Spousal Approval Demanded?

Recently I chopped all of my hair off. I'm sure you've noticed the new pixie trend buzzing around in Hollywood....well I hopped on that band wagon. I wanted to try something daring! And I've never done anything like this.

Of course I had some nerves so it was a 3 stage process. Slowly I worked my way up to the pixie...but what was interesting was that every time I went into the Salon I got the same question, "Is your husband ok with this?" I kind of laughed and explained that Andrew could care less how I do my hair, makeup, or clothes. Believe me I've tried to get an opinion out of him! He's one of the rare awesome guys that just says "You're beautiful in anything." Am I lucky or what?

So the other night I casually mentioned this to him, and how odd it was to hear the stylists share their stories of boyfriends who declared their opinions and in some cases how it ruined relationships. He agreed that was weird, but mentioned he has had his own share of questioning about his appearance. You see, Andrew has been growing out his beard. He decided to grow his beard out for a year without cutting it. He wants to see how much it will grow, and how it will look. I have been encouraging him to do it now because he's at this cool place in his life where he doesn't have to dress business casual. Why not try it out? Plus, I kind of like the beard. Any way, apparently the question he gets asked when people who know him see the beard for the first time, is "How does your wife feel about that?"

 

Is this some weird new adage that spouses/significant others get some say in how you dress/groom/appear? I like to ask Andrew his opinion because I love him, but it's hard to say how it would make me feel if he were to start making ultimatums about my appearance. The only thing he really cares about is my modesty level. (Which I actually really appreciate! I never want to look immodest in how I dress...out of respect for myself mostly, and for him.) He will offer if he thinks something is too low cut, or see through....but again, never has he demanded that I change. He only offers his insight.

More than this being something new, I'm suspecting this is rather something old. I'll be honest, I was raised in a family where my mom thought feminist was a bad word. And for a while I agreed. I attended a women's college and I suppose it was there where I learned more about what it means to be a true feminist, and some of those ideals have rubbed off on me. (As I see it, a true feminist accepts that women have the right to cling to the traditional gender roles as their own choice, the point is that they should have that choice.) I guess when I first was asked about my hair cut decision this inner feminist came out, and I was starting to feel outraged. But as Andrew reminded me, men can also get the same scrutiny.

I guess my only answer to all of this is that I love Andrew no matter how he looks. I didn't fall in love with him because of his appearance (though that was certainly one of the first attractions). I know that looks are temporary, beauty fades....and I trust that Andrew doesn't just love me for my appearance either. After all, isn't that what love truly is?

Vegan Challenge

About 10 months ago, Andrew decided to challenge himself to doing a month as a Vegetarian. Well, he's still doing it. He says he just doesn't miss meat, and I get it. I generally don't eat that much meat either, before he started doing this 5 out of 7 meals were vegetarian already. (We do all of our grocery shopping at Walmart, but don't like their meat selection. So when it requires an extra trip it usually gets ditched from our menu.)

Lately he's been thinking about taking it one step further and doing Vegan. So we sat down and watched Vegucated on Netflix, it's a pretty interesting documentary along the same lines as Food, INC. It's about 3 New Yorkers who decided to stick to a Vegan diet for six weeks in an effort to get healthier. While they are doing this, they learn about the meat/dairy industry and get tips on good dairy substitutes.

Picture via imbd.com

After watching the film he was more inspired to give it a try. After all, you can pretty much do anything as long as you give yourself a timeline. For this one, he decided to start with one week. He planned out the Vegan dinners, and once I realized all I would have to do to join in is figure out some Vegan lunches, I decided to give it a try.

Here is what our week of Vegan Meals looked like:

I ate mostly hummus wraps for lunch. It took me a while to figure out that you can't stuff them full, like in the first picture. (They don't exactly roll up very pretty.) I lathered my whole wheat tortillas in hummus and added cucumber, tomatoes, shredded carrots, sprouts, and avocado. I also had the Amy's Teriyaki bowl, not my favorite, but not horrible. And I picked my way around Golden Corral one day for a business lunch. 

 

Andrew did an awesome job on our dinners. He made pan seared tofu with veggies, cauliflower steaks, my all time favorite Indian flat breads (they have chickpeas and tomatoes on the inside), baked potatoes with buffalo chickpeas, and ended the week with our favorite Chinese meal of Schezwan tofu. 

The Good:

These meals were all pretty good (with the exception of a potato and leek soup that I just didn't care for.) I love vegetables and fruit so it was nice to incorporate them into my diet more. Also, you can pretty much eat as much as you want without consequences to your waistline. One day I ate an entire bag of baby carrots...no harm done. It's a great excuse to say no to the things that kill your diet like chocolate, desserts, and carbs (most have eggs in them). It's clean eating at it's finest. 

The Bad:

I decided to buy all organic produce, specialty Vegan versions of normal foods, and a few of the Amy's brand frozen meals. These are not cheap. And then when we failed to realize we would want snacks, we ended up running to the grocery store multiple times during the week. This week hit our budget hard, but it's not something that couldn't easily be fixed with some planning. 

The Ugly:

Well, I'll just say that when your body is not used to a high fiber diet of veggies, hummus, and beans...there will be consequences. 

Doing Vegan for only a week I didn't see any measurable difference in my weight. But I did see myself saying no to candy bars, donuts, and birthday cake during my little trial period, so I consider it a win. I also realized that there isn't a single meal that we were eating that didn't have cheese or butter in it. So while I don't truly see Vegan being a sustainable lifestyle for myself, I think it's a great thing to incorporate into my weekly routine. You've heard of Meatless Mondays, what about Vegan Vendsdays? 

Would you try Vegan for a Week?