Vegetarian Day #1

Okay, so, strange announcement. I'm going vegetarian for a week, at least. Some of you may know that as of late, I have been working on improving my overall health. I've quit smoking, started to increase to a regular workout schedule and worked towards a healthy diet. I've already been on a diet that is (with rare exceptions) free of red meat. This particular change wasn't a huge deal. I don't eat beef a lot in any form so it was only cutting out the occasional hamburger (which was usually fast food and needed to go anyways) and maybe not ordering a steak every time I had the opportunity. There was nothing wrong with that particular diet, (that's diet as in eating pattern, not hokey weight loss strategy) in fact I was, and still am, losing weight but a vegetarian lifestyle has recently been rather intriguing to me. My interest was piqued this weekend when I watched a documentary called "Forks Over Knives". The documentary primarily interviews two doctors who have spent a large portion of their careers doing field/clinical research regarding the link between meat/dairy products and obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other killer diseases. While there is no concrete evidence of any definite link between any of these, the correlation data and limited clinical results were very convincing. At least enough so to convince me to try it.

As of right now, I have no intention of going full and permanent vegetarian but I'd like to just give it a shot for a while at least. I've decided on a minimum of one week with no firm end date. It may be that I adopt a  "mostly vegetarian" lifestyle after this experiment and only very occasionally eat any kind of meat. I thought a week sounded like a good starting goal to evaluate the idea. I'm probably going to be blogging on this a fair amount if nothing else than to get my thoughts on it written down. I'd like to keep an eye on my morale through this experiment and be able to look back at it and remember what I was thinking at the time. This isn't going to be a major change for the majority of my day. My typical diet currently consists of meatless meals for 2 of the 3 meals of the day. I typically have oatmeal for breakfast, followed by a banana or other fruit mid morning, PB&J for lunch and some veggies and maybe string cheese in the afternoon. It's dinner that's going to be the kicker. Almost every evening meal I have made over the past few months has included chicken in one form or another. That's what's going to be tough. In order to kick start my creativity and get me some ideas to get going, I purchased a book suggested by the makers of "Forks Over Knives" entitled "Everyday Happy Herbivore" by Lindsay S. Nixon.  The cover boasts that the book contains meals that can be "on the table in 30 minutes or less." With my current lifestyle, this is exactly what I need. Something fast, cheap, and easy to make.

Now, on to the experience! Today was my first day as a temporary vegetarian. Not surprisingly, it wasn't much different from any other day. I had a typical breakfast and a mostly typical lunch. I went with some co-workers to The Tea Rose Diner. Tea Rose is a a Thai restaurant in Murray that we frequent, (seriously, some of us 3-5 times a week) and I usually order a massamun curry with chicken. Being a day one temporary vegetarian, I couldn't quite stick to that so I ordered the same dish but with tofu instead of chicken. While the meal was still satisfying and very enjoyable, most of the tofu didn't leave the table until the bus boy cleared our table. That was quite a shock. I'm not sure exactly what I expected but I sure didn't enjoy the stuff. It was rubbery on the outside and a nearly liquid gelatin on the inside. I think I'll explore other protein sources and meet substitutes. Dinner, on the other hand, was a roaring success. I tried my hand at making my first vegetarian meal out of my new cook book and ended up with a couple of delicious black bean burgers with a crisp spinach salad. I was very pleased with how the burgers turned out and very satisfied with the meal.

I don't expect to be noticing any huge life changes in a week of eating veggies but there is one thing I noticed right away; I wasn't full like I would have been with a meat meal. If I had eaten two similarly sized hamburgers, I would have felt bloated, lethargic, and uncomfortable for hours. After my first home-cooked veggie meal I felt great. I was full but not uncomfortable and after sitting for maybe 20 minutes to finish an episode of Breaking Bad, got up, cleaned the kitchen and my dishes and went for a three and a half mile run. Pretty impressive for after dinner eh?

Wow, sorry to anyone who read all of that. I just noticed how long that got. Thanks for hangin' with me through that. I'm going to try to keep this going once a day at least through my first experiment week of vegetarianism so I'll have lots more info on what I'm eating in the days to come. I know, that's just what everyone wants to read on the internet, right? Wish me luck! :)