It feels good to be healthy!

 I never really knew what I was good at. I always just assumed I wasn't really good at anything. I now know I'm good at being a mom, no I'm GREAT at being a mom. I always knew I would be a mom I just didn't know how much it would change me, for the better of course. Prior to being a mom I ate very unhealthy.

Anika was born on December 31st 2009.

1 day old

She is perfect and makes me want to be a better, healthier person. Breastfeeding was the first choice I made that put me into this lifestyle. Throughout my entire pregnancy I told everyone that asked that yes I would breastfeed, and I stuck to it. Unfortunately, when Anika was 4 weeks old she was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy. Since I was nursing that meant that I had to remove ALL dairy products from my diet, I couldn't even have bread if milk was in it. I cried, a lot! All I ever ate was dairy products. A typical day was cereal with milk for breakfast, pizza for lunch and something cheese related for dinner. It took about 2-3 weeks for me to realize it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, and now I couldn't even imagine eating cheese or drinking milk!

3 months old

Then, when she was 3 months old my husband and I made the decision to cloth diaper her, and I am SO glad we did! We have saved so much money by doing so. We initially spent about $75 for her cloth diapers and haven't had to spend a penny since.

5 months old

At around 5 months we began discussing what we would feed Anika when she was allowed to have solids. We decided that baby-led weaning would be the best choice for our family. If you're not sure what baby-led weaning is click here. Which then led us to changing our own diets. We couldn't let our daughter eat some of the horrific things that we were eating! Ok, it wasn't that bad, but not good enough for her. So we started eating healthier. The more I researched healthy food choices the more interested I became. I couldn't believe some of the things we were putting into our body. We watched the movie, Food Inc. and everything changed. I no longer wanted to eat beef and we would only buy the best chicken we could find.

Anika's first birthday!

Fast forward to December 2010. I decided that I wanted to try to eat vegan as a new year resolution. So on January 1st 2011 I began eating vegan. Not to say that I haven't eaten meat since then, I have. When we go out to eat, I will order chicken. But I really prefer to eat vegan. I just feel better now. I used to have stomach aches all the time and never really felt good and now I never get stomach aches! It feels amazing!

My family calls me a hippie. Well if breastfeeding, cloth diapering, eating vegan, and not using chemicals to clean makes me a hippie.... then I am PROUD to be a hippie!