...I feel refreshed and relaxed for the first time in over a week.

Yesterday, I had planned on going directly home to do some cleaning and go to sleep. The last week or so has been a whirlwind of not getting a lot of sleep compounded by other stress in my life. Over the last week, I have had an average of about four hours of sleep a night. Some nights were less than that. With school, work, Easter week services, and two shows since the 15th... I was pretty run down.

So, that was the plan. What ended up happening is I went over by the lady and spent some time with her just relaxing. She cooked me up a great dinner, and we just sat watching television and playing chess. At about 9, it was time to go home. After my 45 minute drive home, the effects of my non sleep routine started to really kick in. I won't get in to specifics. It was not pleasant. 

I got some really good sleep last night, and I dont think my body knew how to handle it. I woke up at 2am, and then at 6am. Both times I was ready to go and thought it was a super great day. I haven't had that in a while. 

It was nice to wake up and feel refreshed. Getting that "good morning, love" phone call on the way to work was nice too.

...according to the doctor, I'm pretty damn healthy.

The only "D" I'll willingly take.

I had my first physical for the first time in years the other week. I had a bunch of blood labs done just to make sure I was not deficient in anything that I really badly needed. With my change in how I eat and live, it was a concern. So, I called up today because I had not heard back from them in a while and lo and behold.... I'm pretty much a shining example of health... except for one thing. Vitamin D. I am pretty low on that. The clinic says they rate on a scale of 30-80. 30 being the low end of good, 80 being the high. *I* am at a whopping FOUR. Not a 4-0. Just 4. So, I am waiting for my doctor to give me a buzz and see what we are going to do about this. The nurse asked me if I was sleepy a lot, and I said "all the time." She explained that this could be the main reason for it right there. I should hear something soon, but I am on the right track of getting the body where it needs to be. And hopefully, I won't be so tired anymore.

...I decided to set the record straight.

You can stop asking
"What do you eat?" now.

Over the weekend, I had a good friend of mine tell me that he wanted to have a discussion about me being vegan. He wanted to do it another time as it was late, but I said we should do it now. This would be the second time of the night that I would be explaining this.

During both discussions, I made it perfectly clear that I started this path, on my own, for health reasons. That's why I started it. As I have grown in to it, I have a greater passion to protect animals, no matter which ones they are. I also let it be known that I will NEVER push this on to anyone. If they ask, and want advice or mentoring because they want to do this as well for the reason I am have, I will be more than happy to do so. I'm not going to go and tell someone else what is right for them. That is their choice and theirs alone.

I have a couple friends who are vegetarian and vegan. My girlfriend is also vegan. Now, it was in my second conversation of the night that I had the question posed to me : "did you go vegan because of your girlfriend?"  This pissed me off to no end for the rest of this weekend. My friend, who at least had the courage to ask me, let it be known that it was something that was mentioned to him by other people I know and in conversations in general about me, without me there. I would like to state right here so that anyone reading this gets it straight.

I did NOT decide to be vegan in order to start dating my girlfriend. 

No matter what you hear from anyone else. I did it for ME. When I started on this, it wasn't even with her help. I had the assistance and guidance of another friend of mine. Grow some balls, stop spreading assumptions and rumor, and ask me.

Or, you can read this and know exactly why I did it.

I -=DID=- decide to change my lifestyle for the following reasons.

• I hated feeling like hell 20-30 minutes after I drank milk or ate any dairy product
• I hated feeling like I was going to die when I needed to use the restroom
• I hated not knowing when that sudden urge to use the restroom would happen and then I would get that urge to die as mentioned above
• I watched Food Inc. and was disgusted by our food industry and how animals that become food are treated
• I hated that my weight was ballooning out of control at a rate that I realized was not good at all, even when I decided to start eating a "healthy" omnivorous diet.

I have been vegan for over a year now. I feel better now that I have in a VERY long time. My weight is to a manageable 187 instead of 220+ at my largest (and I haven't fully killed my flabby belly yet). I've come to a point where I am not buying anything made of animal product. Food, clothing, or furniture. Guess what? That's my choice. Talk to me about it. I don't push it on to people as some sort of "agenda". I'm not a crazy PETA activist. I'm not going to run around and call you a sick person for eating meat/fish/dairy. My kids still eat meat when they are home with their mother. They understand why I did all of this. They get it. They even decided to cook with me and eat what I eat when they are here.

Now, I can fully respect people living life the way they want to... so why can't people respect the way I want, and need, to live mine?