So - 2008 served as a 'year of going green'...not conservationist green, but vegetarian. Of course it began with a bang...and a 27 pound weight loss, about 1/2 of which I've maintained while still remaining lazy to the bone... :) In the end though, I don't care how you eat, without exercise...good luck. So I'll work on that this year.
I started out gang busters like I said. Learning all sorts of new things...experimenting, trying new tastes, new recipes, new cookbooks. And that was fun and exciting. I like trying new things. I especially like new foods. I love cooking. I went more than five months without a single non-vegetarian item. I accidentally found myself living a Vegan lifestyle. I always thought that would be much harder. Its not...not at home atleast. Out...well now, that's another story. You can't control quite as much when you go out, and the part of Colorado I live in doesn't offer a lot of Vegan restaurants. Vegan's live really "whole". No animal, no animal by products, no anything that was touched by an animal. That includes sugar. Cane sugar. White AND brown. Because somewhere in the process they are ground by mills that use animal bone -- it helps with the bleaching. And no eggs. There are egg substitutes. I don't mean like egg beaters...because that's still egg...and once upon a time it had the potential to have a face... :) ... I mean a powder based egg substitute that thickens in recipes but is NOT egg. Being that I don't have a Whole Foods right down the street I found this to get a little more than I could handle. Way more prep than I am good at consistantly. So - vegetarian is where I remained.
What did I discover about living this way? I found that it was cheaper for our family. Especially when they cut back on meats as well. We are a Costco family. And that's where we buy most of our larger food supply...like meats (and vegis, etc.). So our meats (fish, chicken, pork, beef) budget was around $35/week. There were weeks we didn't buy any at all. I buy the grains I eat in bulk for the most part. For $20 I could get a month's worth for the most part. My costs were higher in things like vegetable broth/starter, etc. because lets face it, I don't want to stand around making homemade stock everytime I just needed a small cup of juice.
In addition to saving $$, here were the other benefits I experienced. Not to say that this will work for everyone, but it was significant for me. I was able to sleep at night, every night, soundly. For those of you who have known me through the years, this is a miracle. I am a quintesencial insomniac. I probably lost 5 years of sleep altogether over the years since I found I couldn't sleep more than 3-4 hours from about the age of 14. Magically cured. Migraines...only 3 this year. Bonified migraines. I've had headaches, but not to the intensity I had been accustomed. I can count 3 where I had to hide in darkness and keep a bucket nearby. I'll take 3 any day. Blood pressure came down, I was able to better concentrate. I no longer have "stomach" issues. I always had issues with digestion. Always felt like food stayed around forever...uncomfortably so. Not so much anymore. I feel good after most meals and feel light and digested within 2 hours.
Perhaps the biggest change I experienced overall was lack of illness. My friends and family know my asthma gets the best of me. Atleast 5 times a year, always between August and April. I should have been sick in August. I should have been sick-sick in October. Nada. On both counts. I sailed through with narry an issue. Now, I'm sure in part that was due to the odd weather patterns we experienced here in the Rockies this year. But I can't help but think, it was in part to making better food choices throughout the year. Just being more conscientious of myself and my health in general.
I've eaten meat more frequently in the last month or so with the holidays. And though it was something I looked forward to, something certainly more "convenient", when I got there...it was "eh". Just eh...its not like I bit in and thought, "OMGosh, THIS is what I've been missing, what I've been craving..." Nope. Just eh. Take it or leave it. I felt heavy. Full. Uncomfortable. Not excited about the next "meat" event.
So - where I stand at the end of the year...Pescitarian it is. I am going to stick with a mainly vegetarian lifestyle. I think its closer to what the Word of Wisdom teaches. I will include fish as a protein source on occassion. Not daily...sometimes not weekly, but I will include it. It gives me additional options, and other aminos that are healthy for me. And I miss it. Plain and simple.
I'm glad I gave this a whirl. I was vegetarian once years ago. When Frank and I were first dating. Lived that way for four years...then "recovered" as my Greek brother loves to say. So this wasn't completely new to me, but the way I approached it this time was. I was more conscious of the foods I was eating. I paid more attention to taste and texture. Found what I liked and what I didn't. Tried combinations I never drempt of myself, and ate foods I'd never heard of before (Quinoa, for instance) and found there was a whole new world out there that I'd been missing.
So - the moral of the story. I tried it, I liked it, I'm sticking with it. For the most part...not about perfection, its about progression...and I feel like I'm progressing in all ways living like this!
~S
