Foody post
ok, a bit of a more cheery post than that one below (although I suppose it is helpful to write things down, I hate being down constantly on the blog).
I meant to blog my decision to become vegetarian when I first decided about 6 weeks or so ago but I never got round to it. So for those that don’t know: ‘My name is Kirsty and I now no longer eat meat!’ 
I’ve often thought about being veggie again (I was veggie at school) but had always talked myself out of it on the ethical side as I never felt it would make as much of a difference to animal welfare as buying good quality meat would. It wasn’t as if I never liked the taste of meat, I did, so i kept on.
When james went to the doctors last month and was told he had high blood pressure it made me think about our diet (I constantly think we eat badly!!) and I knew we had to do something. I googled (as I do about anything!!) and saw that vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure and asked James if he thought it was a good idea, he agreed and my decision was made. James lasted about half a day and had chicken sandwich or something to which I said: ‘ that’s not very vegetarian is it?’ and he replied ‘but I’m allowed fish and chicken aren’t I? Otherwise I’d be vegan’ Hmm *rolls whole head*. He hasn’t done very well since (why on earth did he say he’d do it in the first place - was it one of those Homer Simpson moments where he was just agreeing while thinking about donuts??) but I’ve decided I’ll stick to it and since I cook all our main meals will be veggie so I suppose he’ll benefit a bit.
Have to say I’ve really enjoyed it so far. Such a far cry from being at school and my mum feeding me chips and a veggie burger all the time. No wonder I didn’t stick to it. We’re still trying to figure out meals we’ll all enjoy. M is very fussy with food and tbh it’s taken ages to get him to eat what he does like now, but mostly his faves are spag bol (made a nice one the other day with mushrooms instead of mince which we all loved), pizza, boiled eggs and pasta and tom sauce so don’t think should be too bad and certainly no worse than normal in trying to get him to try other things.
Some of the sites I’ve found really helpful are Lucy’s Vegan Family House and also Vegan Dad. Lucy’s site has been such an eye opener for me and tbh I didn’t realise I had such strong preconceptions of how ‘weird’ and ‘extreme’ a vegan diet was until I started reading about it. But I started looking at the recipes and thinking how fab they all looked and sounded and realised how wrong I was. I actually think I’d like to aspire to being as animal free in my own diet now (again for both health and ethical resons), but am taking it all a step at a time. I don’t really eat cheese that much anyway, in fact normally only on pizza and I’ve even given that up (I have sesame seeds on instead of cheese now if I do make it for myself) so it’s really only milk, yoghurts and eggs. Eggs will probably be the only sticking point, but we’ll see. Oh actually - chocolate!! That’s the hard bit. I’m trying to wean myself away from milk chocolate and develop a taste for plain which I’ve always hated so far. It’s working a bit Anyway, I’m not in any real rush to change.
I guess one of the best things about it all is that i’m trying so many new things. I’m a really fussy person when it comes to food, (M certainly takes after me!!) that I can sit in a rut for ages but this has made me have to try new things and it’s been great. Not to mention that I’ve managed to lose half a stone since starting it (I was doing WW too before my hol - not since coming back but in the weeks on hol and since coming back have lost another 2 lb). Now if I can just lose the rest I’ll be happy 
Any veggie recipes, especially ones that kids seem to love will be really appreciated!
One of the other things we’re going to be starting doing is cutting out Aspartame and sweetners in the kids diets. I was always dithering about what way to go on it as I never saw any Hyperactive effects on the kids. One of the deciding factors of my starting to *not* worry about it was that M was having teeth problems and as he won’t drink just water we figured the sugar free drinks would be the best way to go.
However, lately one thing that has been getting me a little concerned is M’s constant worrying and anxiety in situations. I do really feel he’s not getting better with it as time goes by (if anything he’s worse) so I was looking into it and wondering if his diet could make it better. Seems Aspartame may cause anxiety so I’m figuring it’s got to be worth a go to see if it will make any difference to him. Will be starting it tomorrow (as kids had one last day of crap at my mums shop so I could brief her on it) and I’m going to try and keep a food diary. Will see how it goes, anything so I don’t blame myself for it (I keep blaming the moving about we’ve done although I’m sure it’s not the only reason). If anyone has any ideas on the anxiety then I’d be happy to hear that too
I suppose I just need to be brave and start asking people if they want to come round. I guess just sometimes it would be nice if someone went out of their way to invite us round to get to know them better and I can’t remember the last time that happened. So the cynic in me thinks it’s because I’m not worth getting to know better or that the kids are annoying as hell and noone wants them as friends for thier kids.
