Us.

A few months back my husband was featured in Veg News in an article talking about different excuses people had for not being Vegan. He really did have a good excuse, as far as excuses go – he is allergic to plants. I should clarify, he’s allergic to all raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and a handful of other random things and we really thought it would be impossible for him to be a healthy vegan.

It took us six weeks to figure it out. And he’s been completely plant based for over 6 months now. It started when he saw what was happening to my health, and then he started to learn exactly what an animal based diet does to the body. He’s passionate about it now, like me, it started as a health quest, and became a lot more. The truth is that it’s a lot easier to learn about what is being done to animals when you are no longer eating them.

Health wise as a couple, so much has changed in a year that it’s hard to imagine we were ever any different. We obviously love each other A LOT, we always have, and I think it has been out of that love that we were able to make the changes we did. It was out of a tremendous, non judging love that we could talk openly about what we were learning, the struggles, the questions we had, especially when it came to some of the ethical things we were learning about.

Of course, it was out of a huge love for each other, that we seek constantly to be as healthy as we can. We’re always adjusting, and learning and aiming for the healthiest life we can live. We work out, we learn how to make new meals, we learn to laugh when things don’t go our way.

It was about a year ago that we moved away from the Washington, DC area. We both needed to do it. We had spent 5 years battling my disease together,  not focusing on anything else really. It was tough. We made it through, we still laughed every day, hugged every day, and even in the worst of what we went through, our love just kept growing.

I don’t think we could have had any clue seven years ago on February 7^th when my husband proposed to me, what we’d go through as a couple, and how much we’d stretch, grow and change, all in amazing and beautiful ways. We’re always talking, always figuring things out together, always asking ourselves about our dreams and how we can be even more awesome. (ok maybe we don’t say it just like that, but we are pretty awesome).

My husband is my hero. He is by far the strongest man I have ever known, he has never once become angry at some of the bad situations we found ourselves in, and he has never once said a discouraging word. I don’t think I could have been more lucky that the day he got on one knee and asked me to marry him.

Today we just keep going, we learn, we talk, we encourage one another, most importantly we never give up. This past year we’ve changed every thing – together. We took a lot of risks this past year, and each of them were completely worth it. If you had told me 7 years ago that one day we’d be traveling full time, hiking on cliffs over the ocean, that we would have fought a horrible disease, that we would have learned an entire new way of living life, that we would have discovered together who we could be if we really challenged ourselves, and of course, that we would become Vegan – well honestly, I could have never even imagined any of that seven years ago. I didn’t know to reach so high, I didn’t know that it was ok to challenge and challenge and then challenge some more. I didn’t know that life was able to be shaped so beautifully, and that in the end, it’s all about our choices. At some point, my husband and I made a choice to be active participants in our life, not passive participants, just watching it all go by, accepting disease, accepting pain, accepting the way things were. We became active participants, moving through life in a completely different way, being aware that the way things are, even if at times, seems really impossible – can always, always change. And now, we just keep learning.

I’m so proud of my husband, on the health side of things, I’m not the only one who is rocking it. Together, as a couple? We have lost 163 pounds. My husband’s allergies continue to improve, and some other health concerns just keep getting better.  He is filled with life, bright, bold and beautiful life… And I can’t wait to see what the years ahead hold for us, I have a feeling, that as long as we keep dreaming and aiming high, the adventures that are ahead of us will just keep getting better.