Whew! What a week.
My last blog entry was a pretty emotional one.
My last week has been a pretty emotional one!
We decided to eliminate all animal products and by-products from our diet until we had been able to establish the emotional and nutritional needs of the family.

That’s always been my problem; I never do things in half measures. I just dive right in, and learn to swim while I choke on water.

So, we started out very motivated, the information and video footage very fresh in our minds.
I prepared incredibly creative meals 3 times a day. Homeschooling got put on hold, as I had no time to prepare lessons with all the washing up and food preparation going on.

We went out and bought Fry’s meals, veggie schnitzels, veggie hot dogs, veggie hamburgers, veggie sausages, and soya mince. Amazing… soya mince comes in every imaginable flavor… if you are willing to lower your standards and accept msg into your life… (We weren’t, so we just had plain soya”).
We bought soya milk, much to the boy’s disgust.
Oats has therefore replaced all breakfast cereal as it does not require milk.

I felt great, even though everyone was always complaining of hunger. Marmite sandwiches at 12 at night for me. My digestion was loving it. For someone who battled with regularity, going to the loo twice a day was like “wow”! TMI, I know!

Every night as we got ready for bed I would say to hubby, “hey, we saved a chicken today”. And we really did feel great! We were making a change, and being extremely healthy at the same time! 

Then, along came Wednesday….. Our homeschooling group.
I have always had the gift of putting my foot in it! Any situation and Samantha will be able to make someone feel uncomfortable!
So, picture us all. A group of opinionated, attachment parenting homeschooling moms, and Samantha raises the issue of food!
Ahhh! The shock, my beloved soya replacement was a universal no-no….. Genetically modified. Pure poison!
Well, I got it from all sides. I had a mom who would not eat anything that had been genetically modified. The facts she told me scared the living daylights out of me, so I thought, ok, no GM foods!
Another mom, told me about potatoes and tomatoes. Cancer causing foods. Ok, so no potatoes or tomatoes!
Another mom told me about colorants, flavourants, preservatives, another about processed foods, wheat, antibiotics, factory farmed veggies……
Polyunsaturates causing cancer and gallstones….
I learned about sprouting, dehydrating, fermented foods and even people who live on water alone….. 
Well, needless to say, at the end of the afternoon, my future was looking pretty bleak. Our stomachs would be even bleaker. Man, what a dilemma. What had started out as a genuine emotional concern was now snowballing into an anemic hell of choices and starvation!!!!

Bottom line? Consciousness! Being conscious of where your food comes from, and gratefulness for whatever life form gave it to you!

One of the moms said, “Please don’t discuss this with me, I have too much information already. It makes me dizzy. What doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger”. She was of the opinion that you make the best conscious choices you can, but offer thanks for every meal regardless of its origin.
hmmm, not too sure how i feel about that...
I guess it’s the same as donations. You give with a good heart and trust that those receiving the donations, will do so with the same intentions. But if per chance, the person takes your offering and decides he needs gold plated bath taps more than the poor need food; does that make your offering any less meaningful? No, you gave with the best intentions.

The same with your food I guess. You make informed, conscious decisions, and trust that the food was raised with honesty integrity, purity of heart, and offer your own thanks before consumption….. I suppose it’s the best we can do.
Please don’t get me wrong. This is not a cop out! I will never support factory farmed anything, and doubt if I personally will ever eat meat again.
For me, at the moment, eating meat is a raw subject (excuse the pun). But for my family, I need to look out for their nutritional needs.
Adaptation takes time! The body does not like change!
The best bit of advice for the day came from Sally. Our resident Pink Hair girl. She said “Change your life bit by bit, start small and work from there. If you change too drastically, you can shock your family or body into just reverting back to the old habits”.
So, we are going to have one or two meat dishes a week until we have enough information to provide the family with the nutritional balance we need. I am still breastfeeding, and breastfed infants of vegan mothers suffer deficiencies of vitamin B12. Which is only found in animal foods and micro-organisms?
My very good friend Traci, has also had bad experiences with B12 deficiencies, beings force fed liver for a week for a vegan can be a pretty harrowing experience, along with the painful B12 injections!

So, go in peace, my friends, and good luck with your conscious choices…. Hold on tight, we are in for quite a ride.