a protein smoothie and sipped it slowly. I’m safe and I definitely have that to be thankful for. The car worked just long enough to get my husband the numbness he needed to continue on through the night. For that, I’m thankful. Now how are we going to get to the dentist? I’m not sure. Excess money is basically inexistent for us. *Sigh*… One day at a time.