Since becoming vegan...

Since becoming vegan, a lot of changes have happened over here! Mostly, we're getting weirder.

Yep, I've officially decided that becoming vegan makes you more than a bit...different. Joe and I are living life pretty far from the norm these days. Most people think we're a bit nutty (or a lot nutty, depending on who you talk to!) But it seems that once you start thinking with your health/the environment/ethics in mind, you can't stop! The more you learn, the more you research, the more you feel compelled to change. Is this a good thing? Well, we think so!

For example, Joe and I have reduced the amount of oil we consume. Drastically. Rather than vegan, Joe prefers the term "Whole Food Plant-Based diet". It is much more specific. We are drinking green, kale smoothies for breakfast every day. We even feed that stuff to Henry! We try to incorporate green, orange and raw veggies every day. In an average week we eat about $80-100 worth of fresh fruit and veggies, plus a bunch of beans and nuts and seeds and grains. We are trying to avoid refined flours, oil and sugar. We have reduced our salt use. We use a pressure cooker. We have even been moving more and more towards eating organic, especially the dirty dozen. We make almost every.single.thing from scratch. It goes on and on. Needless to say, eating this way makes you skinnier, and full of energy! But it keeps you busy, too.

Some home-made vegan yummy food!

And the changes I'm talking about go beyond diet, too.
Learning about veganism makes you begin to question the rest of your life. Your leather shoes...do you continue wearing them? (We do, since we have already purchased them, but it is something we will consider next time we need new hikers or dress-shoes!) Your CAR! (You all know we're car-free, so I won't go on that rant again). Our clothes... I don't know the last time I bought something that wasn't previously owned. Our toiletries and soaps/detergents... we have been slowly switching over to all-natural products - Lavender is my new thing. We buy local and support local whenever possible.

And let me talk to you about plastic: While this is something we've been doing for a long time, Joe and I are trying even harder to reduce our plastic/garbage:
- We choose our grocery store based on the one that lets you bring your own jars in for their bulk section. And we use glass jars over plastic where possible. Yep, we carry (yes, carry, since we walk!) glass jars to the store.
- We use care-bags for fruits/veggies/nuts/seeds/anything we can
- We use cloth bags when we shop/buy food, but I know most of you do, too!
- We stopped lining our garbage bins with plastic bags. We put our garbage loose in the garbage can. It works!
- We buy things used. It helps to avoid new plastic packaging.
- We use cloth diapers for Henry

And house stuff.... now all of our changes to our house have an environmental factor. For example, we got a REEP evaluation done this past summer (which gave us an idea of the energy efficiency of our home). That inspired us to spend a lot more money on a furnace when ours decided to give up, so that we had the most energy-efficient one. Sigh. 

All of these changes definitely keep things interesting. It kind of makes your head spin! But it does make you feel good inside.