Hello World! Or, why I'm blogging.

I was a very picky kid.  There were entire food groups (fruit), colors (green) and textures (mushy, soggy, wet) that I refused to consume. And when I say "kid", I don't mean elementary school or a couple years as an especially willful preteen.  I did not even begin to emerge from my picky shell until I was in my early 20s, and it's been a long slow process.

There were many ways I stubbornly perpetuated my pickiness.  When I was younger, my mother, facing her own frustrations, and reacting to the well-intentioned advice of friends, family (and likely medical professionals) tried all the tactics in the book: "Just try one bite!", "If you don't eat your [insert vegetable here] you won't get any dessert!" or "You're not leaving the table until you eat your [thing I was never, ever going to try]!".  This meant war, and in a battle of food-related wills, my wills usually won out.  My own tactics ranged from the relatively benign, like forgoing dessert, pushing food around on my plate to make it look like I'd tried it, or sneaking the offending item with me to bathroom and flushing it down the toilet to the more dramatic, like staying at the table past my bedtime, or even (once!) making myself throw up all over my plate.  My mother eventually let me make my own alternate meal if I didn't like what was being served, which suited me just fine.

I did, however like most things crunchy, sweet, and/or carb laden.  And especially once I started college and moved out on my own, I indulged my every mega-processed whim. Ice cream cones on the daily! Fried rice! Ordering pizza every other week! And my personal fav, crescent dogs (hot dogs + cheese + crescent rolls)! Not a vegetable to be found in my fridge. And I rationalized my eating habits by the fact that somehow I didn't really gain much weight.

So how did this picky kid end up craving kale, downing green juice and even flirting with veganism? Dating (and then marrying) a vegetarian helped start the transition.  Also as I grew up a little (imagine that!) and wanted to be healthier, more fit, etc.  I started eating vegetables, and found that I liked most of them!  I began running, at first to achieve my long-held goal of running the 2008 Race to Robie Creek, a local legend of a race in Boise, Idaho and then going on to run 3 more half marathons and 4 marathons in the interceding 5 years (half #5 is scheduled for two weeks from today, and marathon #5 is May 5).

I still love carbs, wine and all things chocolate, but in the past 8 months I've really started paying closer attention to portion sizes, calories in and out, servings of fruit and veggies and all manners of boring things like that.  Seriously, I don't know how my husband can tolerate me.  But I've lost almost 30 pounds of "lazy weight" and dropped at least 2 minutes per mile off my average run pace.  And as of January 1 (cliche much?) I've kept pretty much (but not uber dogmatically) vegan.

I'm planning to use this blog to document yummy vegan (and probably non-vegan) things I cook, as well as running stuff, and miscellaneous happenings in the life of my little Donovan clan.