Fanny's Happy Soul

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I’m a busy, working, ordinary gal, and trying to juggle health and work is always frustrating. I’ve never written a blog before, or even ever considered sharing my knowledge with other people. I want to start off by expressing the fact that I didn’t go to school for nutrition, even though I really should have. I’m not a writer by any means, and what I share is strictly based on what has worked for us, and what I have learned and am learning on an ongoing basis.We are not fully vegan and may have occasions where we have dairy, however by incorporating my recipes into your diet, you’ll already feel better! I have educated myself throughout the years on health and wellness but I have to say, my inspiration through all of this is my wonderful, hopefully, soon-to-be hubby – he is the main reason I started getting both of us on this health train!

A Little History:
We met in the beginning of 2014, and as all couples do, we lost ourselves in junk food, processed foods, breads, and cheese. A lot of cheese. Grilled cheese..with bacon, for lunch and dinner, for days. I thought to myself, this is just the way we have to eat when we’re on a budget – right? Wrong. Over the months we both gained a tremendous amount of weight, we started getting lazy, tired, and didn’t want to do much except sit on the couch and watch TV – it was sort of our routine. I started experiencing numbness in my arms when I was sleeping – probably due to the cookies we would eat morning and night. I knew this but didn’t want to make the change, it was too much work at that time. I mean, I have a gym downstairs and we didn’t even use it for a year! When we did try to go out – it would be to a bar and even then, we looked at each other and thought what are we doing? We clearly needed a kick in the butt, but we both lacked in motivation and we were slowly drowning ourselves in processed foods, fast foods, and sweets!

Who was going to motivate who first.. and that question never got answered, until recently.

That would be ME of course.

I’ve had experience with juicing and healthy eating in the past, when I was single. I’ve read a lot of books on eating clean, and have been, thankfully, surrounded by people who have taught me more than I can imagine. I started in May 2015 after I quit my job to find something new and focus on the beau’s health. He has been going through some gastrointestinal issues, and I really wanted him off of any kind of medication he was currently on – blood pressure and pills for his stomach

I have never done this before – jobless and trying to fix my broken boyfriend at the same time. In the interim of finding a job, I focused on reading up on diseases and causes for gastrointestinal issues. Many people have discouraged me, telling me not to self diagnose.. but I wasn’t trying to self diagnose anything, but instead, I was trying to educate myself so I can learn how to handle the situation – In the end it paid off. Here’s my story how:

If you have ever met my boyfriend, you know he is a pickier eater than a 2-year-old (don’t ever tell him I told you). His taste buds have been totally destroyed from all the processed foods. He had no taste for real healthy whole foods, and he made sure he told me that there was no way in hell he would ever eat vegetables! Isn’t that funny. Look at us now.

How We Made the Change:
After several nights of not getting any sleep, one morning I woke up with no sleep because of his stomach pain all night long – vomiting and everything else on the list. I said to myself.. How can I just sleep through the night or sit here, and allow the man who I love so much to be in so much pain?

At this point, he had no more choices. I ran to Walmart that morning and picked up a juicer along with a bunch of green vegetables. I made the juice for “myself” and told him I’m starting a new lifestyle (in hopes he would follow). I needed to be the anchor, the inspiration and the nurturer. This was my wake up call – if I didn’t do anything about it, then no one would. He would be stuffed with pills by doctors which would cause other side effects that would have to be treated with more pills. He was watching me sip on this green juice…I knew he wouldn’t want to drink any of it, but I told him to take a sip. YUCK he said. After a few days of him watching me do this, he started splitting the juices with me ( wanting to be healthy too) – still chugging it down quickly and saying Yuck every time.

As the weeks went on, I started incorporating other vitamins, minerals and supplements into our juices, then I realized, there is no point of juicing if we’re going to stuff our faces with grilled cheese and bacon – it defeats the purpose. I researched healthy recipes for picky eaters – that I will share with you on this blog, which made all the difference in the world. I never thought he would juice, let alone, eat chicken and spinach for dinner.

I have officially accomplished my goal  – to take care of the man I love. To date, combined, we have lost 20+ lbs and at this point it’s not about the weight loss anymore, his blood pressure has gone WAY down – no need for blood pressure pills, and the healthy bacteria in his gut is on the right track for being restored. No more vomiting, no more stomach pain, no more late night suffering.

Follow us through our journey to a healthy, natural, gluten-free, dairy-free and organic lifestyle (for the picky eaters)