Opening Post

Ever start something new and feel like you want to tell the world?

Well that's pretty much where I'm at. 

So let me introduce myself.

 My name is Cara

This is me.

I recently packed up everything I own and moved into an apartment on the West side of Buffalo.

Having my own apartment for the most part is pretty awesome. I get to be an adult and live on my own (with roommates, of course).

Probably the best thing is finally buying my own groceries and ultimately deciding what goes into my body.

I've been a meat eater for the majority of my life. Until my freshman year of college. My first roommate ever was a vegetarian and she got me to go vegetarian for a while. From that point, I've been experimenting with diet preferences. I have cut out pretty much all dairy products, in addition to beef, pork, and for the most part chicken. I have been eating a primarily pescetarian diet for the past year or so. But I've never been super strict with it. 

Another thing, I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 14. PCOS is a reproductive disorder that, as I've come to learn, affects a lot more than just my reproductive system. Everything in my body has been affected, including my ability to lose weight. Essentially, PCOS stops me from being able to get pregnant, not that that's a huge issue for me right now in my life. But what my doctor didn't tell me is that PCOS is essentially caused by the buildup of all the hormones that we get from food. The hormone levels in my body are all out of whack because of the food I've been eating since I was a child. PCOS is basically a pre-diabetic diagnosis. Right now, western medicine dictates that women with PCOS eat birth control until they want to get pregnant, and then they are fed diabetes drugs until they get pregnant, and the cycle repeats until they're of menopause age. 

SO! As a way to combat all of the damage by body has undergone for the past 22 years, I'm going to be venturing into the vegan unknown. The only way I will be rid of unnatural hormones from food is by eating food that hasn't been feed or injected with hormones. Eventually, I'd like to transition into a completely organic, vegan diet, however, this poor college student can't afford organic EVERYTHING.

So far, I have transitioned into being vegetarian for the past 3 days, with the addition 20 minutes of cardio in the form of walking on the treadmill that my brother so nicely delivered to my apartment. 

Tonight I made these little beauties for dinner, minus the "bacon". Click here for the recipe.

This recipe is amazing. I've many veggie burgers, and these are the best I've ever had. I never thought to put apple cider vinegar into a veggie burger before, but it really made these taste amazing. I actually caught myself eating the leftover mix right out of the bowl! My roommate came charging up the stairs after coming home from class exclaiming how delicious my dinner smelled. The best part about this veggie burger is that it's 100% vegan...I've never had a decent tasting veggie burger that did not use eggs to keep it together. 

Among all of this, I also have been tracking my exercise and food intake on LIVESTRONG . This site helps me track calories in and out. Plus it has thousands of foods by brand name that have been verified so you know the nutrients recorded are the ones you're actually ingesting.

So how's that for a first blog post? I didn't intend for it to be so long winded but I guess I had a lot to say. Also, I was given the idea to start this blog by a friend of mine, Cheurice. Her blog is incredibly inspirational, so check it out!