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So despite the fact that I don’t mention it as much anymore I am still doing lots of freelance writing. Usually anywhere from one to five stories a month for two local magazines put out by the daily paper here. Remember when I posted this blog about my first magazine article?

I don’t post links to all of my articles because some of them are kind of boring, but I’ve had the chance to write two really fun articles over the last few months. Both of these came from ideas I pitched to the editor and I wanted to share them with you guys.

Veggie Moms: Click on the images below to read the PDF OR go here and flip to page 6!

Running Away: This article was too big to upload SO go here and flip to page 24 if you’d like to read it!

Obviously these are both topics that are near and dear to my heart so I had so much fun writing both these articles. I hope you enjoy them if you check them out! I am super proud of them

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Question of the day: If you are a vegetarian do you plan on raising your kids that way? If not, do you plan on raising your kids to have the same eating principles/habits that you DO have?

Yesterday was my one-year vegiversary! A.K.A. it’s been one year since I last ate meat. I even went vegan for one week in February!

Here are a few of my posts about being pesco-vegetarian (I eat fish occasionally) for the past year:

• How a Book Changed the Way I Eat (still one of my most viewed posts almost a year later)
• On Being a Pesco-Vegetarian
• I love Veggies!
• Follow-up: Eating Animals
• Vegetarian “Thanksgiving”
• My First Vegetarian Christmas
• Plant Based Eating
• 6.5 Days as a Vegan
• Vegan Eats

In regards to my eating habits, this last year has been great. I don’t miss meat at all and at this point I can’t ever imagine eating it again. My family, and especially Eric, have been super supportive. In fact, I think it would be fair to call Eric a flexitarian now. He rarely eats meat, maybe 1 – 2 times per week, and pretty much never eats chicken or pork, only beef occasionally.

Becoming a pesco-vegetarian has not limited me in ANY way. In fact I’ve tried more new and fun foods over the last year than ever before. I’ve experimented in the kitchen and just become more and more aware of what I put in my body.

Other ways that I eat have changed a lot too. I rarely eat processed food and buying local food is very, very important to me. I go to the Farmers Market every weekend and when I’m at the grocery store I will try to only buy produce that is a product of Canada (love that Superstore has little signs telling you where the food is from!) I’m also growing my very own garden for the first time this year. Is there anything better than eating food you grow yourself?

Anyways, I thought I would share some photos of all the amazing pesco-vegetarian, and in some cases vegan, food I’ve had over the past year!

And, here are some amazing veggie fajita’s with homemade guacamole and salsa that Eric and I just made on Saturday night:

OK, OK, I’ll stop with all the food photos! I got carried away. I just wanted to emphasize that despite the fact that I no longer eat poultry, beef or pork I am still eating amazing foods and really do not feel deprived at all.

In my next year of vegetarianism I’d like to strive to eat fish less (mostly just in sushi form which was my original intention) and I’d like to be more careful about things like beef broth sneaking their way into things I eat (currently I will occasionally have soups with beef broth in them).

I know that a lot of “true” vegetarians would scoff at that but I really try to stay away from the LABELS when it comes to how I eat, I have to admit I kind of hate how we have to label everything: pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, flexitarian: why can’t this just be the way I eat and that’s that?

Anyways, I think my hatred of “labels” when it comes to eating is a topic for another day In the meantime, here’s a very thought-provoking post by Caitlin on the Vegetarian Gray Area.

So, in conclusion, happy one year vegiversary to me! Here’s to many more years! Hope you enjoyed my collection of food porn!

During the Vegan Challenge Morgan wrote a post about the “most famous vegan athletes“.

I was pretty excited to see that Brendan Brazier made the list as I had plans to go see him speak in a couple of weeks. Well that night was last night and it was super interesting!

Eric and I headed to the local organic/health food store Natures Fare for the free seminar. Basically Brendan talked for about an hour and then we were able to sample a bunch of Vega (his protein powder brand) products.

A few key points I took from his talk:

The acid-alkalline balance is very important. If we eat too many acid-forming foods (highly refined/processed foods) it can cause osteoporosis because the acid-forming foods pull the calcium from our bones.

Alkaline-forming foods reduce inflammation which is super important for athletes because then they recover faster and can workout again sooner.

A lot of people don’t realize that dark, leafy greens (like spinach and kale) are 45% protein.

Sleep is so, so, so important. If we have high cortisol levels (which are attributed to stress) we will sleep worse.

40% of the average Americans stress can be contributed to poor nutrition.

If you’re really stressed out (by work or life events) and also exercising heavily you might be doing your body more damage than good because you are placing even more stress on the body with the high levels of exercise.

Stress has a lot to do with perception. According to Brendan, if you hate running and the thought of going for a run makes you feel anxious or stressed, you shouldn’t be running because it’s actually doing your body more harm than good. Likewise for yoga, like Brendan said, a lot of people say yoga is so relaxing and good for you but that’s only if you actually like yoga.

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Those are just a few of the key take-aways I took from his talk! I’m not sure how much I agree with the idea that you shouldn’t run if it stresses you out (because it took me a solid three months to really love running) but I can totally see his point – why force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy?

I also found it interesting how much emphasis he put on sleep and how important it is for you.

Afterwards we got to sample some yummy vega products:

And I bought a copy of Brendan’s book and got him to sign it (although I have to admit, I kind of hate that it has the word “diet” in it)

As you guys can probably tell from the blog, I’m super fascinated and interested by this whole concept of “plant based diet”. Essentially I gave up meat for ethical and moral reasons but after reading and hearing so much about how plant based diets can improve athletic performance I’m super fascinated by it. I would love to improve my running PR’s and avoid injury while also fueling my body with healthy, whole foods.

I guess “plant based diet” could be considered the latest “diet craze” like Atkins or The South Beach Diet – but I just don’t see how you can go wrong eating mostly fruits and vegetables?!

I also recently purchased No Meat Athlete’s e-book and I’m excited to dive into reading that after finishing The Thrive Diet and The China Study.

Do you think this whole “plant based diet” thing is just another craze or do you believe in it being a legit, wholesome way to eat?