Veggie Mama

Happy Mother’s Day!
I hope your mother knows you appreciate them, or if you’re a mother I hope you feel appreciated.
I sure do! This morning, after sleeping in very late I woke up to kisses and hug, hand-drawn cards and a delightfully thoughtful gift, but I’ll get to that in a minute. For the rest of the day was amusing chaos as I watched Jason take on the bulk of the household/parental-drudgery. When he crumpled on the bed after saying goodnight to the children, I couldn’t help but feel simultaneous pity, awe, gratitude, and satisfaction. I think this has been the best Mother’s Day yet and I know my family loves me.

 As for the awesome gift, it starts with a story. Now stick with me- I’m not going to get all preachy and whatnot- I’m just going to tell it how it happened. About a year ago I was feeling pretty crappy about myself and life as a whole. I was having prolonged bouts of low grade depression, trouble with my weight, my skin, my energy level, and generally feeling yuck. I’d tried a number of methods to treat each individually, but needless to say, nothing worked.

 One day I was wandering through a book store as aimless as anyone could be without bumping into stuff, wondering what exactly I was going to do about it. Then I realized I was in the cook book section. I’m no chef. I follow the back of the box, thank you very much. But I was moved to pick up The Kind Diet but AliciaSilverstone (another weirdness since I’m definitely not the Us Weekly type). But cover bragged a forward by Dr. Neal Barnard, of whom I’d read several times. But what hooked me was inside read a list of everything that had been bothering me; all could be solved, allegedly, by eating a vegan diet with the processed sugar cut out. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t have tried at that point and the serendipity was a little much for me.

So I went for it. So how did it turn out? In two weeks I was feeling better than ever. Everything improved! It wasn’t perfect, but neither was I- but everything improved. I was feeling better than ever. Then life happened, stress happened, money didn’t happen, and I fell off the wagon. And trust me- the list of symptoms has reared its ugly head. It hasn’t been hard to stay vegetarian and that has been helpful, but it’s not a vegan-friendly world. It takes a conscious effort till you really get in the habit. Not to mention that while I have all the support imaginable, I’m the only one in the family doing this.
 I’ve known all this time that I wanted to get back in the boat, and in this recent burst of ambitious energy I’ve decided that now is the time. I’ve been prepping food differently for a couple of days and feeling pretty good about. I’ve been scouring the interwebs for good vegan blogs, and reading up on new cook books to try.

And just how supportive has Jason been with all of this? Look what he got me for Mother’s Day! The VEGENOMICON: The Ultimate VeganCookbook. No way am I eating these by myself! Now I'm really stoked. Step back! Mama’s in the kitchen! 

What did you do for your mother today/ what did your kids do for you? Have you ever been interested in eating vegan/vegetarian? 

Does This Sulking Make My Butt Look Big?

Plenty has happened, but nothing to entertain.
I'm self medicating: eye-balls deep in low-fat blueberry muffins from Dunkin' Donuts.

Guilty

GUILTY

So, yesterday I wrote this big ol' post about getting in shape and healthy vs the beauty cult, yadda yadda. It didn't make the cut.
The irony is that after I busted my butt (and abs and arms) doing Pilates yesterday...Today I'm eating a whole bag of potato chips. Jason said he'd take the kids and give me a break and, well, I couldn't help myself.
I do have clinical bipolar disorder (I don't know that I've mentioned that before) but I don't think I can blame this on it. Can I?

What's your guilty pleasure? Chocolate? French Fries? Hanson? My Little Pony: FIM?

P.S. OMG My Little Pony: FIM is on Netflix!

Take Me Back to Manhattan

Reunited With My Tribe

Sometimes, when life feels like it's spinning out of control and you can't find your footing, there's nothing like getting the hell out of Dodge. When I need to do just that, I take advantage of my New York Safety Net(work).
Saturday night we went out to dinner at Lillie's which was decked out in green and orange and blasting every Irish band except the Pogues (much to my dismay). The atmosphere of the overall establishment was a lot of fun. We all commented on the fun pictures, pretty sconces, and antique mirrors. If only they could have gotten the orders right. Though they managed to get my salad right, there wasn't much to mess up besides lettuce and parm. But giving credit where owed, the dressing was fantastic.
Afterwards, the girls decided to hit the cinema for John Carter . I'll be straight, it was not what I expected. It was a lot better. Fun and imaginative- that's what it was. I could say something about stereotypical space-chick clothing (coughprincessleiabikinicough) or the Deuce Ex Ma-nephew, but in the end, it's fun, imaginative, and entertaining. And that's the most important part, right?
We engaged in great conversation, played with ferrets, and dreamed about the future. Did we solve all my existential conundrums? No. But the world seems a whole lot steadier from switching up the view with some good friends.