A Move Towards Healthy

**Word of warning: It was 1am when I wrote this, please excuse grammatical and spelling mistakes!**

Well, it's definitely been a while since I've been on here! I apologize! It was strange seeing that people still visited! So what have I been up to in the meantime? Well foodie friends, I am proud to announce that after many long hours and hard work, I am now an officially graduated baking and pastry chef!! 

See? I have proof.

But you know what the sad thing is? I'm trying to get healthier. This part is not sad. Healthy is ALWAYS a good thing. The sad part is that I just graduated with this degree in unhealthiness! Cupcakes, macarons, eclairs, croissants, and copious amounts of butter are not in my health plan...

See, in August 2010 I received a stem cell transplant, but soon after a lovely thing called Graft-VS-Host (GVHD) disease showed up. This is where my cells recognize foreign cells in my body (the transplant) and attack them, causing not-so-awesome side effects for me. It could show up literally anywhere in my body and it first showed in my skin and has stuck around for the past 2+ years. The solution to this? A lovely steroid called Prednisone. Well, if any of you are familiar with this drug, it really isn't so lovely. Long term consumption of it puts you at high risk for arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, muscles weakening, etc... So far I've escaped most of those, but have not escaped the lesser side effects, and thankfully the mostly reversible ones. Skin thinning, vein thinning (causing awful looking bruises with anything as soft as a feather...), super increased appetite (=weight gain!), mood swings, insomnia, and the list goes on. 

Now, imagine this increased appetite from the steroid...and going to culinary/baking school. Surrounded by the sweet aromas of creme brulees, pata choux, sizzling steaks next door in the Meat Fabrication class (a fancy name for butchering), and my personal favorite: ganache. Not many things smell better to me than butter and chocolate being melted by scalded milk... 

Well dear foodie friend, before I was put on prednisone, I weighed 145lbs. A very healthy weight for my 5ft 5in frame. I had ran and finished a half marathon in a little less than 4 hours! By the time I finished my 18 months at culinary school (with the addition of prednisone) I weighed in at a whopping 217lbs and got winded walking to the mailbox.

Christmas rolled around, and our annual trip to Florida to visit my grandma (dad's mom) came with it. My brother, Brandon, showed up in all his skinniness! I know he'd been increasing his activities and healthy way of living out in Seattle, but woah, he looked awesome! Super healthy! He was back down to his high school fitness, if not better! I wanted that for myself! So I started grilling him on diet tips and what he'd been doing! I knew he'd been doing the "kinda" vegan diet. "Kinda" because he would allow himself a cheat day here and there. (kind of like this TED talk by Graham Hill: Why I'm a Weekday Vegetarian) He also opened my mind to the world of juicing. I was intrigued. I started researching into it. I watched every documentary Netflix had on food: "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", "Forks over Knives", "Food Matters", "Hungry for Change", "Vegucated", all 14 of the TED talks they had about food in their "Chew on This" category... etc etc. The more I researched, the more it made sense to me. 

So without further adieu, I am proud to announce, after about 6 months of research, I'm finally making the switch over to the plant based, whole foods diet, starting with the 28-day Engine 2 Diet Challenge! I have also talked my husband into doing this with me! All of my good cooking has made him gain a few pounds as well... *ahem* And not to mention I kind of made him promise that he would always stay 5lbs heavier than me... yeaaahhhhh... Looking back, I blame prednisone for making me say that... 

**I've already been working on getting healthier since the beginning of 2013, and I'm so happy to tell you i've dropped down to under 200! Not by much though... This morning I weighed in at 199.8 haha!**

So, I'm ready and pumped about letting you all watch our journey through 28 days of plant based whole foods! We are starting this crazy excitement on Monday, May 13th, 2013! (We still get to cheat on Mother's Day, right??) Anyone want to join in? My goal is to post our progress as much as possible! Right now the overly ambitious voice in my head says, "Yah!! Post everyday!!", but the more rational side takes over and says, "Yah, that's not going to happen..." More likely it will be a minimum of two posts a week.

I so hope you will take this journey with me, and more importantly, help to keep me on track! I've got about 60lbs of prednisone to shed... Here we go!! And to track progress, we will start with a couple flattering "before" shots in my frumpy clothes:

(because frumpily clothed "before" shots always make the "after" shots look so much better ;))

And here is the body I want back:

!!Wish me luck!!