In the beginning.....

My mother is really the health nut in my family, not me. I LOVE  make that ADORE eating! And I am a conissour of all things dessert. Hence why I am now back up to my max weight. Not a proud moment I must confess. There are many avenues leading to the here and now of my weight and ultimately my health. So since confession is good for the soul, and I hope the waistline, I begin this blog with gritted teeth. 
If I'm really gonna confess, I must go back quite a while. I was a healthy kid at a normal size all through my early school years and even high school. I wasn't particularly great at sports but loved to play anyway. My family didn't eat out much; that was for special occasions. My mom cooked healthy, home made meals without many processed foods. By the time I hit college and could my all my own choices, things started getting a bit iffy. I also began dealing with my "disease", depression. I am an eater (as previously noted) so I tend to eat when I am stressed, lonely, sad, depressed, happy, need to celebrate....need I go on? Depression meds often have a curious side effect of weight gain. When you mix that with the added weight girls sometimes put on about freshman year of college and dribble in some time spent living over seas in a stressful situation, I was a wreck of bad eating habits. I was also quite good at telling myself that I was young still so I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and it shouldn't hurt me (aka chicken fingers at 11pm at least one night a week and midnight Taco Bell runs). Most women say they hit the metabolism brick wall at about 30. Me? right about 23. When I graduated from college in 2003 I weighed around 190 lbs (yes, I have no qualms about stating my weight or my age).  A couple of years into my marriage I had one of those experiences that stuck out like a snapshot. I was over at my parents and some friends with their little boys where visiting. MY MOTHER COULD RUN AFTER THOSE LITTLE BOYS FOR LONGER THAN I COULD!! That was my light bulb moment. I ended up joining LA Weightloss. While an expensive option, it worked. I lost 45lbs in about 6 months and was at my goal weight of 145lb in time to visit my sister on Guam and then graduate from Xray school. That was 2007. Jackson came along in 2008. Now as I look back at my pregnant self, I think, "Jeeze! I was a skinny preggo lady!" But after baby and breastfeeding and back on birth control I was still up around 165lb. I started my second pregnancy at 173lb and really only gained maybe 10lbs. Owen is now 2 and here I am weighing in at the dreaded 197 lb. I've always told myself I would never weigh over 200. Why I insist on getting so close before I do anything about it is rather baffling though. So now at 33 years old I work in a clinic taking xrays, drawing blood and running lab tests, I feel my mortality hitting me in the face a bit harder. Now don't get me wrong...getting up the gumption and determination and willpower to loose weight has been a CONSTANT battle over the years. I've failed more times than I can count or remember. 
Back to my mother....she spent 2 months living with my sister this winter (Guam). Beth and Matt are vegan...mom came home preaching the vegan sermon to this heathen meat eating over weight Mommy. Have I ever spent time thinking about vegan stuff??? That would be a big fat NO. Didn't really feel the need to be a vegetarian either although we aren't exactly a 'meat and potatoes for every meal' type family. But after some serious thought and discussions with my friend Karla (who has gone through the CHIP program in the past) I began to seriously kick around this vegan thing. High cholesterol runs in my family along with heart disease. Honestly Josh has every disease in his family history that is made worse by being overweight. I've noticed my hands have been really achy lately (my mom says her's are like that after she eats a lot of sugar), I've got some really strange fat lines that I've never seen on me before and there were a couple other concerns on my list that I can't remember now. :) So here's what I came up with...and Josh has a pretty good attitude about following along :).
We are going Vegan for a month.
I am not going to be a nazi about it, but I am trying really hard to stick with it even when Iam out and about. I am currently planning vegan menus and have been really surprised by how many recipes we already eat that are vegan (or can easily be made vegan). I've got some new recipes to try too. I am also working really hard on consuming more water (one of the things that helped me loose weight before) and stay away from excess sugar (no more desserts at every meal and fighting the soda battle). The boys are eating the same stuff as us with a couple of exceptions: Jackson doesn't seem to like soy/almond/rice milk so he'll probably stick with the 1%. Owen is a HUGE fan of the yogurt sticks and the fact that he is my slightly picky eater means that sometimes, a boy just has to eat what a boy will eat. 
I've recorded my weight and my cholesterol levels for a starting point and am curious to see how they change in the coming month. I will be trying to add some activity/exercise to the daily grind also. 
I'll keep posting stuff as the days go by and let you know how the struggle  battle change in lifestyle is flying by!