Full Circle

First off a picture of my kids, because I know nobody comes to this blog to see pictures of me.  Seriously, they are adorable.  You can't see this, but their personalities are their cutest parts!

This was me on Easter.  Lacy, my 8 year old, took this picture.

And this is my cute son's behind

This is the picture that started it all.  I didn't realize I had gained weight.  I had no idea I was overweight.  Not by a lot, but enough to put my BMI in the 28ish range.  And I'm no athlete, so the added weight wasn't from muscle mass.  No, it was from ice cream and brownies.  I didn't realize I was 40 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight.  And my baby is 3.  In fact, I had lost about 20 or so pounds of my baby weight and gained it all back.  I was close to the top of my weight gain when I was 9 months pregnant!

At that moment, I changed my eating habits.  Correction- I dedicated myself to changing my eating habits.  It was Easter Sunday and I wanted one last hurrah before I dived in to a new way of eating.  But not just because I'm overweight.  It's because I want to be healthy.  I don't want my children to see me dieting to be more attractive- I want them to see me changing my eating habits so that I will be healthier so I can be a better mom.  

I chose to follow the Eat To Live philosophy on eating.  That basically means a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, and low in sugars, fats and white flour.  And no meat, dairy or eggs.  So, basically, I'm vegan.  This brings me full circle.  I was vegetarian and sometimes vegan for about 7 years during my high school and college years.  I got married and was no longer a vegetarian.  We've been married over 12 years now, so it's been a while since I've been vegetarian.  In an effort to eat more healthfully, I had recently decided to dedicate one meal per week toward vegan cooking.  Soon that became twice weekly.  Once again, this has changed.  Now if anybody wants meat, they get to prepare it themselves!

My husband is very supportive of my dietary changes and he loves the foods I've been cooking. Mostly, my kids love them too.  My plan is to log the different recipes I've tried while on this diet and review them for you here.  

I started eating this way on April 1 and as of last week I have already lost 8 pounds.  I've also noticed some other surprising health benefits to eating this way that I never expected.  I'm feeling better than ever and my clothes are fitting better, too!

In addition to dietary changes, I've been trying to work exercise into my life.  I've never liked to exercise, so this is a challenge for me.  I'm liking the workouts on my On Demand that are around 10-20 minutes long.  Not too much that I feel like I can't keep up with it.  I'm aiming for 4 days per week.