“Be careful driving back hunny, and start eating.”

Enough about boys. I’ve also been focusing on another important aspect of my life lately, my health! On the plane to France, I read Skinny Bitch, and let me tell you, I could not put it down.

At first I was super-skeptical about a lot of the information (of lack thereof) included in the book. There seemed to be tons of unsupported statements meant to be taken as fact, and that just doesn’t fly with me. However, coming from someone who has taken one-too-many-detailed biology courses, I appreciate when someone else does my research for me. After checking out the sources the authors include for their seemingly rash statements, viola, I discovered they had done just that.

While I still won’t take all of their research to heart—much of it is really biased—a lot of it just seemed to reinforce diet behaviors I already practice. I’ve never really liked eating meat, but I did it to please everyone around me. I hated being the annoying guest who was labeled as the picky eater, and got sick of my grandma bothering me about not eating enough on holidays. Well, 14 years later, I’ve decided it’s time to stop trying to appease everyone else and actually be accountable to the one thing that matters, MY BODY!

I didn’t realize the authors were vegan at the time I started reading the book, or I may have dismissed it completely. I’m really glad I didn’t though, because it helped me to actually *think* about the things I consume (why was a putting another species breast milk on my cereal-ew) and to question the marketing and recommendations set forth by our government.

Basically, the jist is I’ve had no meat, fish, cheese, milk, eggs, or coffee for three weeks now. “So what are you eating,” my family asked, well duh, everything else! It’s surprisingly really easy, and I can honestly say I haven’t been hungry or felt limited at all. I love fruits and veggies, and anything Kashi makes. If it was really limiting, or made me feel bad, I would’ve given it up a long time ago. I’ve even had enough energy for productive workouts every day, and actually felt rested in the mornings instead of being a grump for the first 3 hours I’m awake and pounding coffee at my desk.

Since I’ve been feeling so great, I decided to make it a family affair! That’s right, baby Gwen will be losing her FUPA very soon. I picked up some weight control Purina last night to help her along (don’t worry, I got her some treats and a new toy too).



It’s really not her fault she got so pudgy. While I was on vacation she stayed w/ her grandparents. I knew she definitely gained a few in the process, but I couldn’t figure out why she kept following me around and begging the first few days she was back.

I called my parent’s house to see if they were giving her a special treat or something I needed to go buy, and dad told me no, she was probably just starved for attention. Five minutes later mom calls me back:

“Um, hunny, dad said Gwen acting like she wants something.”

“Yeah, mom she is, do you know why?”

“Well, it may be because I was giving her tiny little pieces of beef jerky every few days.”

Translation: my cat had probably consumed an entire bag of beef jerky by herself over a 3 week period. My mom is notorious for underestimating her own damage. Is it a global phenomenon for moms and grammas to try to fatten you up? Or is it just mine?

*Sigh.*