Meat Free for a Year

For anyone who doesn't know already, I challenged myself last March to give up meat for 30 days. I completed the 30 days better than I thought I would and kept going and going and going. Now it has been 1 year this weekend! It started as something I've always wanted to try and I finally picked a start date and told myself to try it for 30 days. During those 30 days of researching recipes and trying to meet my dietary needs I learned so much about our food industry and what meat does to our body that I made the choice to try as long as I could. So as the year passed on I really lost the desire to eat meat and cooking without it was really simple. Sure I miss some things but usually only when I'm really hungry. Matt has also been on board with the diet. He did it for 30 days with me and then would eat meat only when something really good came along. Now he has been 100% meat free since September. We experienced all of the changes they said we would in the beginning. You feel better overall, your gut feels light as a feather and digestion is way quicker! Did you know that meat can hang around in your intestines for up to 3 days! It's hard for me to feel the changes now because it has been so long but in that first 30-90 days I felt great! We also tried the vegan thing for 1 week, where you eat no animal products, milk, cheese, etc. That is way harder to do and I have respect for anyone who does it. We still have vegan days but I really don't think that's for me.

So now to some of the common remarks I get from someone.

Have I lost weight from it?
Actually no. We both gained just a few pounds in about a 9 month period. I think this is because we ate a lot of carbs in the beginning and we had the mind set that if it wasn't meat we could eat it. I also noticed that I started craving a lot more junk food to make up for the fat I wasn't getting anymore. Plus we weren't exercising much during that time. Now we have all that under control. I do believe that someone could lose a lot of weight from it if they watch their carbs from the get go.

Be careful that you get your protein!
In the beginning this was something that I was very cautious of. People had me so freaked out at work that I was afraid I would just fall over because my muscles were so weak! I have learned that this is the biggest concern with people trying it. I have also learned that people think we need a lot more protein than our body really does need. It's something we still need to watch but if you have a good diet you will get plenty of protein! I've actually been working out a lot lately for a weight loss competition and my muscles are doing great!

So what happens if you want to eat meat again?
This is actully interesting. I've heard stories from several other people that didn't eat meat for a while that when they tried it again they threw up. How can that be good for you? I'm pretty sure if you didn't eat lettuce for 6 months and then tried it that you wouldn't throw up....unless it was tainted with salmonella :) Matt actually had a bad effect from meat after not eating it for about 4 months. So if we start eating meat again we will have to slowly phase it back in to our body.

So to celebrate my success that I never thought I would have I'm going to share some of our favorite meat free recipes through this month. If you are afraid you won't get full off of some of these than just make more of it or have a little salad also.

Southwest Pileup
whole wheat flat pitas
hummus, preferably red-pepper flavor
black beans, drained
red onion, cut into small strips
red bell pepper, diced
tomato, diced
fresh cilantro, chopped
shredded cheddar cheese
guacamole (optional)

Preheat oven to 450. Place pitas on cookie sheet. Spread hummus on pitas. Top each pita with all the other toppings. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until cheese is melted. Slice pita into 4 wedges and eat.

Black Bean Lettuce Bundles(makes 4)
1 can black beans, drained
1 avocado, mashed
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tblsp lime juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup salsa
8 large romaine lettuce leaves

Mash beans and avocado together. Mix in all other ingrediants except lettuce. Place about 1/4 cup of filling into center of each lettuce leaf and roll like a tortilla.


More to come!

Trending Now

So I am way behind on blogging about us.....

Right before Christmas we drove down to Nashville, TN to see Garth Brooks in concert. We have a short list of people we must see in concert before we die and Garth Brooks was on the list. He also holds a sweet spot in our hearts because our wedding song was one of his. When we heard he was doing a charity concert for the Nashville floods their was no debate on if we would go. Besides Nashville is one of our favorite cities! We are "concert-goers" and we both agree this is the best one we've been to! Also on our short list was John Mellencamp and we got to see him in November. (It's kind of freaking me out that we keep checking things off our list.)

I will admit I am very addicted to going to concerts. It's my hobby and choice of entertainment and I don't feel bad about it. I don't have a shopping or shoe problem like other women, I just like to spend my money on concerts.....and of course traveling. So concert season is approaching again this year and I already have my list that I must attend! I'm trying to tame it down this year due to another big event we have coming up.

We finally booked our trip to Italy!!!!

I have been researching, planning, and saving for Italy for a while so it finally came time to make it definite. If we booked and paid in full by March 1st we saved a ton of money so I couldn't pass it up. We are going in September when the crowds are a little better and the weather is great. We are doing 12 days of just Italy. There is already so much that we will be missing that I couldn't imagine doing anymore countries than just Italy. We will visit all of the main cities like Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Pompeii. We are also going to spend a lot of time in the smaller countryside areas like Tuscany, Umbria, Naples, Sorrento, and the beautiful island of Capri. I'm looking forward to just "being Italian" for a week, eating pasta, drinking wine, and being in the country of amore(love).

So most recently I had the honor of being present while my newest little niece was born. Carmen Marie Groza was born on February 17th. It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad my brother asked me to be in the room. She makes our 6th niece/nephew. We have 3 nieces and 3 nephews. I wonder who will break the tie for us...........???

The Meaning

Every year around this time I tend to feel a little "Bah Humbug". It just takes me a little longer to get in the spirit. I always consider not putting up our Christmas tree or decorations. (As I write this blog I hear my my co-workers playing Christmas music that has set the mood for this post, very appropriate for the spirit I now have :)

Anyway every year I consider "skipping" Christmas in our house but I always end up decorating. Granted my tree stays up for a short time but I still do it. [Start Rant] I just don't understand the people who go all out with decor like this house that I have to drive by every day that has a yard full of plastic figures and enough lights for the whole town of Lebanon. Not to mention the milk jugs they have lined around their yard full of lights, resourceful yes.....attractive no! They put all this stuff up at the start of November and it stays up through April....not kidding on this! [End Rant]

This year thanks to our efforts to be more minimal we question everything we are doing? What is the meaning behind why we do this? Do we really need this? Last night we asked each other "what's the point of putting up this tree and all the stuff that comes with it"?
I have never known the meaning behind all the other stuff that comes with Christmas except that is the day we celebrate Jesus' birthday.
After doing some internet searching(hopefully accurate) I now know a little bit more. Every country has its own beliefs but this is what I took from it. Here are the things that we were questioning:

Christmas Tree- The tree is symbolic of the everlasting life we will have through Jesus

Lights- Symbolizes Christ and the "light of the world"

Colors Green and Red- Green is life and Red is Jesus' blood

Gifts- 3 gifts were given to Jesus when he was born.....I think it's important to note that 3 gifts were given not a flood of presents like many children today are expecting!

The whole Santa deal- I read up on the St. Nick story which was too long to blog about and I find it interesting how Santa became the hype of Christmas. I have not yet decided if I will do the Santa thing with my children but if I do it won't be the center of Christmas.

So I will probably still put up a tree every year but at least I won't need reminded why I am doing it.

Cali-forn-i-a!

Last week we went to California for a friend's wedding. The wedding was in Orange County so I was excited to see calmer areas of Cali. Matt had never been to California so the whole traffic-smog experience was new to him. For the first part of our mini-vaca we did the touristy stuff in LA before heading south for the wedding. We cruised up and down Pacific Coast Highway and tried to stop at most of the beaches(my favorite part). The weather in California was perfect the whole trip. I could live out there again!

This is Venice beach. We must have been there on a quiet day because usually there are weird people and street performs lurking all over this beach.

We had to take advantage of perfect weather in November and ride in style in Cali so this Jeep did the job!

I did some blog stalking before we left and found out that the Biggest Loser Ranch is on public property near Malibu where we would be so we made a visit! The show is not currently filming but some producers were there I'm guessing to prep for the finale so we could not go inside the building but they let me snap a photo real quick.

This is Beverly Hills. We scoped out some of the huge homes and I felt like we were on forbidden property the whole time even though they were public streets.

We did a short hike to a photo spot for the Hollywood sign. This was in a park where apparently a lot of the celebs take their kids to play but none were playing that day. I am 99% positive that we saw Tito Jackson in Hollywood. (We went all the way to Cali and just saw Tito). You can usually spot when a celeb is around because of all the paparazzi.

This is the location where they filmed the original Batman movies from way back when. We found this while Matt was knocking off some geocaches.

Since the word is out now I can release these pictures of Matt skydiving. I could only get so close to his drop spot but I was glad I could at least pick him out of a large group jumping.

Here the video link if you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNE2V3Y1mcw

I Get It Now

I've always had a desire to travel and have been so fortunate lately to see many new places. I am so glad that Matt has been on board with me and has also learned how much he loves to travel. For years now I have tried to figure out where this need to "go and see" comes from but I can't narrow it down. I wasn't too deprived as a child. I didn't go many places, but I did go places. My mom did always encourage me to leave Terre Haute and do as much as possible so maybe she can take the credit.
I always remind myself to be very thankful to God for providing the means to travel but our recent trips have made us think there is more to it.
Vacations from this year have not sent us back home feeling rested and rejuvenated but instead we felt very insignificant and small. We felt like we weren't doing anything that mattered. We felt like we have a different purpose in life and we weren't living up to it. Matt can narrow down his moment of realization to this photo. This is when he felt that the world didn't revolve around us and we were just a small piece in the puzzle. I don't really have a defining moment but they have probably been gathering for a year now.

Maybe it's us maturing and growing out of our arrogant 20's but I think this is a good realization and a message I have been missing. All this time I thought that I could go on these trips because I was extremely thankful but now I know that these were not vacations but a test to see if we were getting the message and seeing the bigger picture.....so that is why I say " I Get It Now".

Forensics in Africa

So some changes have been happening to the Sondgeroths......for a while now really......most of which are too deep to discuss on here. In a nutshell we have a growing inclination to do things differently and for different reasons. Without confusing blog readers too much I will sum it up with something they said in church on Sunday. "Do Something, Say Something".

Here is me "saying something".........

I promise this won't be a geeky boring post about science but rather about an organization I just learned about that is using Forensics to help a country already with great needs. The latest issue of Forensic Magazine had an article in it titled "DNA 4 Africa". This is an organization that is using the power of DNA analysis to help orphaned children find their families, prevent illegal adoptions and child trafficking, and fight sexual violence. In America we have the luxury to have a justice system that will investigate a crime against us, perform scientific analysis, and prosecute the accused. Where poverty is high, crime is high, so I can only imagine the conditions in Africa.
In a country where the people are fighting to survive, the incidence of mass rape is high and the support to fight it was non-existent.
I can only believe that if they begin to bring justice to mass rapists in Africa that this will also help decrease the number of HIV cases and reduce unplanned pregnancies.

If you are looking for a cause to donate to visit this website to learn more:
http://www.dna4africa.org/

Best Friend + 1st baby + I love to travel = Trip to Seattle

I went to Seattle over this past weekend to visit my best friend Sara who had her first baby in May. She has lived there for 3 years and this was my first visit out there. We had such a great time together and I miss her already :( They did a great job of showing me around Seattle. It is a well-rounded place that was close to mountains, beach/water, and a big city. One day when Harrison is older I can tell him that Aunt Amanda was on his first hike with him! Needless to say we ate a lot of seafood and visited coffee shops every day which I loved! Thanks for a great visit Sara and Bill!