Steps to Healthiness

Since I started dating my husband, I've put on some extra pounds. And that was extra sad for me because I was already on the heavy end of my normal over-weightness. In some ways this was good for me because, unlike other short-lived romances, there is no voice in my mind telling me my weight had anything to do with his attraction. But, after a year, I'm more comfortable with his view of me and my view of my self.

Then, after our wedding, we gained a little more together. Not much, but just enough to remind me of the newly-wed weight that so many people develop, but I could not afford. It was no longer a matter of vanity. As we talked about our hopes and dreams of children, we realized that we're getting a late start and we need to take our health seriously. Because:

1) We want to have a chance of keeping up with the energy of our children.
2) I want to decrease the amount of joint and back pain I deal with so I can play with my kids.
3) We want to live to play with our grandchildren and hold our great-grand children.
4) We don't want to look like the old tired parents at play group and birthday parties!
5) I don't want to be a high risk pregnancy.
6) I want my babies to be healthy as far as I have control.

Well, the list could go on. We've always taken walks, but I've noticed the more I exercise, the more I eat, so I needed to change what I ate. We've tired a few things and for some reason, cutting our meat intake has been really helpful. We're not vegetarians, but days can go by before we eat meat. We were inspired by Graham Hill's TED talk.

Here are come thoughts on that:

1) It costs less to buy more veggies and less meet. (We're trying to learn to live on his income alone.)
2) My rice cooker is awesome at cooking rices, barley, quinoa, etc. which has increased our eating less-processed grains that go great with all the veggies!
3) Casey's not a huge fan of potatoes, so I'm also getting less starch. 
4) Did I mention that food costs less without meat or less meat?
5) We both lost weight in the past month, especially around our middles.
6) Both of our digestions are working better and we can tell when we've have meat 2 meals in a row!
7) When we eat meat, we enjoy it, but need less of it to be satisfied.
8) We're discovering new, easy ways to prep food as well as new foods (like, quinoa!). 


We're hardly doing a scientific test or anything. We're just trying to be more mindful and see how we can do less. We already took vitamins, and I eat more meat and dairy then him (because I want it more), but that's probably okay since I'm trying to get pregnant and I'm still loosing weight.

I will let you know how things progress.