and suddenly a fat neck

Getting fat is one of those things that slips up on a person, or at least in my case. A person can get up every morning, take a peek in the mirror and see the same shiny face they saw yesterday. Perhaps there are some differences on the canvas, but for the most part it's the you you know and love. Then one day you're touching your face, and suddenly you notice you can't feel a tendon or your jaw as sharply as before Christmas. Hmm, you wonder, when did that happen? Days, weeks, months in the making, one has to come to terms with the fact that the chub is there and something must be done. Oh, why can't eating donuts, lattes, mochas, cakes, cookies, pasta, pasta, and more pasta, come without consequences? Dearest metabolism, I beg you, please come back!

Metabolism or no, it's probably best to reign in any unscrupulous eating habits. Who wants to find themselves unnecessarily hobbled at an early age because of a weakness for butter and sugar? All of this in mind, I'm experimenting with cutting some foods out of my diet, as in meat and dairy products. After eating enough apples and oranges, I actually started to like and look forward to them. To my great surprise, soy milk is great in a latte! Vegan waffles are just as delicious as the standard recipe. I'm in my first week, and although the adjustment has been a bit difficult, I feel far more enthusiastic about eating nutritious foods I habitually turned my nose at. A friend, Hope, stated the benefits of this path quite well: "once I became a vegan, I finally chose the apple over the Snickers."

What helps is that you really have to read the ingredients for the foods you buy (if prepared) and think outside the box when cooking. As a cook, I definitely tend to reproduce the same dishes with no real thought to their nutritional benefits. Now I have to consider how to cook a wide range of veggies, and I'm glad to have the challenge.