Livin' La Vida Veggie

Ok, so it's been about four months, and I am still living the Raw Food lifestyle.  Well, let's say about 80% of the time.  I do occasionally have an egg, and I can't give up cheese.  Although, I have found a source for raw milk cheese.   A lot of my friends and colleagues are amazed and say, "you're still doing that thing?"  Well, yes. 

Why you might ask:

 - About 2 weeks ago I grabbed the wrong black pants to take with me while I was in Boston.  Most women will understand when I say we have our clothes separated into "what I can wear" and "what I used to wear but may get back into so I can't get rid of it."  These pants were definitely the latter.  I pulled them out of the suitcase planning to wear pants to dinner with friends.  When I saw them I thought, "no way."  Then I pulled them on and buttoned them right up.  Oh, yeah.

 - I sleep better.  I have always been a morning person.  I have always had the ability to sleep about five hours and then be able to wake up and get on with my day.  What I have noticed, though, is that my sleep is deeper.  I wake up rested and seem to function better during the day.

 - I think I'm getting younger.  For some reason I haven't had to color the grays away (there don't seem to be as many) and my skin feels smoother (I think drinking all the water has something to do with that).  My joints don't seem to ache as much as before.  I feel like I can just keep going on the treadmill, and I seem to recover faster during a work-out.

 - Things move better.... I'll just leave it at that.

What I have learned so far:

 - there's no such thing as Fast Food:  it takes a lot of preparation.  My fastest meal is a bowl of muesli with almond milk and sliced bananas.  A fruit smoothie means cutting fresh fruit and blending everything together.  Even a salad takes at least 10 minutes just slicing the mix of herbs and vegetables.  Fifteen if I have to make a vinaigrette.

 - I shop more frequently.  I used to go to the grocery store about once a month and then slowly work my way through the cans and boxes and pre-packaged meals.  Now my meal planning consists of which vegetables I want to combine in my salads, what fruits are available, what fruits do I need to augment my dehydrated supplies, etc.

 - really, you can eat that?  One of the 20% of items I actually cook is quinoa (kween-wah).  Slightly toasted, cooked and then tossed with olive oil, pine nuts, and garlic it's very yummy.  It's also a good source of protein.  Even my DH asks for it from time to time, and he's not "choosey."  We also stand and stare at the exotic foods' section of the grocery store and try to find something new to try.  We've made some good finds.  Like golden beets.  Chopped raw on a salad.  Mmhmm.

Also, if you've noticed I've made it to the 50% done with this year.  Woohoo!  We are so looking forward to moving to the land of plenty... Farmer's Markets, a vegetarian's paradise, and some of the best wines anywhere.

It's the Journey and the Destination...

So, today it's official... I signed my contract, and in a couple of weeks we're going to take a second trip to Humboldt County to begin looking at housing.  Earlier this week, I got an email from a friend coordinating our 25th high school reunion.  How far I've come.


My plan when I graduated from high school:  graduate with a degree in civil engineering, meet my future husband, start a career, have three kids (2 boys and a girl), and build the cities of the future.


Five years later when I graduated from college with a degree in Photojournalism my plan was:  get a job as a reporter, try to get a job as a foreign journalist, meet someone and think about marriage later when I've gotten the wanderlust out of my system.


About five years later when I turned 30, I thought I could probably safely die and feel as though I had led a rich life.  I had been traveling across country to train in Washington D.C. for a demographic researcher position in Mexico City.  I lived in Mexico City for a year and met an amazing group of people.  I had traveled to Europe and Australia, and I had seen parts of the country that I never thought I would.  And, despite some dire odds against me, I actually got accepted to medical school.  Marriage and family was a distant memory... I had things to do.


I don't know that I had much of a plan going to medical school other than to actually graduate. I originally went in with the intention of doing emergency medicine, however when I did my fourth year elective I hated it.  How could anyone possibly want to work with people who did not take care of themselves?  Why did all the cool traumas go to surgery?  Was it too late to change my mind?


I found out it wasn't which is how I ended up doing three years of surgery.  Over that time, though, I found I missed the patient contact.  I missed teaching my patients.  After taking a year off, I went back to emergency medicine.  I got married.  I have three children of the furry kind;  a boy and two girls.  And, now, I have just taken the next step.  We're actually going to be "settling down."  Wow.


It definitely wasn't the destination, but the journey that has brought me to this point.  I can stop and think about several points in my life where a decision I made definitely changed the course of my life.  They're the "what ifs" that everyone has faced from time to time.  I'll ponder them in another post.... might even base a story on them.  But for now, I will relish in the fact that I'm just about to reach my next destination... I don't think it's the final one.  Ask me again in five years...