Day 2 At Home

  Yesterday was our first full day at home of eating meat free. My husband and I searched online for recipes for the rest of the week. I went shopping and I spent around $100 on all the groceries for the week.

For breakfast I had a green smoothie containing spinach, pineapple, mixed berries, orange juice, honey and low fat greek yogurt. It was delicious.

For lunch I had a bean and rice burrito with pico de gallo salsa, sour cream and sharp cheddar cheese.

                                              My children had minestrone from Trader Joe's.

To top it off we made a delicious Vegetable Meatloaf (recipe link on my homepage). We found the recipe on +MyRecipes.com! It did not taste like meatloaf yet it was rather pleasantly tasteful. Both my kids and husband loved it but my daughter's friend who was over wasn't fond of it. Today I am feeling very energetic. My son has started to sleep better at night as well. So far this diet is proving positive.

Day 1

Last meat dinner

First vegetarian dinner

Today was the first day of eating vegetarian. We had a huge dinner last night at Kyoto Japanese restaurant in Santa Barbara! Matt, Zoie and I had steak while Kaleb got chicken. It was a great way to end our meat eating days.
Today for breakfast I had oatmeal with strawberry and banana yogurt and a bagel with cream cheese. For my birthday lunch since we were on the go we ended up having ice cream at McConnell's in Santa Barbara, CA. I had a delicious salted caramel chip, the kids had Cookie Dough and Matt had peanut butter, butterscotch and death by chocolate.
For an early dinner we stopped in Ventura at Nature's Grill. Zoie had a bean burrito on a whole wheat tortilla. Kaleb had pasta with butter and parmesan cheese. Matt had a Zen Burger with a rice and veggie patty. I had a Buddha Burrito which had brown rice, pinto beans, jicama, cauliflower,  broccoli and cheese served with enchilada sauce. We all finished our meals.
We are feeling great but because we ate so early we are hungry again. I'd say overall we are feeling good.

Apprehension Sets In

March 16, 2013
As the day approaches I am getting more and more anxious to start this new diet. I am a bit apprehensive about beginning on Monday now that I know I will be gone most of the day. This diet will be easy to control while at home. While we are away from home is when the temptation of veering off will strike hardest. Especially with three young children. I am doing my best to research Vegetarian restaurants but unfortunately there are not a lot of choices where we are traveling and it will be our first day of the diet. It looks like a supermarket trip to load up on goodies will have to suffice. A change in plans and we will try to be home early enough for me to cook our first vegetarian dinner.

To a healthy heart

My daughter told me this morning that she will try this diet but she isn't sure about it. I am glad she is being honest with  me about this. I think it will be hardest for our children because they are not really being given any say in this decision. One other thing is trying to have our children stick to this vegetarian lifestyle while away from home. My daughter often spends the night at friend's houses so this may be an issue. I truly want my whole family to keep on this vegetarian regime 100%. I will definitely be going to my brother for advice on recipes and how to stay true to this change. He has been on a vegetarian diet for the past several years now. Although on occasion he has been known to venture off but that is few and far between and mainly only when he visits Southern California. There seems to be a lack of vegetarian cuisine where we live.

About Me and My Journey

My name is Kristin Ward. I am turning 30 in a mere 3 days. I am married with 3 beautiful children and 2 beautiful dogs. I am a born and raised Southern Californian. I was raised shopping till I drop, going to the beach and living adventures. While on the go we would eat a lot of fast food. My dad was a meat and potato's kind of guy and I married a man that follows suit. This is about my journey with my family to change our eating ways.

My husband and 2 oldest kids
Excalibur in Las Vegas
February 16, 2013

I have lived a lifestyle that consists of the typical American Diet until now. Well in reality on March 18 (my 30th birthday) my family and I are changing our diet to become Vegetarians for 365 days. I am starting this blog to share my experience on this monumental change in our lives. My husband and I decided to make this lifestyle change after watching the Documentary "Forks over Knives" (directed and written by Lee Fulkerson). My husband, who up until now would refuse to eat a meal if it did not have meat in it, offered up this challenge. I quickly agreed and set a start date, my birthday. My goal is to post every day about what I eat, how I feel and how the diet is effecting my family.

This challenge is not only to change our eating habits I am also including a challenge for myself to lose weight. I gave birth to my youngest child 6 months ago and am struggling to lose the weight I gained during pregnancy. I guess this would be a good place to introduce my children. Zoie is my oldest and is a 6 year old girl who enjoys Martial Arts. She is a Purple belt in the American Taekwondo Association as well as trains at our Church. My second child is my son Brodie. He is 3 years old and is a whirlwind of energy and amusement. My youngest is Khloie and as mentioned above she is 6 months old and is a complete Momma's girl. My entire family trains at our Church in the Martial Arts ministry. Our dogs are both pit bulls. The oldest is all white with black spots named Chopper and the younger is champagne and white named George.