Healthy Obsession #1: Vegan Diet

I grew up in a family that ate pretty healthy - my mom always cooked from scratch, we didn't eat processed foods, we ate lots of variety (from as far back as I can remember, my mom cooked meals from all over the world), and we ate lots of fruits and veggies.

Several years ago I decided I needed to challenge myself to do something crazy...something that would be very difficult yet doable. Naturally I chose a challenge in the realm of food since I love food, cooking and healthy eating. I chose to eat a purely vegan diet for one full month. I checked out stacks of books at the library about vegan eating and the vegan lifestyle and by the time I started my challenge, I was pumped! The month proceeded to be interesting, frustrating, fun, delicious, strange and downright difficult! My husband and boys didn't join me in the challenge so I was cooking two meals at every meal - a vegan one for me and a non-vegan one for my family. It was exhausting and by the time the month was over, I said good riddance to vegan eating.

About a year and a half after this challenge, I revisited the vegan eating; this time because I was looking for a way to help my husband get rid of his migraines. Because I believe food has so much to do with health, I thought maybe a diet change would help. You can find more about my story and loads of recipes on my vegan blog here http://veganizingfun.blogspot.com/. So, 5 years ago my husband agreed to try a vegan diet for 2 weeks. He discovered he loved it and felt better, lost weight, and reduced his migraines considerably. We found that meat is a trigger for his migraines so he still eats it on occasion when we are with family or friends but our diet at home consists of a mainly vegan diet. Though eating vegan is not the only way to eat in a healthy way, I love to cook and eat vegan foods and feel it is the best way for us to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle. I will be sharing vegan tips and recipes on this blog...so even if you aren't interested in being purely vegan, you may find vegan recipes are delicious!