I'M SO FULL and THE BOYS ARE EATING MORE VEGGIES!

I, like most people hate being hungry! Since I have started eating completely whole food plant-based I have to say that I have to force myself to eat sometimes. There is so much nutrition in what I'm eating and I believe that my body is so nourished I don't crave the things I used to crave anymore. I could care less about sugar, and  the only thing I miss a little bit is chicken thighs and ground turkey. I know,  gross, but that was probably my favorite animal protein. Chickens are also some of my favorite animals so I am happy to not eat them anymore! I have not yet sworn all of this off forever, but honestly I can't imagine eating any of it again. Especially if I keep eating how I'm eating right now. My diet is about 80% complex carbs 10% fat 10% protein. My energy levels off the roof. That 3 o'clock in the afternoon crash that used to have seems to be completely gone. I've lost 5 pounds since I started a month ago and I don't have much weight to lose so I am trying to be careful. Some days I used to feel like my eyes were closing despite me trying to hold them open. I would try to have some caffeine, but then it just felt artificially awake and almost even worse than being tired. I don't have to do that anymore.  Yay!

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It's definitely more of an effort to keep up in the kitchen with all the fruits and veggies the kids are eating now. Again, it's just changing the mindset of what their snacks and meals are. When they come home from school, I have a big plate of cut up veggies and fruit and they're all over it. Before they would eat some rolled up lunch meats or maybe a quesadilla on a whole wheat tortilla.  Now they scarf down a plate of red peppers, strawberries, cucumbers and carrots and Duncan will have a bowl of lentil soup. It's not this perfect every day, but I'm striving for that and I have to say most days this is what it's looking like. School lunches are a problem because both boys want to buy and the offerings are pretty disgusting and depressing. Most days Dunc has a fruit yogurt parfait and Coop has some mystery meat chicken oriental something or rather. Not thrilled at all, but it seems they just pick at lunch because when they come home they eat a whole meal. I would be happy to make them lunch, but after having so many come home back in their bag most days I let them buy. It honestly kills me, but I can only cross one bridge at a time right now. I think somehow it isn't cool to bring lunch and that factors in as well. They also have 2 minutes to eat so that they can run to recess. 
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,JD is trying hard but still having trouble getting enough protein since he does not like lentils beans tofu or any of the other things that provide a decent amount of protein in animal free diet. He gets heartburn at night lately and I am thinking it is all the veggies and lack of rib sticking type foods. I've tried preparing lentils many different ways and he liked  it for a little while, but it gets tiring for him. I understand that. I'm going to continue my hunt for other protein sources that aren't processed. There's plenty of processed vegan protein sources at health food stores, however I'm trying to stay away from them.  

He definitely liked the Quorn brand which is a mycoprotein. Basically it's a fungus growing in vat that is a high-protein source. Hard to find a lot of information on it but there are people saying it has caused bad allergic reactions etc but so does soy, dairy, gluten etc in some people so I am not all that worried about that. I am less thrilled that it is processed. Wish I could find a whole food source that he would like to eat enough of. It's a process and I am not even close to giving up!!!

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