A MUCH BETTER BLOG

Do you find the idea of feeding your children processed food off a shelf distasteful? Would you rather see your baby eat food that you are willing to eat yourself? Do you think life will be easier and more fun down the road if you child grows up into a person who loves fresh produce and has a diverse palette and loves to try new foods? Do you value family time and mealtime community? Yes, yes, yes and yes? OK. Seriously, check out this book.

Organically Raised – Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers by Anni Daulter is a delightful recipe book created for families who want to provide the best possible nutrition via a meal prepared with love. Like many of us, Anni had an aversion to feeding her baby shelf stable, processed baby food and began making her own which led to a prosperous fresh baby food business in LA area which resulted in this wonderful book that makes the recipes, concepts and flavors available to all of us.

More than just a cookbook, Organically Raised includes information on breastfeeding, satisfying picky toddlers and the importance of meals as a mindful way of bringing the family community together. She also includes information about herbs in baby food, organic and seasonal fare, food allergies, vegan, and gluten free issues, a handy feeding journal, and inspiring “Mama Mantras” to help parents prepare meals that nurture their children’s bodies, minds, and spirits. In addition, the book carries a cheat sheet on pantry stocking and basic equipment needed to set up the ideal kitchen.

This book will help you get your children started right with whole, fresh foods. The recipes are created with fresh, organic foods that maximize the use of color, texture and taste. Awaken your child’s taste buds with many flavors and variety rather than overcooked, chemical laden, over processed jarred food. Baby foods include purees, blends, cereals and yogurts and the toddlers enter a more adventurous area with snack foods and international flavors. These meals will not cost a fortune or take any more time to prepare than any other quick baby meal or snack.

One of the best features of this book is the outstanding, mouthwatering collection of images of food in addition to fantastic images of children dressed in yoga inspired clothing, baby leggings and amber necklaces that look as organic and healthy as the food. We honor our children when we include them in the preparation and meal decision making process and images of this quality will ignite more food passion than a childish cartoon recipe book.

Author Anni notes that Organically Raised is, “A hip, holistic guide that allows parents to create delicious, healthy, and organic meals for children ages 6 months to 3 years old.” I disagree. I think the book holds soups, snacks and sweets that older children, teens and adults can enjoy. Brielle is five and could not wait to pick out recipes to try. Snacks are timeless for children of all ages. While I wish I would have had this book before Brielle was born, there is no reason that I cannot make great use of it for another five years.

Organically Raised will get you out of the rut that many parents, even those with the best intentions, usually find themselves in once they find meals that work for their kids. This is an excellent book that belongs front and center in any enlightened family’s kitchen or available to any family who cares about creating healthy habits but is not sure where to start.

Resources Section:
Want to try before you buy? Test these out:
Zac’s mac ‘n’ cheese twist
Austin’s Italian sun dried tomato wheel pasta with fresh basil, capers, and parmesan cheese
Available at Amazon.com.
http://www.organicallyraisedcookbook.com
http://www.consciousfamilyliving.com
Organically Raised on Facebook

You may know her as Blossom, the main character from the early 90s TV show with the same name. Her real name is Mayim Bialik and she is back as a super crunchy, attachment parenting mom of two small boys, Miles, 3 ½, and Fred, 9 months.

Mayim recently appeared on What Not To Wear in the makeover spotlight. I saw the previews but it never occurred to me to watch it because who knew she was 100% AP? I found out after the fact when reading a post by Summer from Wired for Noise. Summer raved about Mayim Bialik and I thought “Who the heck is that?!?”…so I read it and realized “Oh yeah, BLOSSOM!”

As it turns out, Mayim was babywearing in the show, concerned whether or not the new clothes were breastfeeding friendly or not and just overall super-duper AP.

It gets better.

After the show, she was interviewed by Celebrity Baby Blog and it turns out she homebirths, has a primarily vegan diet, practices co-cleeping (bedsharing), practices elimination communication and does not vaccinate!!! I love this woman! She also breastfeeds exclusively past one year. NO solids for one year.

Tons of celebrities are vegetarian or vegan. A number of celebrities babywear because lets face it, babywearing is very cool. A few celebrities breastfeed past the first few months (and admit it) and a tiny number have homebirths. A few notables don’t vaccinate or use alternative vaccine scheduling. I have never, ever heard of a celebrity mentioning, much less practicing EC. I have never heard of a celebrity breastfeeding exclusively past one year.

Mayik started EC-ing her second child at 2 days old. She talks about elimination communication during her CBB interview:

“The entire concept is not to potty train them, it’s not to do reward and punishment, I don’t clap my hands and say, “Good job.” It’s a very Zen, meditative experience of learning the signals, being able to respond to the signals. The level of communication you can achieve with an infant is really profound.”

Mayim also discusses childbirth with CBB:

“Fred, yes, was born at home, and Miles was able to watch the whole thing from his high chair while eating granola. Fortunately it was a very fast labor because I think Miles would’ve been bored if it was longer than the hour and a half it was. He loves it, he still talks about it.”

In reading other interviews and blogs, I discovered that she obtained her PhD after Blossom ended and she is also is devoutly Jewish (self described cross between Orthodox and Conservative, Conservadox). In fact, one of the reasons she chooses the skirts below the knees and the sleeved tops is for modesty reasons. Unfortunately these explanations were cut from the final version of What Not To Wear and the end, they made her out to be a frumpy mom with no fashion sense rather than an incredibly passionate, highly educated woman who stands up for what she believes in and walks the walk.

According to Allison from Jew in the City who is a personal friend of Mayim’s and also appeared briefly on the What Not to Wear episode :

“In my five seconds of fame, I said something about Mayim Bialik not being a messed up child star and instead raising a family and getting a PhD. All the stuff I mentioned about modesty not having to equal frumpiness and how I (the Orthodox Jew) had been encouraging her (the celebrity) to put herself together and find the perfect balance of cute, confident, and covered, was missing.”

She seems to be moving back into the spotlight again with recent appearances on Bones and Saving Grace. According to her interview at CBB, she is also optioned a set of novels called Rashi’s Daughters that she is working on.

According to Jewcy:

“In the decades since she stopped playing Blossom Russo, Bialik has not sat still. She’s earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and has undertaken cutting-edge studies at UCLA as one of the top researchers of Prader-Willi Syndrome in the field….She’s also testing the waters of going back into acting, with recent appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Bones. And she’s also in the middle of another big revival: she’s experimenting with being an observant Jew.”

I find that I have so much in common with Mayim’s parenting. We both even had babies born in the caul! Other than the fact that her sons are circumcised , she is hands down the best example of gentle, natural parenting in the public eye that I have ever seen.

Watch the full episode of What Not To Wear featuring Mayim Bialik.

Bianca turned four months old last week and due to her voracious appetite and advanced physical development (2 teeth and more on the way), she is already eating solids.

I was pretty upset after Brielle’s pediatrician talked me into starting her on solids at four months because it was totally arbitrary and she was not physically ready. I just started shoving rice cereal (gag) in her mouth one day when all she needed or wanted was breastmilk.

Bianca has been eyeballing my food for awhile now and has even started to try to grab for whatever I am eating. Rather than give her that nasty, neon, jarred swill, I scrape bananas or avocados with a spoon. I also give her sauces or whatever else I happen to be eating that she doesn’t have to chew much.

I picked up these super cool frozen wheatgrass shots the other day at my favorite health food store . They are prepackaged in little sealed shots that you can just thaw and drink. They are exactly up my alley since I don’t have the time or energy to grow mold free wheatgrass at the moment (although I really do love growing and juicing my own). Needless to say, I was about to have a shot of my own and I decided to feed Bianca some on a spoon. I swear she would have drank the whole shot if I had let her. She loves it.

Since I live in a part of the United States where rather than drinking (or smoking) grass, you fertilize the hell out of grass and then mow, mow, mow…. I feel the burden to go out of my way to present a healthy lifestyle to my girls and that includes the wonderful benefits of grasses. Thankfully they make my job easier by loving the stuff.

In the interest of full disclosure, I hate the term “the baby” with a passion. I think it objectifies babies and I just don’t understand why people only start calling their babies by name when they are toddlers. I thought it was a funny title and also more search engine friendly in case anybody ever wonders if they can feed their baby wheatgrass.

In addition, I am generally very opposed to feeding babies solids prior to six months or more. I hate the fact that breastmilk alternatives are pushed on babies before they are ready. That said, I am an even stronger believer in common sense, instinctual parenting and baby led milestones. If my baby is telling me that she is ready for food, then she is most likely ready for food.

I have been drinking a smoothie every morning for a couple of months now. The equipment I use every day is a smoothie machine, cutting board & knife, & my coffee grinder. I try to do everything the night before so I can just add some wet ingredients and blend when I get up in the morning.

I am fortunate enough to live near a Gordons Food Service where I buy five pound bags of frozen mixed berries. I also sometimes get frozen melon balls or tropical fruit. It is nice to change the recipe and it also adds some nutritional variety. If you don’t live near a Gordons, I am sure you can get the same thing at Sams Club or Costco.

The other absolute staple for me is Vitamineral Green. I will be posting on how wonderful this stuff is at some point. It is absolutely wonderful. I feel great when I have some daily for just a month. It improves my digestion, flattens my stomach, and gives me more energy. It has minerals, vitamins, enzymes, probiotics, algaes, seaweeds, and grasses. It is just a wonderful all in one product. It is not cheap. A bottle runs roughly $50 a month if I take it every day but it is a complete food product, not just a supplement so if I include it as part of my food budget and I remove the need for additional supplements then it isn’t quite so expensive.

I have everything ready in a cabinet by the refrigerator and the smoothie machine. I fill the smoothie maker about 1/2 way with frozen berries or melons. If I have a pineapple or a mango I will cube that and use it instead.

I usually add 1/2 to one whole banana and sometimes fresh berries or a peeled orange or fresh kiwi slices or mango. I always have a bowl of fresh fruit and I find it so much easier to eat it in smoothie form. My fruit used to always go bad before I started smoothie-ing. Now it never does.

I add a tablespoon or two of the Vitamineral Green and fresh ginger to the frozen berries the night before and set the container in the refrigerator. In the morning I add a teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil, two raw cage free organic eggs, Colloidal Minerals, and some freshly ground flaxseeds.

I also bought some 20 oz clear hard plastic cups with lids and straws at Gordons. It might not be the most environmental option but I don’t have time to drink the smoothie before work and if I had to wash a large crusty glass when I got home at night then I would not drink the smoothie at all. As the subtitle of the blog indicates, I am trying to merge modern living (ie:day job) with a healthy, organic lifestyle.

I know I am not adding everything that I can (or should) to my smoothie but for now it is an easy routine that fills me up, gives me energy, and most importantly gives me the nutrients that I would not be getting from a cup of coffee.

In closing I should mention that the Vitamineral Green turns the whole concoction dark green. If you saw The Thomas Crown Affair, Renee Russo drank something similar every morning. I guess it is cool in the movies but in real life it really throws people. I have people making the worst comments to me. It is amusing to me. I can not imagine insulting someone for eating french fries…” OH GOD! HOW CAN YOU EAT THAT???? YUCK FRIES! AAAAAHHH.. EWWWWW! THAT IS DISGUSTING!!!” I might think it, but I wont say it. Needless to say, I should give fair warning that if you are brave enough to take this smoothie out of the house with you, then you should be prepared for the inevitable verbal attacks.

As always I welcome suggestions and comments! You can find all the smoothie ingredients in your local produce department, local health food store, or at A Much Better Store, my natural family internet store.

Sheryl Lyon

Do you want to eat healthier but do not know where to start? Are you trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet but are finding it difficult to eat five servings or more a day? What about all the supplements and antioxidants you read about? How do you keep it all straight? Who has time to sort through the data much less prepare and eat everything you should?

The solution may lie in a smoothie! Smoothies are fruit based concoctions usually blended with milk or yogurt and an unlimited selection of “add-ons” and blended until smooth. Smoothies are ultra-fast, convenient, rejuvenating, energizing meal replacements. If you choose your ingredients carefully, your smoothie can relieve fatigue and constipation, balance your blood sugar, establish proper PH levels in your colon, and improve mental sharpness.

The real beauty of smoothies lies in their versatility. You can incorporate as many of the “shoulds” into your smoothie as you like. You “should” take more Vitamin C. You “should” take cod liver oil every day. You “should” introduce seaweeds and algaes into your diet. The “shoulds” are varied and numerous. A smoothie is a fabulous solution because it is much easier to pour a teaspoon of cod liver oil into your pineapple banana smoothie than to drink it solo. The same holds true for many of the somewhat unpalatable ingredient choices.

Smoothies are a great chance for you to exercise your personal taste and creativity. You can start with a bag of frozen berries or hit the produce department for fresh fruit that you enjoy. Any juicy fruit is a great choice for a smoothie. Be creative and avoid ingredients that you do not care for.

Any yogurt,milk, or kefir will do the trick but some experts recommend avoiding pasteurization and low fat dairy products for health reasons so if you are trying to switch to a raw diet you can use raw milk or make your own raw yogurt to use in the smoothie. If you are a vegan or want to avoid dairy altogether then use soy milk, rice milk, firm tofu chunks, or simply forgo the dairy aspect of your smoothie altogether. Many people like to use organic, raw, cage free eggs in their smoothie for a fabulous source of protein.

Grasses have tremendous nutritional and cleansing properties. You can grow your own wheatgrass and juice it fresh into your smoothie or you can purchase grass powder superfoods such as Vitamineral Green which is high in vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, chlorophyll, probiotics, and enzymes.

Some great additions to your smoothies can include algaes such as ultra cleansing chlorella and spirulina with 96 trace minerals. Another ingredient that is easiest eaten in a smoothie is freshly ground flax seed which will provide you with valuable plant based Omega 3 oils as well as soluble and insoluble fiber. Keep a coffee grinder next to your smoothie machine to make sure the flax seed is added to your smoothie immediately after grinding to prevent oxidation.

Some other ingredients you can try are ginseng, raw cacao, aloe vera, vegetable powders, coconut oil, ground nuts such as almonds or walnuts and medicinal herbs such as cinnamon.

You can purchase plastic take out cups with lids and straws and leave the house every morning with a few of your fruit servings out of the way in addition to meeting or exceeding many of your other nutritional requirements. Smoothies are a fun, delicious, nutritious way to maximize your health in a creative way that is limited only by your imagination.

You can find all the smoothie products you need including smoothie machines, coffee grinders, and hard to find ingredients at A Much Better Store under the Blog department.

My daughter went with my parents to a family reunion today. I chose not to go. Why? Because I am antisocial? Not really.

I am so tired of the fight to be healthy and eat healthy. It seems that we are not just dancing to a different drummer but are dancing to a monkey and an accordion.

I know this family reunion will consist of cakes, cookies, ice cream, and M&Ms. Of course the main course will be something like roast beef and who knows what else. Do we eat any of that? No. Nothing.

I would have to bring my own food if we want to eat. Normally I just sit there and watch other people eat while they eye me up and down like I am some kind of weirdo outsider. I mean seriously, who span doesn’t eat meat, dairy, & desserts in the Midwest?

Please do not get me wrong. My extended family is very nice. I am sure they feel they are serving the finest cuisine. I just don’t and won’t eat it. I go to great lengths to feed myself and my daughter items that originated from the ground.

Its truly like pushing a boulder uphill. I am tired of it. So I decided not to attend. I have the pressures at work of avoiding cake and ice cream every time someone has a birthday. Again, they look at me like I am not a team player if I do not show up for the “party” or if I sneak out of the room when they start passing out the garbage.

I truly believe that the standard American diet is total garbage. Its poison. It is no more a “treat” than if they passed out a cigarette or some heroin for every birthday party.

Today I gave up a little bit. I have never been away from my daughter other than to go to work since the day she was born but today I don’t even care. I simply don’t want to fight today quite frankly. I am not happy about it but what can I do? I am going to let my parents shovel poison into my daughters mouth all day….she will miss her nap….and I don’t have to deal with it until she gets home.

Yes, yes there is a point to all of this rambling. I get depressed. I get sick of fighting. I think that sometimes it would be so much easier to go with the flow and just eat McNuggets or some other toxic garbage and let my daughter drink soda and just smile and laugh and forget the battle.

Does it matter if we die at 60 or 90? Does our quality of life matter? Yes it does. So then I get angry. Its really quite stressful. I don’t have one single solitary friend in the town where I live because I have absolutely nothing in common with anyone here (that I can find) so I am going this battle alone. It is a daily battle and I have no support whatsoever.

Again…whats my point? My point is that I have to find a balance so I can smile and laugh and still try to dance to my monkey with the accordion. I have to get to the point where I just don’t care what other people think, while simultaneously refusing to judge others for their decisions. I have to resign myself to hunting and gathering for organic fresh produce just like caveman days. I might even have to grow my own. In resigning myself to this way of life hopefully I can lose the stress and happily announce to the world that “this is the way we live and if you don’t like it, you can go..(fill in whatever you like here).

Peace out.
Sheryl

Today was my daughters first day of day care. Any one that has visited my site or read anything about me knows that I am a firm believer in attachment parenting. I think babies belong with their relatives, especially when they are young.

Is that realistic in today’s world? No, of course not. That as we know is the theme of this blog. It doesn’t make it any less depressing for me however. My daughter is 22 months old and spent almost 24 hours a day with me for the first 18 months of her life.

The last couple of months she has spent with grandpa and grandma after I went back to work full time. We both made that adjustment better than expected although she is still not sleeping during the day without me. (what kind of toddler cant take naps)

Needless to say, it has been relatively painless until today. Now I have more of the guilt that working mothers (and fathers?) are supposed to feel. My poor baby was stuck with strangers for five hours which is a pretty big chunk of time for a two year old.

She clung to her little stuffed kitty the entire time. According to the day care providers she was crying most of the day. She was sobbing all by herself in a room when I walked up. Nice. It totally breaks my heart.

To add insult to injury it is apparently going to take a lightning bolt to get these people to give her the food I send along. They think their food is good enough (and for them I am sure it is) and they don’t want the other kids to want my daughter’s food. They feed these kids everything I am opposed to. Milk and cookies. Green jello with marshmallows. Is it too much to ask to feed them something that grew out of the ground? Unless you can show me a cracker tree I would rather not feed that to my daughter for a zillion reasons.

They wont allow me to send along a fruit and a vegetable. That is apparently an “unacceptable” snack by government standards. You have just got to be kidding me. And I think pasteurized, homogenized cows milk is nothing short of poison and in order to keep it away from my daughter I have to sign forms stating that she is allergic to it.

In addition, the facility is blatantly Christian. Fun. Its not that I am opposed to teaching my baby about religion…….Different people believe in different things just like different people speak different languages…nothing better or worse about one or the other kind of thing. But I am adamantly opposed to teaching her that one religion is the right one.

So I have to teach her that the food they feed her is wrong, the songs they sing are wrong, and the way they believe is wrong?? All that on top of the fact that she feels abandoned and alone except for her stuffed kitty.

Do I have a choice? Believe it or not it is a large, clean facility with a ton of happy kids and it is an excellent learning environment with wooden toys, small animals, pretend toys, and much more. They do not allow violent or sexist toys, they have daily outdoor time, and they do not exercise corporal punishment of any kind whatsoever. It is actually a wonderful facility by day care standards adequately staffed with what appear to be kind and concerned ladies.

So no, I actually do not have a choice with regard to a different facility because the other ones pale in comparison. Do I have a choice about day care at all? Not really. I cant afford a nanny and even if I could I don’t think it would be fair to deprive my only child of the playmates she craves.

My only choice is to work part time or not at all. Like the title of the blog says, its the day care conundrum. Choose to be a poor stay at home mom or make a reasonable living and pay strangers to raise your child. What a great direction for my family’s life to be taking.

Update 1.5 yrs later:
Putting Brielle in daycare was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. She never took a nap. She was a train wreck every day. She would cry her heart out for hours before I got there and no-one would pick her up because they had to hold the newborns.

On the (very) bright side, I approached my little Napoleon boss a few weeks later about working an alternate schedule that involved 6 day weeks and shorter days so I wouldn’t have to put her in day care and he fired me two days later. While that is a very interesting way to treat a single mom who asks a question, I cannot complain because my site, store and blog have blossomed and I learned my lesson. Hell would have to freeze over before I put my little girl in daycare again (and I don’t believe in hell so…..)

Over 27 billion animals are violently slaughtered in America each year after enduring lives of neglect, torture, and mutilation in cramped, filthy conditions with virtually no laws in place to protect them from cruelty.

The next time you are deciding what to eat picture yourself at the petting zoo.

Reason #2 – You love our planet
Water conservation is a hot topic. You might do your part by using a low flow showerhead or turning off your water while you brush your teeth. What you may not realize is that a whopping one-half of the water supply in the United State goes to animal agriculture.

Our existing air and water supply is also contaminated from the enormous amounts of excrement produced by these animals which is far too much to fertilize the local crops so the excess is disposed of as waste.

America’s forests are being destroyed to raise cattle. Vegetarians only require 1/6 of an acre to grow their food supply while meat eaters require over 3 acres. If the US population switched to a plant based diet, over 20 million acres could be returned to forest.

The next time you are enjoying a low flow shower low flow after eating steak for dinner, please think about the 2500 gallons of water it takes to make a single pound of beef.

Reason #3 – You love being alive and healthy
What is the one lifestyle choice you can make that can reduce your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, asthma, many cancers and even male impotence? What choice can help make your kids taller and smarter? What lifestyle choice can help you live six to ten years longer? Numerous studies have shown a vegetarian diet to increase your chances of these and other benefits.

Human beings can get all the nutrition they need from plant sources. Organic plants offer antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber while meat offers saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants like hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics.

In addition, the human digestive tract is much longer, twisted, and pocketed than the smooth, short tract of a natural carnivore. Natural carnivores also have much stronger stomach acid. This inability to properly digest meat could explain why eating any amount of meat can dramatically increase a persons risk for a multitude of diseases and cancers.

The next time you are deciding what to eat, think about the health and lifespan of you and your loved ones.

Reason #4 – You love other human beings
Does it bother you that people are starving to death on the other side of the world? Would you like to do your part to help?

You might be shocked to learn that America could easily wipe out world hunger if we raised crops instead of animals. The world’s cattle alone consume enough food to feed 8.7 billion people.

The next time you are deciding what to eat please think about the 15 million children around the world that starve to death each year.

Reason #5 – You love peace of mind
Wouldn’t it be nice to finally put to rest that little nagging voice inside of you that loves animals? Wouldn’t it feel great to know that you are saving 100 animals a year by adopting a plant based diet? Wouldn’t it be a weight off your shoulders to know that you are doing the right thing for yourself, animals, the planet, and humankind? It is a tough step to take and you may have to face opposition from friends, family, and society in general but what an outstanding feeling to finally do the right thing.

Think Im crazy? Visit a few of these pages and you might change your mind.

I feel terrible remorse for my years of meat eating and question whether its even OK to eat cage-free eggs and organic dairy products.

The Issues

Plenty of reasons to go vegan

Meet your meat

Undercover Investigations

More issues

Why vegan

The list according to goveg.com

• Cruelty to Animals
• Animals are amazing
• Your Health
• The environment
• World Hunger
• Worker Rights
• Factory Farms
• Government Negligence
• Factory Campaigns

I was not really sure what I would be eating when I finally made the decision to give up meat.
As I mentioned in my other posts I gave up meat as part of an overall decision to live healthier.

I moved deeper into the midwest in November and saw my health deteriorating fast thanks to a typical American diet. I came to the decision to make changes and make them fast if I wanted to make peace with living in middle America.

Although I have been reading about vegetarianism over the last ten years or so and I knew that I wanted to take that step someday, I had never quite gotten around to it. I was not prepared with dietary alternatives in order to finally make the leap. In my feeble attempts to give up meat in the past I always went back within a few days or a week due to ravenous hunger.

Knowing what went wrong in the past is probably the reason I was able to go through with it this time. Since I knew very well that I would be starving in a day or two, I ate tons of carbs every time I became hungry rather than wait until I became ravenous. That is probably pretty bad advice but quite honestly it worked and it worked remarkably well.

I gained quite a bit of weight. I have been meatless for about two and a half months now and I just started losing the weight I gained initially.

Whenever I got hungry and I recognized it as my stomach missing meat and I would substitute a bagel or toast. I didn’t really substitute anything else because I remember from experience that nothing would really replace the filling feeling of meat. A carrot just doesn’t quite cut it when you are craving a steak right?

I would love to hear how other people have dealt with this problem. It was pretty tough going and I don’t know if I could have done it without eating three bagels for dinner once in awhile. My butt certainly doesn’t look any better for it but my stomach and digestive system are already thanking me. Not to mention all of the happy cows and chickens.

Update 1.5 yrs later:
In retrospect I would have skipped the carbs and loaded up on nuts, seeds and superfoods instead.

I have considered giving up meat for years now. This has been much more of a journey than a spur of the moment decision.

Like many vegetarians, I wanted to give up meat for both ethical and health reasons. As it turns out the health reasons finally pushed me over the edge but the ethical reasons have bothered me for the last twenty years. I have always felt uneasy that animals are dying on my behalf but quite honestly it was “too difficult” to give it up for that reason alone. It is not that I don’t love animals enough because I really do. It is just exceptionally difficult to suddenly change my way of eating overnight especially when all of your friends and family eat the same way.

I began my quest for all things natural because of my horrific birth experience. It started out as a passion for natural childbirth and morphed into natural fertility, pregnancy, birth, and parenting. I came across so much research as to the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle that it has come to the forefront of my consciousness.

That still wasn’t enough to sell me however. In November I moved deeper into the midwest, which I affectionately refer to as the land of hamburgers and ice cream. It is utterly insane how middle America eats as a group, and as horrified as I was (and still am) by a typical American diet, I found the trap of convenience and instant gratification very easy to fall into.

So shortly after I moved here I was aware that I would look like a hippo in six months if I stayed lazy so I decided the first place to start was to give up animal flesh. Giving up meat is a natural choice because I care about animals anyway and I have been going in that direction for the last decade.

I have been a meat “avoider” for a long time. Despite the fact that I love eating out and I have always loved a good meat dish (Ruths Chris steak house…..yum) I still tried to order fish at least 50% of the time or so.

I still eat fish, eggs, and dairy. I am just very pleased to say that I no mammals are going to die on my behalf. I am so proud to be able to tell my daughter that when she learns that people kill animals to eat since she absolutely adores animals. I believe all children are naturally vegetarian and I think most kids love animals so she will not be a hard sell when she learns we eat differently than most people.

I am going to have a hard time giving up fish someday but my goal is to be raw/vegan which means no animal products at all. The hardest part will be eating out. “Can I have a plate full of burger toppings please?” As of right now I can still find fish, dairy or eggs on the menu but it is still surprisingly difficult to find more than one selection at any given restaurant.

My next post or two will be about how the experience has worked for me so far. In the meantime, peace.

Sheryl