Over the summer I went vegetarian between coming back from Italy in July and Ironman Wisconsin in September. I wanted to see if I felt different, better. A few summers ago when I went to Nepal, everything I ate was fresh, local, vegetarian (except for the goat meat we had in the village when they killed a goat in our honor), and basically what could be termed "clean food." Nothing processed, fried, etc. I didn't exercise at all while I was there, ate probably almost as many calories as I normally do, and lost weight by the end of the trip. I attribute it mainly to eating basic, healthy foods. So, I wanted to give it a try this summer - but since this is America, processed food is around every corner and I indulged in chocolate more than I probably should have, and my summer experiment didn't quite have the same effect. HOWEVER, once Ironman had come and gone, and I gave myself permission to eat meat, I found that I didn't really want it that much. I dabbled in it, had some here and there, but still stuck to mainly vegetarian stuff. Then at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I indulged in turkey and seafood chowder and felt a difference - felt more sluggish, bloated, and generally unhealthy. I've been intrigued with the vegan diet for some time now, purely from a health standpoint, and I've decided that January shall be the month of the vegan diet for me (and for Mark if I am cooking dinner). I figure I'm going to go vegan all of January and then see if I like it and want to continue. Either way, I think I'll at least stay vegetarian. I have a vegan "Clean Eating" book and a kick-butt "Skinny Bitch" cookbook and I plan on using them. In fact, I used the skinny bitch book one today for all three meals that we ate:
Breakfast: Vegan French toast (whole wheat bread, coconut milk, almond milk, etc)
Lunch: leftover curried chickpea patties
Dinner: Tofu Saag with Brown Rice and potato samosas.
Dessert: carob chip and almond cookies.
Mark liked everything but the cookies. I liked everything, including the cookies.
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