What started it all....

Here's the story in as much of a nutshell as possible.

My first encounter wanting to change my lifestyle was watching an Oprah about how animals are treated in our typical American farm. It impacted me. I was 8 months pregnant with my second child, and remember being very emotional as I told my husband about the show. I think I even cried...but that could have been the hormones. I have always believed (and still do) that animals are put on this earth to help us have nutrients, and that we are supposed to eat animals....sparingly. But did I truly eat them sparingly? NO! In fact, I was raised in the south, on your typical meat and potatoes diet. We ate meat every night. So after telling my husband about this, I decided I wanted to start small and at least buy cage free eggs. To my surprise, my husband said, OK! So....we've been doing that for about a year.

Fast forward a few months to where I found out that my second child (the same child who was, as mentioned before, in the womb) was allergic to dairy and soy that I was eating in my diet. (I was breastfeeding) He was having horrible tummy issues including bloody stool that would not go away until I cut dairy/soy out of my diet. I was addicted to cheese, and I knew it. How would I ever do it? But, I did. For a solid year. We later found out that he actually has a rare syndrome called Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome or FPIES. So, as a family, we had to make a lot of changes all at once.

Then, my husband got a new job. One working in a preventive health clinic called Pro Health Lab in Park City counseling people about exercise and diet to prevent disease. And he had recently stopped eating chicken all together (I won't get into that one). So, we've talked a lot about being vegetarians...could we do it? How?

Then, he said to me one night, "I like the idea of a cheating vegetarian". And, I thought, me too!!! So, here I am.

I don't know if I'll ever take that plunge. We'd like to incorporate more fish into our diets, less red meat, and he may never want chicken again, who knows?? But, I want to experiment more with this...so I'm starting this blog. I Hope in some ways it will make you think...could you do it? And if you're already doing it...good for you! I support that, and admire it too. And in the mean time, we'll all share some fabulous recipes!!