Welcome to the World, Reis! (6 months belated)

On May 8, 2013 at 7:19pm, after 19 hours of labor, our world changed forever. Reis Chamberlin Smith weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 inches long.

So, what is life like now? Pretty chaotic, as I’m sure you can tell. It’s been almost 8 months since we have written anything! Reis is almost 6 months old now and he seems to grow and learn new things daily. We are lucky that he is a very happy baby!

Unfortunately though, Reis is not vegan right now. I started out trying to breastfeed him. I won’t go into all of the details, but it was quite the ordeal. Reis was considered to be underweight and they had to check his blood sugar regularly to see if he was getting anything. His blood sugar stayed low and they had to supplement with formula. Not a single drop of colostrums or breast milk ever came out. We tried it all, and nothing worked.

For the first 4 weeks, he was a pretty miserable little guy. We ended up figuring out that he has a milk protein allergy. So, we went to soy formula. He also developed an allergy to that. He is now on a formula that is made of milk, but the protein is broken down so that he is able to digest it. He has become a totally different baby since starting this. The crying stopped within days. Thank god for science!

Reis’ doctor thinks that he will outgrow these allergies by the time that he is a year old. I have a suspicion that he will always have a tough time with dairy. He recently developed bronchiolitis and I have read that this can also be a result of a milk allergy. It is also a sign that he could develop asthma. Avoiding dairy is a common thing for asthmatics. So, Reis will become vegan as soon as we can manage it.

I am going to request that allergy testing be done on Reis once he is old enough. We will move forward with food choices for him after that. We have agreed that Reis will eat vegan as much as we can control it. We won’t get upset if he has something that isn’t vegan (as long as it isn’t causing a reaction). We are hoping that educating him about why we eat this way will help him to make choices of his own when he is older. Basically, our plan is just to try our best.

As for me, I’m still a work in progress. I’ve been mostly vegan since Reis was born. However, I haven’t been the healthiest lately. Since Reis was born, I’ve lost 35 of the 38 pounds that I gained. The last few pounds seem to want to stick around. I’m working on not making excuses and getting back to a whole foods, plant based diet. I just purchased the Eat to Live Cookbook by Dr. Fuhrman and it’s been inspiring me to get back on track. I’ll write a review of some of the recipes shortly.

Are there any mommies out there who need to get back on track, too? Maybe we could start our own little group to support each other and give ideas. Leave a comment if you are interested!

Farm Sanctuary, Watkins Glen, September 2013

Confession Time!

Because we haven’t posted anything in ages, we haven’t had a chance to announce that we are expecting our first child in the beginning of May! We do not know if it is a boy or a girl. So far, it has been a fairly easy pregnancy, but here is where the confession comes….

Hello, my name is Jessica and I’m a cheese-a-holic.

For the first two trimesters, I fell off of the Vegan wagon. I cannot explain in words the exhaustion and nausea that I felt in the first trimester. I didn’t want to eat anything at all, but just the thought of vegetables made me sick. Of course, that’s the worst food aversion possible for a vegan. If I didn’t eat, the nausea just got worse. Thankfully, I never had any actual morning sickness. Some days I thought it might have been better, though.



I used all of this as an excuse and started eating dairy and eggs again. Am I mad at myself for this? Of course I am. However, I refuse to beat myself up over it. That isn’t going to help or change anything. I know myself well enough to know that if I do that, I’ll never get back to veganism.

I started to feel better in the second trimester, but the addictive properties of dairy had their hold on me. Also, by this point, our friends and family knew that I had gone back to a vegetarian diet. It was hard to tell them that I changed my mind… again. So, I continued eating this way and feeling guilty.

A funny thing happens when you’re pregnant. The opinions and concerns of others seem to make you worry more, especially if it comes from a medical professional. For example, I asked my doctor at my first appointment if I could continue running. I had heard from other runners that it was okay as long as you were already running regularly. My doctor actually told me no! He said that I would be putting the baby at risk for having a low birth weight. I now know that this isn’t true and I should have trusted my own instinct and research. When someone tells you that you will hurt your baby, and that person is a doctor, you will believe them.


So, then came the nutrition lecture. At my doctor’s office, they require all pregnant women to sit down with a Registered Nurse to discuss nutrition, things to avoid, family history, etc. They also weigh you at this visit which made me mad, but that’s another story. Josiah didn’t come with me to this appointment. When I told the nurse that I didn’t eat meat, I thought her head would explode. So, to make up for it, I told her that I drank milk. I still haven’t drunk any actual cow’s milk, but I figured that she didn’t need to know that this was of the plant variety. She immediately sent 100’s of doubts into my mind. I should have known better because I am aware of how little education they receive on nutrition. Funny enough—despite the pressures she laid on me to eat meat—when she went on to explain all of the foods that I should avoid most of them were meat and seafood. I wanted to make a smart comment, but I kept my mouth shut.

What has gotten me headed back towards veganism? An old friend of mine contacted me with questions and needed advice after watching Vegucated and Forks over Knives. This girl was the queen of bacon and cheese. She seemed really motivated and excited and it reminded me of why I first chose this lifestyle. Another thing was an image that I saw on Pinterest. It said “The reason people awaken, is because they have finally stopped agreeing to things that insult their soul.” What the hell was I doing!? I had gone against everything that I believed in. I consider Veganism to be like a religion to me and I had abandoned it. I have a strong desire to raise our children to respect all living things and I wasn’t doing it myself.


Then there is the health aspect. I can’t think about it too much right now, because it freaks me out. Actually—not going to lie—the whole having a human inside of me thing freaks me out. However, I’ve also been reading Happy Herbivore’s blog every day. She has always inspired and motivated me, but it seems to be more so now that I need to stay healthy for my baby. Luckily the vegetable aversion has gone away by now. I’ve also noticed that my weight gain has slowed significantly now that I’m not eating dairy and eggs.

I suppose I should mention that I never went out and bought gallons of milk, dozens of eggs, or pounds of cheese. I was consuming these things in foods at restaurants or foods that were already prepared. In other words, crap that I shouldn’t have eaten anyway. I can make all of the excuses in the world, but I will never say that it was out of laziness. I honestly did not feel like myself. My whole body felt out of whack and it was as if I wasn’t even in it anymore. I was lucky to stay awake for an entire day. Feeling that tired just made it seem okay to reach for the first food item that sounded even remotely appetizing.

I’m going to face a few struggles going forward. They are all social issues, which are the hardest for me. Right before finding out that I was pregnant (7 days before to be exact), I accepted my dream job. By the time that I started, four weeks later, I was eating as a vegetarian. This job is in a less rural area than the last one and the way that I eat seems completely alien to everyone there. I’ve had to remind people who try to get me to eat something with meat in it numerous times that I’m vegetarian. It’s gotten to be almost awkward. Yesterday I lied and said that I had errands to run on my lunch break to avoid the conversation of why I couldn’t eat the subs that someone had brought in. I’m such a chicken sometimes. I obviously need to work on my backbone again.

Another thing that I need to remember is to plan better! Just the other day we went to a family event and I hadn’t planned anything to bring. I brought some vegan blueberry bread, but that wasn’t enough for a whole meal. I ended up eating a very small quantity of the vegetarian foods just to be polite. Next time, I’ll remember to make some more food. I blame pregnancy brain.

Josiah and I have every intention of raising this child as vegan as we possibly can. I’ll even be that mom who brings a separate cupcake to parties if I have to. Luckily, the day care we have chosen has an excellent vegetarian menu and it should be easy enough to avoid the small amount of dairy in it. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. We have decided that we will not freak out if our child eats something that isn’t vegan. As we have mentioned before, we live in a relatively small town and not many people know what vegan means. Adults around here also LOVE to give children treats. I’m sure that’s everywhere, but I’m just starting to notice it. So, it’s bound to happen. I’m sure that this is going to be a huge learning process and our philosophy may change along the way. This is where we are starting and I’m really excited about it.

It feels good to be back.

A Change in Direction...

After two weeks, I've decided to change my course slightly. This week was pretty rough in a few areas. Work has been crazy so that hasn't helped my stress levels at all. And then there's the food.... We used the dehydrator a lot this week. It's really nice and it works wonderfully. However, a majority of the food that we prepared in it, was nut and seed based. We made bread, burgers, and pizza crust that all had a lot of flax meal in them. Very rarely have I felt any worse than after eating these types of food. They make me absolutely nauseous. In fact, I took some pretty good pictures of the burgers and I don't even have the stomach to include them in here. They all tasted fine, but they did not make me feel fine. Maybe it's just my system and I don't have a good tolerance for large amounts of these foods. I also wonder, if a majority of my protein is coming from nuts and seeds, how much do I have to eat to meet my requirements? I am drinking a Vega smoothie daily, but I still need a lot of protein after that. I just feel gross. I never got that marvelous feeling that is supposed to come from a raw diet.

So, like I said, I've decided to make a change. I'm still going to be eating a large amount of raw fruits and vegetables. I'm just going to allow myself to eat whole and cooked foods. I guess you could say that I'm going to stick with an Engine 2 type of diet, with large amounts of fresh produce (For more information about this just Google "whole plant based diet", "Engine 2", "Caldwell Esslestyn", or "The China Study"). Oh and I'm going to continue with smoothies because I think that the Engine 2 idea that they are unhealthy is ridiculous. Basically, I'm not going to be eating processed foods with no nutritional value. I'm also going to be cutting oil down to a minimum. The raw diet allows for oil, but I just can't get on that bandwagon.

I also just got Brendan Brazier's new book, Thrive Foods. He doesn't necessarily call for a 100% raw diet, so there is a good mix of raw and cooked recipes in there. I'm really excited to try out the raw banana bread that is made in the dehydrator. It doesn't call for any nuts or seeds! I promise I'll take pictures of some of these recipes and actually post them.

I have accomplished a lot in the past two weeks, though. I've kicked my coffee and diet coke habit most importantly! I'm going to have to make sure to stay on track with this one. I know how easy it is to start up again. I also have no desire to eat fried and processed junk which were some of my biggest weaknesses before. I'm also craving kale and black eyed peas like you would not believe! If I had some in the house, I'd make it up right now and it's only 10am. So, I'd dare say that I did "reset" some things in my body.

Overall, I'm not disappointed with this experiment. I learned some things and I don't think that it's a failure. I'm just going to keep the fresh produce and add in other healthy plant based meals. I'll continue to post about this adventure but I'm not doing it for a set number of days. I'm trying to make that healthy lifestyle for myself so that I can continue to work on my food issues.

Thoughts From the First Week

I'm a little short on time, so I'm not going to type out everything that I've eaten since the last post. I just want to share a few thoughts from the week.

Overall, I'm feeling really good. I haven't been overly hungry or feeling deprived at any point. There have been a few times where I have eaten foods that definitely aren't raw, but I haven't let that derail me like it would have in the past. I feel like the mental fog is going away slowly. It's still there a bit in the mornings. Oh and not counting calories? It's the best thing that's ever happened to me! I feel so much better about myself and I don't feel like I'm in a constant state of panic.

I've also had some really amazing food over the past week. I tried kelp noodles for the first time yesterday. They have a strange texture, but they are really good! The dehydrator arrived on Tuesday and so far we have made rye flat bread, buckwheat granola, marinated vegetables, kale chips, and we marinated and dehydrated some tofu. We also made our first batch of chocolate blueberry energy bars from one of the Thrive books. We have been so busy and I forgot to take pictures! I'll try to get better about that next week!

In more important news, my mom is turning into a veggie! She has read some of my favorite books and is horrified at the meat and dairy industry. So, she is trying really hard to transition to the vegan lifestyle. She and I went to a vegan cooking class on Saturday (I'll get into that further in a separate post) and tomorrow we are going grocery shopping in Ithaca because they have a better selection of vegan options. I'm so proud of her!

We slacked a little in our exercise this week, but today I ran 4 miles after a raw breakfast and I felt pretty good. Within this next week, we are going to make an effort to go to the gym more. Although, even with the small amount of exercise, my body fat percentage is already down 1%. I've tried the raw thing before, and I've always given up after a few days. This time it feels differently. I'm still motivated and I'm feeling really good. I'm still getting into the swing of it with preparing all of this food, but I'm having fun doing it!

Once Upon a Time....

All good stories start with that phrase, right? I'm three days in and I haven't withered away! I've had a few headaches and I've been a little tired, but nothing too terrible.

Monday's are always rough for me. Obviously just the fact that it's Monday, but I also leave the house at 8:30am and I don't return until about 10pm because I have class. This week we gave our presentations for our first project. So, I was a little anxious about that. We did a great job, though! Afterwards, I was absolutely drained. I was going to go to the gym, but I knew that would be dangerous. I wasn't feeling too hungry at any point in the day until I got home from school.

Oh and the teacher brought us chocolate for Valentine's Day.... and at one point I had to stand there holding it for everyone. Talk about torture!!

Monday's Food Journal
Breakfast:
She Glows Oats - a recipe from Everyday Happy Herbivore. It's mostly raw, it just has some coconut milk in it.
1 banana
Snack:
1 serving of "raw" almonds - I'll discuss the quotation marks around "raw" shortly
Lunch:
Large salad with avocado and chick peas, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice for dressing
3 kiwis and some blueberries
Dinner:
1 apple
1 pear
Some baby carrots, cucumber, and red pepper:
1 larabar - these are mostly raw. Some people disagree over how raw they are, but it's good enough for me.
After school snack:
Carrots with hummus and some more almonds

On to Valentine's Day - It was a crazy day at work. I had a strong urge to snack mid morning. I'm pretty sure this was because of boredom and because it was Valentine's day, I felt that I deserved a treat. I didn't want my lunch right at lunch time and then I got called out to a home visit. By the time I got back to the office it was 3pm and I had a major headache. I ate my gazpacho, and I felt much better. My co-workers were also insanely jealous of this meal. They said that I made them want to go eat a cucumber. Not a bad thing! Dinner was also excellent and I was still full 2 hours later. Then of course was dessert because it was a special day. The "nutella" and berries was amazing!! I also had the best night's sleep. I definitely needed that.

Tuesday's Food Journal
Breakfast:
A tofu yogurt with a banana and raw granola - The yogurt recipe is also from EHH. The tofu isn't raw, but the rest was.
Snack:
Apple and some almonds
1 Larabar - no wonder I wasn't hungry for lunch
Late lunch:
1 pear
gazpacho
Baby carrots
Dinner:
Spinach scramble - from one of Ani Phyo's books
Dessert:
Strawberries and chocolate hazelnut kreme - tasted like Nutella!

Josiah and I also went to the gym tonight. I ran 1 mile and did 30 minutes of weights.

Oh,and I got flowers!


Wednesday, so far, has been a pretty exhausting day. I was out for home visits all day and we are in the process of switching offices. Everything just feels like a mess. I'm better now that I'm home, though. I saw this quote today on Pinterest and it reminded me of this journey I'm on. "Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off of the goal." I think I needed this for work, too.

On to my information regarding raw nuts. I've done some research and it appears that a majority of the nuts sold in the United States, even if they are labeled as being raw, really aren't. Apparently California law states that all almonds must be pasteurized. I read that almost all nuts, aside from walnuts, are pasteurized or steamed even if they are labeled raw. I'm not going to freak out about this. Just thought it was interesting. I've been eating a lot of nuts because I have them in my desk drawer at work. So, I might cut down a bit once those are gone.

Wednesday's Food Journal
Breakfast:
Smoothie made with Vega Complete Whole Food Optimizer, banana, cocoa powder, and ice
Snack:
Apple and almonds
Lunch:
Leftover spinach scramble
Salad
Kiwi
Baby carrots
Dinner:
Veggie wrap with raw hummus - see below!
Dessert:
Haven't had it yet, but I'm thinking a banana and some of that raw nutella!

The Veggie Wrap

Confessions of a Chronic Dieter

We’re back! We apologize for not posting in months! Things have gotten a little busy here. The holidays were insane, as they are for everyone, and I started my last semester of grad school in January. So far it’s been the most stressful one yet (I’ll go further into that soon). April 9th can’t come fast enough!

So, here is today’s confession: I’m a chronic dieter. Borderline disordered eating, actually. Before any family or friends go freaking out - that does not mean that I have an eating disorder! It just means that I’m obsessive about health, calories, exercise, weight loss, etc. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who knows me. I can’t eat a meal like a “normal person”. I constantly think about the calories, fat grams, and protein in the foods that I eat. If I eat something that is “bad” I dwell on it for the remainder of the day and a majority of the next. It’s actually my belief that 99% of American woman are like this. So, I don’t think I’m alone. This entire country has a crazy mentality over food and it’s getting old for me.

I’ve tried many diets. South Beach was the first diet book that I ever read and I actually bought into that crap! Mostly, I’ve just counted calories. I never became vegan for health reasons; it was only for ethical ones. However, I can’t say that I wasn’t excited about the possibility of it helping me to lose a few unwanted lbs. No one told me that there was so much vegan junk food out there! I’d say for about 60-75% of the time, Josiah and I eat very healthily. That doesn’t stop the obsessions, though.

This all brings me back to the stress. I’m physically exhausted from all of the stress in my life right now. It’s hard to even get out of bed. Stress from school, stress from work, stress from diet obsessions, stress that the junk food has imposed on my body. I’ve recently read a lot about fatigued adrenal glands. I honestly think that mine are worn out. I believe that emotional and dietary stress has contributed to this. If you haven’t read Brendan Brazier’s “Thrive” books, I highly recommend it. This is where I’ve been getting the information regarding stress.

So, what’s a girl to do?! Well first off, I’m making a pledge to not count calories for the next 90 days. I’m just going to forget about it. However, this does not mean that I’m going to just eat whatever I want. I simply could not handle that – which is pathetic, I know. I’ve decided that I’m going to eat 75% raw for the next 90 days as well. I’m keeping it at 75% because I’m not going to deprive myself. I’m still going to enjoy meals out with friends without freaking out over whether or not my food is cooked. That would just add more stress. I’ve decided to go raw for many reasons. The largest one of which is that raw food causes the least amount of stress on the body. It doesn’t take as much energy to digest which means that the body, and adrenal glands, can relax. This also means giving up coffee and diet soda. Bring on the headaches!

I actually do welcome the discomfort that I may experience at first, though. My body is tired of the way I have been treating it. Want proof? I’m 5’2.5” and I weigh approximately 121 pounds which is a healthy body weight. I exercise about 4 times a week which includes weight training. My body fat percentage however, is almost 32%! That is considered overweight. I’m “skinny fat” yet I work out regularly and eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than most people I know. It’s my hypothesis, based on my research, that dietary and emotional stress is what is causing this large amount of fat to stick around.

I can’t say that I’m going to stay raw forever. However, my body needs a reset. We’ll see how I feel for the next 90 days and go from there. Usually, I would not write about something like this. I need to keep myself accountable though, or I’ll give up after a week…. Or the first headache, which will probably happen tomorrow.

I’m also pledging to not weigh myself every day. I can’t guarantee that I won’t do it at all, but only when I feel like it. I am not doing this to lose weight! I’m doing it to get my body back to being healthy and to (hopefully) reduce my body fat percentage as it is not healthy.

For the next 3 months I will

• Eat 75% raw

• Give up caffeine, except for 1 cup of organic green tea a day

• Not count calories or obsess over food – I’m going to try my hardest!

• Attempt to control my emotional stress. Meditation and yoga anyone?

• Not weigh myself daily

• Try plenty of yummy new recipes

• Drink lots of fresh juice and smoothies

• Post regularly on my progress

• Continue to exercise regularly

Josiah and I also ordered a new dehydrator yesterday! I’m so excited about this, I can hardly contain it. We’ve had a dehydrator for a while, but it’s a cheap one that is a total pain in the butt. It’s not even worth getting it out most of the time. So we ordered a Tribest Life’s Sedona Dehydrator after reading plenty of reviews online. It’s supposed to be very quiet and its square shaped so it should be easier to use (ours is donut shaped and very awkward). I can’t wait to make yummy raw crackers, breads, and kale chips!

I’m not going to get into all of the benefits of a raw diet right now, but if you are curious, here are some links to sites that I have found to be informative:

Kristen's Raw: I love her approach and attitude!

Ani Phyo's Webpage: Her “cook”books are amazing and offer a large amount of information as well.

Loving It Raw: Lots of good information!

Choosing Raw: Not 100% raw, but lots of yummy recipes!

Wish my luck on my journey!