What would Jesus Eat?

Ok. So anybody that has come into contact with Mike or myself in the past 6 months (lol, I'm making it sound like I have a disease) has learned that we have a made a huge change in our everyday diets. We decided to become vegetarians.

For me, it started around the time that I was in grad school in 2007 when I stopped consuming certain things that freaked me out. First, I read in a magazine that Splenda could possibly be carcinogen. So...there goes Splenda. Shortly after the Splenda kick, I cut diet sodas from my diet as well. I don't drink them at all now. I started thinking about how I was consuming all of these products that weren't naturally put on this Earth by God. They are man made products that yes, may make you feel better because you aren't consuming as many calories but they aren't REAL. They are fake. Splenda is the spam of sweeteners.

So when I started realizing how easy it was just to say NO to these habits that I had slowly incorporated into my diet, I decided to keep going. I picked up a book (at Target, of course!) called Super Cleanse: Detox Your Body for Long-Lasting Health and Beauty.

It was a little pricey ($14.95) too be so small but it looked like a very informative book and a quick read so I bought it. I read the entire thing that night. I couldn't put it down! It began by taking you through the scientific ins and outs of the food that we put into our body. I'm going to quote the first paragraph of the book because it was one helluva hook and I fell for it.

Word on the Street: We are what we Eat:

"Food is the medicine that heals our bodies--if we are choosing the right things to eat. Some of the food we put on our table may be undermining our health in ways we don't even realize. Many of the fruits and vegetables in our markets are sprayed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and most meats are pumped up with antibiotics, hormones, and fungicides. when we ingest these chemicals, they can have a harmful effect on the body."

Yuck! And I'm thinking to myself, all these years I have been eating these things and because I couldn't see them, I didn't really pay attention to them. It went on to explain all the foods that we put into our body like sugar, flour, cheese, and processed foods that our body has a hard time digesting which clogs up our system while disabling our bodies ability to properly absorb nutrients and the minerals that it needs to be healthy. It just really opened my eyes to the fact that I have one life (duh, you think this light bulb would have gone off sooner. Don't worry it did-I've just been ignoring it) and I needed to start treating my body with respect. The more I treat it like crap, the rockier the road will be for me when I get old. Reality check!

So I stopped eating meat and stopped drinking coffee (now, it's green tea for me) Why coffee?

I've just read enough about the pesticides they spray on coffee beans, how coffee can hinder intestine absorption of much needed vitamins and minerals, and how taxing it can be on your liver (helllllo, my liver is still recovering from college!)

These were enough reasons for me. Bye bye coffee (this has been the hardest one, by far) I still crave a nice warm cup of coffee and a good book on a Sunday morning. Can I just tell you though that I had the worst migraines for two whole days when I stopped drinking coffee? I had my last cup on a Sunday and by Wednesday I could hardly teach and was feeling nauseous from the pain? I'm not exaggerating. It was terrible. That is a little scary, don't you think? I was going through a painful caffeine withdraw!

Anyways, to wrap this long story up, I have always had somewhat of an obsession with having a balanced diet and so I already knew how to eat healthy but this book just lit the fire underneath me to get me going on a higher level. I always like for my meals to have an appropriate amount of fiber and protein (most important), antioxidants, and vitamins. Yes, I'm a freak and I think about these things EVERY TIME I eat. It's a little exhausting. I don't eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner without a protein just because it is that important to me. I ease up on the fiber (ewww I would be on the toilet 24/7) but I incorporate it daily. So while I've been getting a lot of flack and a lot of "why?"s about becoming a vegetarian, I don't care, because I've always been obsessed with the nutritional value of food and I've enjoyed this lifestyle change so far. But, I don't make a big deal about it either. There are some people who are like "OH I'M a vegetarian. I can't eat THAT." I think this is so rude. I don't ever want to be perceived as someone who judges others who eat meat. This isn't something that I have decided to so I can be like "hey, look at ME." No, this is something that I have decided to do because I wanted to. I don't even mention it unless I'm asked about it. It makes me happy and really, isn't that all that matters?

Sometimes I ask myself, what would Jesus eat? It kind of puts my eating habits into perspective.

I have to ask though...am I the only one that is this psycho about the food we put in our bodies? Besides Mike, of course, because he is doing this with me. Comment please :) This was my FIRST post by the way! It's fun!