I'm always fascinated with how my body goes in these cycles of ebbs and flows. I'm pretty in tune with my body and constantly tweak my diet so I give my body what it needs.

I started this blog when I decided to give veganism a try for one month. That month turned into a six month relationship with veganism and for my son it lasted for two years. In that time I learned a lot about what foods make me feel good and what foods don't. My son learned to stick with his convictions towards the food industry- for him it was more about ethics and animal rights. He also learned that his body wasn't getting all that it needed with a vegan diet, especially as an athlete. He was having to take lots of supplements. I personally feel that if you have to fill your body with a bunch of synthetic supplements that you need to change your diet so your body gets what it needs from food. I also decided that there are certain things that I enjoy too much to give up, mainly wine and cheese. Those two things alone give me a lot of pleasure and I want them in my life:) So neither of us are vegan anymore.

The differences that Kev has experienced are amazing! Just adding eggs to his diet has made him stronger, less sick (something he has struggled with for three years), and is taking incredible amounts of time off of his swim races.

Tristan also informed me a few days ago that he is not vegetarian any more. He does not want to search meat out to eat but if someone cooks it for him, mainly when he is at a friend's house, he will eat it. I love that my kids are able to make those decisions for themselves and we honor and support those things the best we can. Being that his dad eats meat he won't have to look far if he really wants it.

Over the last couple of months I've been learning more about diet and nutrition; for me it is an ongoing quest, a sort of passion. My body is once again going through a cycle where it is craving something more. Over the last 15 years of being "vegetarian" about 7 of those years have been pescetarian, meaning I ate seafood during those years. It's been a year here and there, as I really just try and listen to what my body needs. I'm once again feeling like I need to add seafood to my diet (it's been four years since I last ate fish). One of the reasons, having nothing to do with how I feel, is that we are trying to move towards a more self-sustainable lifestyle, at least with the food part. Within a few years I would like to be able to only depend on the grocery store for grains and legumes and an occasional treat. Salmon is a readily available food source for us and extremely easy to get for pennies.

I may change the blog name, we'll see. I don't want to misrepresent. I will still mostly be posting vegan recipes, as vegan dinner meals are still more frequent than vegetarian meals but I want to concentrate on HEALTH! I want to start posting more tidbits on research and share more about general health and I want to post on my slow transformation to self-sustainability. I have always had a hard time with the vegan and raw food culture, mostly because they seem to be so black and white: if you don't eat this way you will die or get cancer! I think there needs to be balance in one's life; it's like Kevin from Alaska Center of Acupuncture said to me this week, "It's about what we eat six days out of the week that matter." You could say it's what you eat most of the time that matters.

So stay tuned! I really want to concentrate on this blog v. my regular one, simply because I have FB to update everyone on my life:)