The First Week!

    

 I told my husband of my plans to convert the family to healthier eating. I didn't actually say "vegetarian". It's that whole 'break it to him gently' kind of thing. He agreed to healthier eating which pretty much means squeezing the grease of out of a burger before he eats it.

     My family and I went out shopping over the weekend. I didn't take it as a good sign when my husband was looking at a meat grinder attachment to our kitchen mixer but it's a work in progress and we are just getting started.

     I bought a lot of organic produce this week. My breakfasts consists of an avocado and quartered tomato drizzled with about a 1/4 tsp of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and some pepper. I thought it was going to be pretty hard to eat but I was pleasantly surprised. It was pretty good. I knew I would be hungry sooner than if I had eaten a big breakfast but it was pretty filling. I am working toward eating frequent small meals. I haven't been perfect in my eating and I kind of stressed out about it. I was forgetting a lot of things and that is when I realized I was becoming a little too obsessed with the whole healthier eating idea. All of my spare time was reading about food, alkaline food and the why grapefruits are better than apples. It got to be overwhelming. I had to slow down, take my time and learn to have fun with the changes. If my family sees me being stressed out about it, why would they want to do it?

     I told my daughter about eating less meat. She's 6. I told her about how cows are kept in chutes and get milked all day. I don't know how true that is but I know it's something like that. Anyway, she said it was sad but she couldn't give up cheese. Then she added that she loves ham too much to give it up. So maybe that will be her last meat to cut out, or maybe she won't. Like I said, I am not going to stress over it or make my family convert. A work in progress! (that is what I keep telling myself).

     So for this first week at working toward a new way of eating, we rented a water cooler. We get spring water which is more alkaline than tap or what is coming out of our filtered water from the refrigerator. I tested my purified water from the refrigerator with a pH strip and it was 6.8, acidic. I tested the spring water and it was 8.2, alkaline. Now I have read that 9.5 is the best for water but then I read to just add fresh lemon to your water and it makes it more alkaline. Anyone know if this is true?

     So we are drinking spring water, eating more organic fruits and vegetables but still eating meat. But I guess we need to add the good stuff and slowly omit the bad.

     Tonight, I made myself a wrap with avocado, tomato and alfalfa sprouts. I asked my husband if he would like one and he said, "Sure, but with a slice or two of ham and some cheese," followed by a chuckle. A work in progress.....