Beauty in a being....plus a review.

Let me tell you about an amazingly beautiful, special woman I call my wife...Tegan.  I want to use today's blog to share a little about her recent journey and what an incredible transformation she has made.  So, just over five months ago, we had our second baby, little Corlè.  She has brought so much joy to us, but as expected, some extra weight for Tegan to carry around.

Tegs has always been a little erratic with her eating and exercise.  She didn't really eat regular meals and exercised on and off.  She was far from unhealthy, but like all of us, could do with some improving.  Until having Corlè.

I am not entirely sure what happened, but since bringing the precious little cargo into the world, Tegan has completely changed her existence and turned her life around for the better.  She has gone pretty much 95% plant based with me and is running/exercising on a regular basis.  She also just finishing the Cane 2 Coral 15km in a smart time.  The only way that I can really explain it is that it is almost like she has been on autopilot and now has just kicked into gear.

I have learnt a lot too over the last few months.  The first thing being you can not change someone, no matter how much you might want to, unless they are ready.  For someone to change their life, they need to come to a place where they are willing to make sacrifices, work hard and dig deep for their goals.  Tegs is just about at her initial goal weight, losing over 12kg, and is now to the point of re-assessing where she wants to sit weight wise.  Keeping on re-assessing the benchmark and goals is also important.

I have also learnt how amazing it is to have a wife be on the same page, health/diet wise.  Although Tegan hasn't ever made things difficult for me with my diet choices, it has been a little tough doing it on my own.  Now that she is sharing the journey with me, it is like my best friend is there to encourage, share, struggle and work hard to make our lives better each day.  It may be hard for some of you to understand, but when eating a plant based diet and really taking notice of what goes into your body, it is almost like creating a spiritual connection with food.  To be able to share that with Tegs has brought me personally to a new level of love and companionship with her.  I feel like we are connecting in ways that we never have in our over 10years of marriage and all elements of our lives are better for it.

I have always known it, but Tegan has also shown that if you really want to achieve something it really is not that hard.  I get so tired of hearing peoples excuses for them not doing what they say they are going to when all it takes is for them to have a bit of a go!  I know that my princess has become a real example to a lot of people now, especially women and she has done it all with class and little fuss.  She set a goal and is taking care of business...like a boss!

Another side of things in our lives that has really changed is how we are trying to bring up our kids, in all ways, but in particular with their diets.  It has become so apparent the damaging effects sugar, dairy and meat can have on their little bodies.  When Pria now eats these foods the difference is amazing!  We are doing what we can to steer her in the right direction of what we believe is the optimal way to eat.  Hopefully together we can help her to make her own good decisions in the long term.

So, overall, Tegan, you inspire me.  Your support in all I do, your friendship, your neverending love, your care and compassion run deep.  I am privileged and honored to be married to you and it has been a blessing to see you change and grow over the last couple of months.  I look forward to the journey we are embarking on with anticipation and can not wait to see what we can achieve and the level of health we can both reach.  Keep up the amazing work, I love you and think you are amazing!

Ok, I'm hearing, 'enough of the sap!'  Well sorry but it needed to be said!  Ha!

Lastly, I am gonna do a review of a new product that I have come across in the last couple of weeks.  I was put onto At One Foods by my friend Tylana.  I was told that one of the owners was an Ultra Runner and they were creating gluten free, vegan, raw bars...sounded perfect to fuel my long runs!  So, I got in touch with the owner Andrew, and immediately felt at ease and home.  He was all to happy to answer any questions that I had and share some information about their products.  After some further conversation, they offered to send me some samples of their products.  I received Cocoa and Incaberry, Apricot and Almond and Banana and Pecan (I think there was another flavor but I ate them!)  I have been using them in my long runs over the last couple of weeks and let me tell you they are the goods!  They taste beautiful, go down well, and give me some awesome sustenance, in a compact bar to keep me kicking over t he k's.  I strongly recommend them and although they are in the final stages of getting their commercial products out there, they have a market level product that are readily available.  If you contact Andrew at https://www.facebook.com/AtOneFoods I am sure that he will be more than happy to help you get your hands on some of their yummy nutritious bars.  Tell him I sent ya!  I hope to be able to organised something with this great company in the near future of how I can help promote a great business.  Below is a breakdown of nutritional info, pretty much the same across all of their bars.

Per serving size of 40g Energy 680kJ Protein 3.5g Total fat 6.7g (saturated 0.9g, unsaturated 5.8g, trans 0g) Carbs 19g (sugars 15g) Dietary fibre (4.3g) Sodium 18mg Potassium 310mg

So friends, with all that said, I am out of here!  With under four weeks until the miler things are getting very exciting!  I hope your all doing amazing and loving this beautiful sunshine we have had as of late!  I think you are all special, amazing and I can't wait to hear about any adventures you might be having!  Stay true friends, plant power, run free...TattooRunner