Trip to Gravity Hill Farm

On Tuesday Sara brought me along to a wonderful farm that sell some great produce.   What was so cool is all the produce that was for sale had just been picked that day.   I bought some salad and yellow beans.  It so wonderful to have such fresh produce, the taste is so much better!

After we bought our produce we went to see the animals the best part J   They have Llamas, alpacas, chickens and goats there.   I really love Llamas; I just think they are so cute and cuddly.   

These had been shaved recently so they were kind of homely in a cute way. I’m sure they are enjoying having shorter fur though with the summer heat coming on though.  We also spent time with the goats as well.  They were so friendly and just loved to get attention. 

Here is a link to their web page Gravity Hill Farm gravityhillfarm

Progression of New Years Resolutions

I was pondering how well my progression and lack of progression of the New Year’s resolutions that I made.  In the past I really have hated to make any resolutions because it has always been something that I would end up blowing off and never coming close to meeting.  Maybe they have been too steep to be done, or just my lack of motivation to completing them.  This year like all the previous years I made a few resolutions with the expectation that I would fail to meet them again.  One of my goals was to lose weight and be healthier.  I didn’t set a weight because I didn’t want to fail. I have lost 20 lbs but gain 5 back so far this year.  Another goal was to be more physically active as well.  I started walking the 1^st part of the year with Tina and was really struggling to walk a mile or so.  At the same time I also started to eat a little healthier, which has evolved into eating vegetarian.  That kind of was an unexpected curve that I would have never thought I would have take, yet I am so happy I have chosen it now though.   I have also hit walking 5 to 7 miles a day in walking as well.   So I think that I am going to set a new goal.   I think it’s going to be a push and as usual I am worried that I will fail.  I am wanting to be able to run 5 miles by the end of summer.  I hope that I will make it to this new goal, it isn’t so generic like before and I think it will also push me physically as well.

I do have to laugh though; I really did blow one of my resolutions pretty bad.   I made one that I wanted to put the transgender part of me more in the background of life.  I really missed the mark so bad on that so far this year.   In January I got to help my friends as they went through gender confirmation surgery, which was so cool to be there with them.  March we did the Dr Oz show on transgender families.   It really has turned out to be a blessing though because I really have met so many great people that I’m really glad I missed blew this New Year’s resolution! 

Lunch with a friend

Today I had lunch with one of my friends here in Charleston.  He is really a cool friend; I have known and worked with him since we moved here.  He is one of my friends that truly have amazed me in my transition.   He has never questioned or even asked about the changes that have happened he has just accepted me for who I am.   For lunch I ordered a baked potato with chili on it.  We sat down and were catching up on each other’s work.  I all of a sudden thought did I order that with veggie chili?  I wasn’t sure, but that’s what I normally order.  All these thoughts came to me, if it has meat in it will I eat it, should I go check the order to see, dang I really don’t want to make a scene….  All of a sudden the potato showed up, it did have the chili with meat in it.  So I had to make the choice of eating it or not.  Do I want to go against my conviction of being a vegetarian? I sure really didn’t want to make a scene and redo my order because the restaurant was getting very busy.   My thought was oh I can eat that,  it won’t be so bad.  It was really good to eat, but in the end I really paid for it.  Not only did my stomach hurt for a few hours but I was also very disappointed in my choice as well.

In thinking about this choice it really does parallel my Christian walk.  We all face small sins or choices that come into our lives each day.  We have to make a choice of what to do with them and either follow our convictions or give in.  It’s that choice of how we handle things that gives us the great pains in life, we all fall short from time to time.   Whether it telling a little white lie or falling off the diet and eating that candy bar calling your name or in my case eating some meat today.   In growing as a Christian part of it is learning from our past sins, so that we can better handle situations in the future.

Temptation

Well today I almost fell to temptation L. 

 About 5 weeks ago I decided to start eating a vegetarian diet.  It isn’t how I was brought up for sure. I really don’t prescribe to the view of how most vegetarians feel on how eating meat is cruel to animals and is bad for you.  Growing up I was always taught that a meal needed to include some kind of meat.  It is kind of weird how I came to decide on trying the whole vegetarian diet.  My journey all started in October when I unexpectedly had my gallbladder removed when I was working in PA.  After having it out I sure did feel better, however I was having issues when I ate meals.  It took me a while to figure out what was causing the issues and it seemed to be meat.  After stopping eating meats all has been well and I feel great.  It really has been a eye opening experience in learning and trying new and different foods that I would have never tried before.  I love to cooks so it has been a challenge as well trying new cook new foods that I have never cooked.  Anyway I kind of got off track here on the story, so Tina and Christa and I were stopping to get some lunch.  We pulled into one of the girl’s favorite places to eat and Tina started to egg me on to get some meat instead of the usual salad that I get.  It sounded so good so as I place the orders for the girls I ordered the number 1 combo and supersized itJ.  All the way home I was thinking that is going to taste so good.  We got home and I was ready to get into the meat Zen, I ate the fries and just couldn’t make myself eat the sandwich.  I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t want to let myself down or what the reasoning is.  But in the end it just shows that life is full of temptations from the small things of not eating meat to an endless amount of larger things.  It seems that this is going to be a  conviction that I am going to stand strong on.