Big Fine Changes

We've been pretty preoccupied around our house. Not with paint brushes, or furniture shopping or tile jobs. Nope, these changes are a lot more important to us, and are turning out to make a much bigger difference to us than a new paint color ever did.

Post Christmas/Pre New Years, PB and I had a pretty serious (and probably hungover) conversation about how, well, shit we were feeling. We'd had a pretty tough year, moving across the country, leaving our friends, our home, jobs we loved, to a city where we knew no one, to unpredictable jobs and to a new way of life. And to be honest, it was looking to us like it might not have been the best decision we ever made. But we're big kids. We'd made our bed and by god we were going to sleep in it. But we did decide we had to stop wallowing in said bed, and in particular, stop sulking in said bed, watching too much shit tv, eating too much crap food and drinking too much homebrew.

Enter a rather rash decision on December 29th to start Dr. Joshi's 21 day detox (no gluten, no wheat, no fruit, no meat, no dairy, no sugar, no caffeine, no booze) on January 1. We figured that at the very least we could take better control of our diet, our fitness and our overall health which we vainly hoped would translate to better overall balance and happiness (and at the very least would distract us from our pity party - or...give us something new to pity ourselves over). But the 21 day detox is old news now. We did it, it went shockingly great, we felt tonnes better but more importantly, it prompted us to have some serious (sober) conversations about related topics.

Enter the big fine changes I was alluding to.

WE'RE BECOMING DIRTY HIPPIES!!

Ok. Well, I'm not wearing patchouli oil YET, but being us, we've taken on good health like we would any other project, reading, research, watching of documentaries and the reading of many, many blogs and have concluded that we're going to be making some big decisions. Most shockingly, you'll note that I've not one time said "I". I've said "we". PB and I. In agreement. Without me threatening to adopt more dogs.

After our research and reading (which perhaps I'll give more detail on later), I've decided to return to a vegetarian diet, and PB is going to join me 99% of the time (and yes, this is on his own free will). PB may occasional enjoy local, humanely raised, grass fed, pasture raised meat, in support of local non-factory farmers when he can be confident of the origin of the meat, but we've both decided that we don't want anything to do with factory farming, or processed over preserved foods, or refined sugars, but want to eat whole foods, that give us the energy that we never believed we would have. I've given up diet coke, PB is off coffee (I was never a coffee drinker) and we wouldn't dream of bringing refined carbs in our home again. No fear...while I've suggested we buy Organic wine, I've made no suggestions that we abstain from the sweet wonderful nectar of grapes. PB likewise, finds nothing about Scottish produced whiskey offensive to his new lifestyle :)

In addition to our diet changes, we've really reinvested in our fitness. While we both USED TO BE (you know...if you haven't so much as jogged in 3.5 years, you can't really say you "run" anymore...) fit nuts, over the past three years we've relied on daily dog walks (which admittedly, are not the full body work out they once were..yea leash training!) to keep semi-fit. We can't believe how much better we're feeling since challenging ourselves again.

Of course, this new lifestyle is likely to going to spill over into other aspects of our lives, certain aspects that relate directly to the typical content of this blog. And while I thought about not sharing these new developments in our lives on this blog, I futher thought; what the hell, its my blog and quite frankly, I'm more excited about these changes then I have been about curtains or countertops in quite some time.

I by no means have any intention of becoming a food or exercise blogger, please, this is not the place I wish to remind myself how much the hot intense core yoga class kicked my ass, but it may be a place where I can share great finds as I try to figure out how to embrace this new lifestyle in all aspects of our life such as; how the hell am I going to correlate my love of riding boots with my disgust and horror of cow slaughter? And what great products out there are vegan, hippie friendly? And can we find a hair gel that properly tames PB's fro that hasn't been tested on animals?

And once I've discovered every vegan blog out there, I can return to pretty living rooms. Pretty living rooms that are leather free..wink.

Ps. Picture is from here...certainly not of us. Yet. While I am TOTALLY in love with my new yoga class, PB is worried its a bit froofy...unlike the Jillian Michael's DVD he's currently in love with (and kicking his/our ass(es)).