Food. Part II

So let me give you a little background regarding my food epiphany...
Yesterday my lunch looked like this:



I suddenly became so disgusted by the "all white meat" sticks sitting on my plate and the carbonated poison I was guzzling down, that I got up and poured half the can down the sink.
Jonathan did not like that I wasted it, but i deemed it a necessary physical expression of protest.

Am I giving up soda? no. not yet.
Will I never eat another chicken finger as long as I live? highly doubtful.

But something needs to start happening. Something needs to change.

A little more background:

sorry for those of you who really don't want this much information about my digestive system, but I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
For those of you not familiar with IBS, it goes like this:
Every time you eat, your stomach feels like this-



I have become so incredibly fed up with feeling this way, that I desperately want to do something about it. I've been researching, I'm learning. I can tell it will definitely be a journey, probably a long rocky one. But I'm not looking for a trendy diet, I'm looking to establish a new way of life. and let's be honest- that takes time.

So here are some of my biggest issues that I will be working through. Anyone with advice, resources, encouragement to offer, your comments are welcome!

1) Expense. The price of organic food, free range chicken, etc is unbelievably high. Furthermore, my apartment is not equipped with a storage-friendly freezer. It can only hold a few containers and tub of ice cream at a time, which is unfortunate.

2) sacrifice. i really loooove junk food. I don't really over-indulge in these things, but I'd really like to cut them out entirely down the road, and it's going to be difficult. I need to find good replacements for some of my favorite munchies.

3)and this is a bog one... time. My days start and 8 and go till 5:30, except on Tuesdays when they don't end until 8:30. When I come home I have studying to do (several more hours of labor), chores to complete, a shower to take, and a husband to spend quality time with. Somewhere in there, I have to cook dinner. I almost exclusively make things that take under 30 minutes to prepare, cook and serve. This seems to be the greatest life-limitation for me when it comes to changing my daily eating habits.

Some other concerns:

1) Jonathan didn't sign up for this. I don't want to force him to eat vegetarian things every now and then. I don't want to deprive him of some of the foods that I know he loves, but are absolutely horrible for us. It's one thing to ask this of myself, it's a whole different thing to push it on him.

2) I'm terrified of failing. I want to see victory in this area of my life. It's hard for me to begin something without knowing if I can accomplish it. But those are the places where we experience the most growth. I am looking forward to that.

I hope you will join me on this journey toward holistic health, buckle your seat belts :)