Go Alkaline or go Home

I try to avoid things like New Years Resolutions or really anything that seems like a fad or will not last. That being said, I will tell you that Brandon and I took the New Year as a chance to make some healthy changes. We always "try" to be healthy with our eating and stay pretty active, and I think we do a good job, but there was room for change. I believe in making changes slowly if you are going to be successful. I have been looking into the Alkaline diet. This would be a huge change for us to go completely alkaline (which would also mean going mostly Vegan.) I don't think we are there yet. We like meat and I am not ready to completely give up yummy things. Some people talk about taking an 80/20 approach. That means going 80% good and allowing yourself 20% slack. If you want to know more about all of this, you should research it and I can share some yummy recipes if you want.
This change has made me do some thinking though. As I was talking to a friend the other day about the changes, he said, why are you doing this, you do not need to loose weight. This is sooooo not about losing weight. I think weight can show a lot about what is going on inside a person, but there are a lot of people walking around with sick insides and we might never suspect from the outside. I have suspected for awhile that I was sick. I have had symptoms for a long time that many doctors have looked puzzled by or said, well you are too young for the things your symptoms suggest so lets just wait and see what happens. REALLY? You want me to wait and see if I get cancer before we do anything about this?
I will not go into detail about my "problems" because it is gross and not the point. The point is, I am not going to wait for my body to get really sick. I want to prevent horrible things now.
So it's been about 3 weeks on the new diet. I have done a pretty good job of sticking with the change. Although I cannot see inside my body, I can tell you that I feel better. It could be a placebo effect though, so I will tell you that a major positive sign is that I am becoming more regular. (Sorry if that is gross, but it tells me a lot about what is going on inside.) Another perk of eating healthier is a cleaner kitchen. I am not using meat every day in my cooking, and that makes me feel good about the cleanliness of my kitchen. I have never had food poisoning and I think I am good about cleaning, but it is always in the back of my mind and it is freeing to know that I can eat my food raw or cooked and it wont hurt me. One thing that I need to research a little more is the money thing. It seems like it could cost a lot of money to buy fresh (and sometimes organic) foods, but compared to buying meat and buying foods that i never use, I think it is going to save a lot. It also helps that I plan the meals off of recipes and try to only buy enough for the week and use it all before I go to the store or market again. I have found websites that tell me the best things to buy organic and the things that do not really matter as much as long as they are washed. I try to buy nuts, beans, and grains (rice, quinoa) in bulk.
Anyway, I just wanted to organize my thoughts a little about this new endeavor. I am sure it will evolve (like our low carb adventure did.) but I am getting good things out of this and I think we will just keep making more hardcore positive changes.