We are hungry for change..

Both of us have been going through a lot over the past year, emotionally and physically.  Since Lauren and I met each other, we have been a positive motivation for the other person, and over the past 5 years brought a lot of change and happiness into our lives and we have become better people.

Still, as we move closer to having our first child through adoption, we still are not happy with ourselves.  Both of us have struggled with our weight for some time, and because of the rollercoaster of emotions facing us the past year we really didn't put our own health first when it came to eating.

At heart, we both knew we wanted something different, not just for ourselves, but for the child we are going to raise, we just needed the right motivation to do something.  But what?

One day last month, I came home from work and LC was too excited to show me a documentary she stumbled upon on Netflix called "Hungry for Change".  We watched it together (the second time for her) and  we couldn't believe the things we saw.. although it really got us thinking about what we were giving our bodies for food, how we were eating, and what we were doing to ourselves.  And it all made perfect sense!  It doesn't do anything but explain things that we already thought we knew, it just made us actually start to pick items up in our fridge and start to read the labels.

What came next is a change in everything.  Our eating habits, making a weekly meal plan, not eating processed or factory foods, cutting down or out a lot of sugars and complex carbohydrates, eating more vegetables (and juicing them!), getting better sleep, drinking more water.. and the list goes on.  Combined with watching other great documentaries, and books that our friends were recommending, we have started to make one of the most significant changes in both our lives.  I never thought that I would like freshly squeezed carrot juice so much!  ;)

I haven't had a pop in weeks.  And when Lauren and I decided just to split a can of coke on a movie night, we were shocked when we couldn't even finish our glasses they seemed so sweet.  We are re-programming our bodies, and our systems to do without these sugars, and now that we don't feel the addiction much anymore, we don't even enjoy them (especially once we found out how they are made).

Lauren now works out 5 days a week in a cross-fit class too, and coupled with our new eating habits, the inches and the weight is slowly starting to fall off of both of us.  We are changing ourselves from the *inside* first. We have more energy, are enjoying food more, and are liking ourselves better. 

Here are some amazing documentaries that we recommend for all of you to watch:

• HUNGRY FOR CHANGE (Netflix) website - http://www.hungryforchange.tv/
• FOOD INC (Netflix) website - http://www.takepart.com/foodinc
• VEGUCATED (Netflix) website - http://www.getvegucated.com/

And some great new books:

• FRENCH KIDS EAT EVERYTHING (and yours can too) - website http://karenlebillon.com/
• CLEAN ~ The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself - website http://www.cleanprogram.com/
• IT STARTS WITH FOOD- http://whole9life.com/itstartswithfood/

So we are hoping that we will not only be changing our own lifestyles, but also the future eating habits of our child.  We want them to eat so many different types of foods, and not be tied down to wanting or craving sugars, breads, candies or sodas. 

It's a change that is taking a lot of work, motivation, and discipline.. but we are hungry for it.

#eatsmartagesmart


- Jason

Movin' on up!

We're movin' on up! Lauren checked with the adoption agency, and we have rose to #48 on the list.  So slowly but surely we make our way to the top.  Several adoptions are being processed every month, so even though we are high on the list, there is still that remote possibility that our file will still be picked sooner because our options are so open.. only time will tell.  But nice to know that progress is being made!

:)


- Jason

Cheesy TV Movie

Today after a stressful day I caught a really cheesy TV movie, with Tori Spelling! For all you Yellowknifer's there was a little cameo by Dustin Milligan in it. Don't ask me the name of the movie, but it was about infertility. There was this scene were Tori was crying over her third failed attempt at IVF and she brings up adoption with her husband. He told his story about loosing his parents very young and his grandparents who raised him always would say things like you run like your father, or when you smile you look like your Mom. He said that he wanted to see him in his parents and he wants to see him in his children and vice versa.

I couldn't breath. I started to cry and realized that I won't see characteristics of our parents in our child, or me in my little girl or Jason in his son. My older brother has 3 children spitting images of my brothers and I. We joke all the time that the oldest is like a photocopy of my brother. I won't have this.

Our social worker asked us about this. I remember answering the question and after today I still feel the same way. Having a child isn't about having a mini me, it is about the relationship your create with your child, it is about what you teach your child, it about patience, it is about love. It is not about blood, or similarities.

I am on this journey that very few people in my life have been on. I am so excited for the day we get the call but I will have set backs, and second guess what we are doing. Other days it will hit me like the first time I heard, you cannot carry a child. Today is one of those days. I am sad. That is it. I am sad I will never feel a baby inside me, I will never hear a heartbeat of my child inside me. I will never know the pain of childbirth, or feel my husbands hand wait for a little bump on my tummy.

Some mom's may consider that a blessing but if you think about it would you real[y choose not to have experienced it then to have gone through the birth of your child. Probably not.

I am sad that I don't get to experience a lot of first steps of motherhood, but I will still be a mother. I know the first 9 months are very insignificant to a lifetime of motherhood. That is what I know today.

Lauren