8 to 4 in 20

  In December, Brandon, the girls, and I took a road trip to Texas, and after all the traveling and fast food, I just felt yucky and ready to commit to the lifestyle I've been wanting for awhile.  For a long time, I've felt that people eat too much animal products, and when they eat animal products, it's full of hormones, drugs, and who knows what. 
  After all the yucky fast food, I really wanted to detox but knew I couldn't since I still breastfeed 4-5 times a day (I'm still burning 500+ calories a day), so I decided to go vegan for 3 weeks, http://www.21daykickstart.org/.  I got the free app for my phone, and it had great recipes and ideas.  After a week of it though, reality hit.  Having 2 babies and a husband, I did not have time to cook 3 different meals for mealtime (I make MK's baby food), but after doing the vegan diet for a week, I felt really good and dropped a pants' size.  I needed to find a compromise.
  During the vegan week, I watched a few documentaries that I had heard about but never watched, Food Inc. and Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead.  Both supported how I felt, and I convinced Brandon to watch Food Inc.  After watching that, he saw my point of view, well at least in buying organic local animal products.  Even though he didn't watch the 2nd one, he bought me a juicer (I've been wanting one for a few years now).  Also during this time, my friend Danell told me about the GAPS diet, http://www.gapsdiet.com/.  I don't feel like I need to do the full blown diet but did agree that I needed more probiotics and with some of its eating techniques, like juicing.
  After all this nutritional information I came up with my own diet/way of life, and I got the juicer last week.  I have basically cut out all dairy except for homemade yogurt made out of organic raw whole milk and few store bought probiotic drinks, Bio Salud (88 cents at Walmart!) and Lifeway's kefir.  I also try to limit my meat and other animal products to one serving a day.  The rest of the day is filled with fruit, veggies, whole grains, and homemade bread.  Here is a sample menu of my day:

1st thing in the morning, I juice all this and drink this and a probiotic.

 A few hours later, I eat either yogurt or oatmeal, both with local raw honey.

Then at lunch, I have this or with sandwich:

 For an afternoon snack, I juice something like this or something more veggie based:

 And this is my typical dinner.  See the small portion of meat!

 And my dessert if I need something sweet.

  For some reason if I'm still hungry in between all this, I eat nuts, more fruits or veggies, or homemade oatmeal cream pies (not healthy at all but oh, well) or other homemade treats.  If I'm thirsty, I drink water or almond milk.  Even though I've only done this for a week, I feel great (still tired after chasing babies all day) and dropped another pants size! 

  Now, I'm not becoming a food snob b/c if someone offers to cook for me, I'll eat what they serve but not too often.  Example, last night I went out with my MOPS group.  We had lasagna, cheesecake, and all sorts of bad stuff.  It was good, but honestly, I felt really bad.  I came home, drank a probiotic, and couldn't wait for my detox drink (apples and carrots) in the morning. 

 I hope I can keep up with new lifestyle and hope the rest of my family will willingly join me.