A Cautionary Tale...

Thank you for the birthday wishes for Tony! He had a great birthday. Funny how as you get older, the definition of a good birthday is relaxing and cooking. We cooked dinner together and he played games with the boys all night. He really deserved the down time.

I have a little update on my health that I wanted to talk about. I feel like what I am going through is important so I want to share, however, I am a little worried that I will get judged for it, so please, be kind. This is why I blog in the first place. We all learn from others personal accounts wether it be food, fitness, health or life. As you all know, my family eats meat. I, however, do not. This is a choice I made years ago (actually the first time was in high school -my parents did not approve- and then 3 years ago as an adult). My site is not about meat free eating, so I never made it a huge deal (besides, it's not a big deal). I have always been saddened by the killing of animals for food, but I have a complete understanding for those that do chose to eat meat. I understand that there are basic nutritional needs that we get from eating animal products. Tony and I talk a lot about food, where it comes from, what it does for us, why we eat it...these are subjects that interest both of us, so it is a great topic around here. Anyway, I am a food person, so the history of food is of huge interest to me.

Over the past year, we have evolved into a mostly vegetarian family with meat being served (to all three boys in the house) for only a few meals during the week. We eat a good amount of eggs here and the boys do eat cheese and drink milk. I have been diligent at making sure I get the proper amount of proteins and carbohydrates everyday to fuel me. I am an avid exerciser and I love feeling healthy due to my diet and exercise. I have a family history of colon cancer and heart disease, so a meat free lifestyle that is high in fiber is supposed to be healthier, right? However, one thing that I lost track of is my vitamin intake. I do take multi vitamins along with calcium (since I can't have dairy), oil of primrose (which makes me feel great) and acidophilus for a healthy gut. Do you see what I am missing? My B12 vitamin. Yep, it's low and now I have some mild anemia. I knew when I went vegetarian that I needed to make sure I got them from other sources than meat, so I took a B supplement. Well, they were making me nauseous (I'm guessing because I had enough stored up already) and I had a bad experience with nutritional yeast (which I have recently discovered a love for), so I steered clear of both of these. I used to be a hoarder of cereal (in fact I was always munching on some cereal everywhere I went), but in my attempt to get away from processed foods, I stopped eating it as much. Most cereals are fortified with B vitamins. So, here I am sick from a lack of vitamins. My symptoms are dead on with it too...dizziness, balance issues (I've had these my whole life, so I don't know that I would blame this completely on the lack of B12), headaches, nausea, fatigue, tingling in the appendages (my fingers have started to lose some circulation and turn white when I am cold), I'm sure there are more, but I think you get the point. I'm guessing that I was low to begin with and then the stomach bug I got a month ago sent me over the top. I have taken 10 days worth of antibiotics to clean things up and I am now working on my diet. I have some major moral dilemmas going on in my head right now that I need to work on and I am horribly frustrated to say the least.

The bright side is that I have learned something important before it got bad. This is manageable and not the worst thing that could happen to me...trust me, I have had worse. I feel like, a lot of times, we don't talk about the things that can be embarrassing or that we can get judged for, but I think it's important to share the good, the bad and the ugly so we can learn from each other. I hope, if nothing else, this has helped someone else that doesn't eat meat or animal products be more aware that these vitamins are important for everyday health.

I have started including A LOT of B12 in my diet the past few days and today, I actually feel better!

One thing that I discovered is that the B12 is in the yolks of the eggs...which I have laid off of for awhile because I prefer egg white omelets. This was two over easy eggs served on my veggie based pasta sauce...

served with two nutritional yeast savory waffles for dipping!

I could eat this everyday!

So, I want to know, do you think about all of the nutrients when you eat? I am an everything in moderation person. I eat sweets, I eat savory, but I do focus on making sure I get the good stuff. Those of you out there that don't eat meat or dairy, how do you get your B12?