Perfect Harmony
Hey there, blog world! We just wrapped up a capital D delicious lunch at Earthereal restaurant (my old stomping grounds).
But…before that…
To chop or not to chop?
Chop!!!
Before:
After:
I feel so much lighter! I’ve had my hair short before, but the past two years, it’s just been getting longer and longer…and longer and longer! It felt good to chop it all off! My hair actually had a lot of natural curl and wave, but when it gets so long, it’s too heavy for any of that to come out. When it’s short, it curls right up!
After I returned from the salon, we headed out for a New Year’s Eve lunch at Earthereal.
For good luck, Katie and John, the owners, started us off with a little sample of black eyed peas and cabbage:
We better have mega good luck and fortune this year! We’re eating black eyed peas AGAIN tomorrow during the LSU/Penn State game!
For my lunch, I chose the Harmony salad. This salad is lettuce, topped with cheese, avocado, soy bits, olives, mushrooms, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, and sprouts.
I felt very harmonious after eating this 
We topped off the meal with some baked goods. I got a sugar-free carob chip cookie:
Plus we loaded up on some chocolate chip cookies and bread to take home. I love their baked goods!
I guess I’d better eat them while I can, because starting tomorrow…I’ll be kicking off a new challenge!!!
Before I explain my challenge, let me explain my theory/history with New Years Resolutions. It’s quite simple, really: love making ‘em. Hate keeping ‘em. I always have a BIG, LONG list of allllllllll the changes I’m going to make in the year to come. I always do really well for a few days…maybe even a week. But by February, I’ve usually forgotten what my resolutions even were, much less managed to incorporate them into my life.
Sigh.
But I do like the feeling of having goals to work towards, and setting a “challenge” for myself in the upcoming year.
So, bearing that in mind, I’ve decided that instead of making a long list of resolutions for January 1st, for 2010, I’m going to give myself one “challenge” at the beginning of each month. After all, I can do anything for 30 days, right? The goal is to take on a single challenge every month, and then move on to another goal or challenge. I think that this will accomplish a few things. First of all, it makes the challenges MUCH less intimidating. There’s no way I could go vegan for a full year, but a month? That, I think I could do (we’ll find out, anyway!). It will also keep me from becoming bored with my goals, or “forgetting” about what I’ve set out to do. If I’m only focusing on one specific goal per month, I really have no excuse for not giving it my all!
I have a few challenges in mind for the upcoming months, but I’d love to hear your ideas on some possible challenges as well!
For January, as you can kind of gather, I’ve decided that I’m going to try (note: TRY) to eat vegan for the entire month. I know that this will be a lot of work, and will probably be super challenging at times. Who knows if I’ll be able to do it every day—there might be some slipups along the way, and I’ll ask ahead of time for your understanding and forgiveness. The goal of these challenges is not to complete each one perfectly, but to give each one my all, and hopefully learn something about myself and my health along the way.
So, what this means is that starting tomorrow, in addition to not eating meat or fish, I will be consuming no dairy, eggs, or animal products. I’m actually really excited to get started! People who eat vegan are always talking about how it’s easier than it sounds…we’ll see about that!
Hope you’re having a great New Year’s Eve day.
Ryan and I are seriously grandparents…we have no plans for tonight but to cook a nice meal and relax, just the two of us! Well…plus the dogs, of course! We might even watch a movie—watch out! Things are getting wacky! We got a few offers here and there to do more “social” things tonight, but honestly—a low-key night sounds so good to me!
I bet you’re doing something more exciting…perhaps you even have big plans for the evening? If so, I hope you have fun!
Happy 2010!!!
Love the new style!
My hair is a tad bid longer than your new cut. It was the same length as your before in October. I went for a trim and the stylist got scissor happy and chopped it all off…
As you can imagine I wasn’t happy since I wasn’t planning for it.
Have a Happy New Year!
Thanks, Gelareh! I’ve had that happen to me before…go in for a “trim,” and suddenly 5 inches are missing. GRRRR…that is NOT a fun experience in the salon. Oh well…it grows out, right?
Hope you have a great New Year’s Eve! Happy 2010!
LOVE the hair!! you look beautiful!!
happy healthy NYE!
Aww, thank you
Happy NYE!
Love the new hair, you look great!
I was vegan for about a year, and I think that you’ll find it to be a really enriching experience!
I love the idea of a resolution for each month…and your hair looks great!
Thank you!!!
Good luck on that challenge! I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about yourself.
If you are grandparents, then so am I. We’re having people over but they’re leaving before 9 and that couldn’t be more perfect for me. I want to see people and have fun on the holiday but I also know I’ll be whiny and cranky by the time midnight comes
lol– hey, at least you’re having people over, right? I’ll be lucky if I make it to midnight
Hi
Just came across your blog and read about your resolution to go vegan for a month. I tried that myself about a year ago (of course I am not vegetarian). It really wasn’t as hard as it sounds. I really do think vegan diets are one of the healthiest ways to eat. I didn’t stick with it however because there were so many things I missed and I believe in an overall balance of all foods. Good luck though, looking forward to see how it goes and the recipes you come up with
Thanks for the encouragement Kristy! Can’t wait to check out your blog!
Very cute haircut! I’m excited to see each month’s resolution – if you have any questions about going vegan, at least you have a lot of people to ask
Love the new haircut! I would love to try something like that. My ends are so split. I have not been able to afford a trim since August. WAH!
I have another blogger friend who did a challenge a month last year. She did things like give up soda, read more books, exercise more, etc. It was fun to read her montly recaps and see how she did.
I think you will find vegan eating very easy and fun at home! It’s just a bit tricky when eating out. I don’t like to eat out all that much so it works for me.
One tip – when looking for vegan margarine, don’t buy the stuff that has D3 in it – that is an animal-derived Vitamin D. D2 is okay (plant-derived). Also, check this out – http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/ – there are TONS of accidentally vegan processed foods, if you’re in a crunch.
Good luck!
Thanks for the tip!! I’ll definitely be turning to your blog for vegan-inspiration
I just bought a big thing of earth balance spread– that should be okay, right? I’m checking the ing. list right now, and I dont’ see D3.
That’s tricky though! I’m sure there are going to be a million things that I think are vegan, and then when I check the ingredient list, I’ll discover that they’re not. I’m sure it will be pretty time-consuming, especially in the beginning. One of my big goals is to just eat as much whole food as I can. I think that will cut down on the “trickier” non-vegan products.
Love the new cut!!! So cute!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE your hair…fabulous!! I have been thinking about chopping mine off too and doing a shag cut! We’ll see…
I also LOVED your idea of doing little mini 30 day challenges…I might steal that and apply that to my own life! Love the blog…happy 2010!!
Love the haircut! Shorter is totally the way to go
And after your posts, I’m totally planning on eating beans and greens tomorrow! I love that idea.
I also really love your challenge idea, that’s very smart and effective! I tried to think of having deadlines for my goals so that I wouldn’t just leave them all to the last minute. Not that I do that or anything….
Have a fabulous New Year’s Eve!
I LOVE YOUR HAIR!! you look so hot!! ow oww!
LOL
Love the hair! Good luck with your vegan challenge. There are so many good blogs out there with awesome recipes so surely it won’t be THAT hard! I just ordered some vegan recipe books the other day. Can’t wait to get them in and try out some recipes (I’ll be sure to post). Happy New Year!
Ooh, I can’t wait to see the recipes you try out! Happy 2010!
I love the new cut! I’m usually biased towards short hair. Maybe because that’s what I have?
I love your new haircut!! Great way to start the year off with a new hairdo!
Happy New Year!!
Your hair looks great! GOod luck with your monthly challenges. Eating vegan sounds tough to me, I will be interested to see how you do! Best of luck.
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Your haricut is fantastic: grown-up but still very cute!
I’m catching up on blogs!! I wish I had seen this sooner! Your hair is sooooo cute! I love it!!
I think a 30 day challenge sounds like a great idea! Good luck!