92 Days Left in 2013!

I feel I am still going strong with my goals for the end of the year. My one goal of getting the rought draft of the teen novel I'm writing has had some progress made on it (although, I adimt it, I would love for it to be more). I'm getting more exercise in, challenging myself, eating better, and more. Having all of these different goals to work on, to strive to achieve, believing I can achieve them if I can keep going is actually working!

One thing is (almost) daily, I am checking in with the major and minor goals list, writing down what I've already accomplished (yes, I'm using the word accomplished when I write it down; sounds so much more motivating to me than done) and thinking of specific things I can do that day to work toward those goals. It's going pretty well!


Part of my staying motivated is reading from a motivational book. My choice at the moment is:

Having It All: Achieving Your Life's Goals and Dreams

I have read this book before and liked it so much, I have decided to read it again. It's funny how the second time through a book, different things can hit you in a different way! I suppose it's a lot like watching a movie a second time and picking up on things you hadn't noticed the first time.

My little trick at the moment is to always have a book (either that one or another one) by my side when I'm doing things on my laptop. Why? Because when a website is slow to load or the computer's just being plain slow--or Microsoft Word is opening painfully slow--instead of just sitting there impatiently waiting, I open up my book and read. Sometimes, just opening the book up seems to make the computer behave; other times, I manage to fit in half or even a whole page. It's been great, especially on days where, by the time I actually have time to sit and read something I'm so tired I fall asleep, I don't get any reading in. It actually works better, I think, for some books because then I get a small amount read and have time for my brain to process it, thinking about it instead of just racing through a book, enjoying it but not really remembering and digesting it.

98 Days Left!

There are 98 days left now--what are you doing with your time?

I watched a couple of motivational little blurb vidoes which has helped keep my motivation high, even though crazy busy days. One comment I saw by someone had something about achieving his five major goals. I created my own list of five major goals and then a list of "other goals" (the name "minor goals" made them feel insignificant, which they're not, so I changed the name). The one thing that makes this challenge different for me is that I might not work on every goal each day, but I'm refreshing my memory about the goal each day and am making progress on things. If I can keep this up, I will reach January 1st and be amazed, I know it!

One of my goals is to have a complete set of gluten-free supper menus in place so my daughter can maintain even better her desire to stay wheat/gluten-free. I managed to make a gluten-free meatless supper Monday night (a vegan stir fry) and last night, as well, substituting a gluten-free flour mix for the flour called for in the vegan scalloped potatoes recipe I have previously shared. I am determined to have a good variety of gluten-free supper menus that my family will at least somewhat enjoy!

Another goal of mine is to write an e-book. It's kind of funny because I was thinking about it before I saw Jenae over at Bring Joy is also working on an e-book--gluten-free vegan family-friendly eating. ("Yesss!" shouts my gluten-free menu-searching mind!) Knowing she's doing one is somehow a push for me to move forward on my idea. (On switching to dairy-free living, for those curious. Things like the different whys of going dairy-free, the things to be careful of and look out for, my favourite products and some recipes.)

I have a bunch of other goals, which I should probably start attending to now--although, writing regularly in my blogs is one of them. :)

What goals have you set yourself to work on/achieve by the end of this year?

I think this is it

I feel pressured.

I feel like it's time I stop lollygagging around and just do it. (Do Nike commercials still have the "Just Do It" motto?)

It's time to become vegan.

What has led to this:

Not too long ago, my husband shocked me with a comment he made and I even blogged about it here. Well, he's done it again. I don't know if he's been noticing the gazillion vegan and raw food cookbooks I have out, if he's been flipping through them, if his 5-10 minutes of watching Forks Over Knives, all of the above or what, but I made a comment the other day to my little 4yo niece when she was being picked up after work, that she can eat pretty much only fruits and vegetables and be super healthy, but if she doesn't eat the fruits and veggies and only the crackers and other stuff she often has, then it's harder to be healthy. (Her dad had given her nothing but fruits and vegetables in her lunch kit that day on purpose because she hasn't been eating  fruits and veggies lately.) Later that evening, I think it was, my husband said, "You know, if we ate only fruits and vegetables for a few weeks, meat would be disgusting after that." I had another one of my, "My husband said WHAT?" moments. The topic came up again another day and then again today. And my daughter has been bugging me on and off for months. (Why does it all rest on me? *sigh*)

Add to that, my "niece" (21yo, like my own, we'll call her niece) has gotten tired of food affecting her so negatively and has decided to do a month of her style of vegan: high fruits, high veggies, green tea and I'm not sure what else. After a week, she's already feeling better. She invited me to join her.

It's time. It's clear, isn't it? I'm stressed over it though. I love this blog post to remind me that I don't have to be perfect, but, well, dang, I've been a perfectionist pretty much my whole life. I'm the kid who at her 1st birthday party, very daintily ate her cake and had to have her mother smoosh some on her face so she could take a "worthy" picture. I still have to have all the pencil crayons back in the pack in order. Letting go of perfectionism is hard.

I know I can't wing this. I am far too much a creature of habit to be able to simply wing it. But I don't know what to plan that I think my family will eat. And we're leaving on a camping trip in a couple of weeks. (Vegan camping? It might actually be easier than trying to figure out how to keep meat from spoiling...) I feel a bit like I did the first day I tried wheat-free: stressed, antsy, how-am-I-going-to-get-through-this? I know I can do it, especially if I aim to be as vegan as possible rather than simply deciding, "Okay, we're vegan now." Over the past year, fewer processed foods have been purchased and prepared, fruits and veggies are far more prominent in our fridge... It's do-able. I intellectually know this. Now if the limbic system in my brain could stop sending out fear signals, I'll be set. ;)



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On a funny note:

We had Chinese take-out for supper last night. There were some leftovers and my husband decided to claim first dibs on them. My 14yo daughter got a plate and got to the containers and decided to take from the chow mein first, since she knew her dad would go for the fried rice and want lots. She got a couple of bean sprouts onto her plate when he teasingly said, "Dibs!" She backed off, he did his plate, she stepped up to the rice and my 11yo son arrived with his plate. He looked at hers and said, jokingly, "That's all you're eating?"

My husband said what?

Something interesting happened last night.

My 14yo, my husband and I were watching an episode of X-Files on Netflix. Part of it showed a meat plant for beef. Of course, it affected me, with my thoughts going, "What am I doing eating meat? Why have I not stopped yet?" (There's apparently a book out on our psychology around meat-eating. I should maybe read it.)  It was just disgusting. My husband, who has always proclaimed himself a definite meat eater, actually said a few things about it that showed empathy for the animals and then said, "It really gets you thinking."

?!

My husband did NOT just say that, did he???

He did!

This is the first glimmer I have ever had that maybe, just maybe, I will be able to at least mostly "convert" my family to a vegan, whole foods lifestyle. It has really helped with the motivation factor to try to find some vegan recipes that they will like and to make them! There are some I would like to try, but I think I would like to make them as lunchtime meals for myself first before trying them on my family. I even have a rough plan in mind: 1 vegan meal the first week, 2 vegan meals the 2nd week and so on. If some recipes are flops with them, then I will probably have to double up a week (meaning, if it doesn't go so well with 2 meals in week 2, then do another week of 2 meals) before moving onto the next.

This has added a feeling of excitement, that I can make this change with less resistance. My son has been resisting more and more meats lately as it is, so it really is time to, if not take the plunge, then at least take a dip. ;)