Uncomfortable thoughts

Post from May 8 – May 15 2013

            Well, it is about time. No more two-week vacations, no more whining, and no more carnivorous indulging. Yes, for a whopping 7 days now, (that’s over 600,000 seconds) I have not let the wholesome breast of chicken touch my lips, the promising taste of turkey entertain my taste buds, the chewy slabs of beef to test my teeth, nor the fat of bacon to clog my arteries. To make a long and uncomfortable story short, I finally began my lacto-ovo vegetarian adventures.

            For those doubters who believed that I couldn’t do it for more than a day (I’m talking to you Mom), I am here to remind you that I have done it for a full seven with no slip ups and intend to continue on for another week. Have I been tempted to order the chicken after a strenuous workout? Yes. Did meat pasta entice me more than a mixture of beans, eggs, and nuts that I call salad? Of course. I found it easier to think I had to be vegetarian for just for one meal, rather than for an entire two weeks. For me, it’s easier to do difficult things in that way. This refers to the saying in sports “take it one game at a time,” or “focus on today, don’t worry about tomorrow.” In other words, play your game as if it was the only one that ever mattered. It makes doing the right things easier.

            Aside from that analogy, the last week has been quite difficult for me. Tests, quizzes, reports, early mornings, intense basketball workouts, and a lack of sleep have really defined my life the last seven days. You must be thinking, what a perfect time to try something radically new. How opportune a time to give up a huge part of my diet. Oh, the sarcasm. The first few days I felt tired, short of breath, and weaker in the weight room. For those who know me well, you might ask, “you can get weaker??” To that I answer, yes, it is possible to put up less weight than I normally do. Also for those who know me well, you know that I make fun of myself more than a normal eighteen year old would, but I get really upset when others have fun at my expense. Anyways, was this merely a coincidence or did going vegetarian have some serious adverse affects on me? To answer that question, we will have to refer back to my ‘control’ in this experiment; the two week food log taken six months ago. Unfortunately, I am exponentially busier now and have a more taxing schedule, so two weeks of eating meat versus one week of going vegetarian is not going to be easily comparable. If we look back in the history of my life, anytime I have had as hectic a week, no matter the diet, I remember being exhausted by the end of it. Well no shit. To conclude, I do not think we can equate a lack of meat to a lack of energy.

            I’m sure you guys are dying to know what I have been eating over the last few days and if I have turned into a woman or not. Women are fantastic, by the way. If you don’t understand that joke, look at my first blog post. I can certainly tell you that eating tofu has not made me feel more feminine nor develop any female physical traits. It has only been seven days though; who knows what lies ahead for me.

            Aside from that uncomfortable thought, I have been putting significantly more effort into picking what types of foods I eat. I no longer walk into Benson thinking, “what’s the special,” or “I’ll just quickly get a pasta with chicken and sausage and call it dinner.” Nowadays, I have to think about the foods I have had for that day and what nutrients I’m missing. I did do that to an extent when I was omnivorous, but now I am certainly more meticulous in my meal planning. To give you a better idea of what this means, I’ll just describe my Tuesday.

            Tuesdays and Thursdays are heavy days from an athletic standpoint, as they include early morning lifts and workouts, and evening pickup basketball. These are certainly fun, but I know that I need to fill the tank up before I can take the car for a spin. Yes, I just said that. You didn’t think I would. You thought I couldn’t get any cornier, but I just did.

To start my day off, I ate a banana, as they are high in potassium and prevent muscle cramps. After the morning workout was over, I drank a protein shake. At Benson, for breakfast, I enjoyed an omelet with mushrooms, some green leafy vegetables, onions, tomatoes, and a bit of tofu. Not too much, for obvious reasons. I ate that with a side of breakfast potatoes (not tater tots) and water. Well, there are your potatoes. Again, if this joke seems awful, refer to my first blog post. If it still seems awful, it probably is. Before my 1:45 class, I ate a soy mandarin chicken lunch with vegetables, which was surprisingly tasty. After my class, I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread. If you think I’m done you’re nuts. Speaking of nuts, I ate a handful of almonds to hold me down until dinner, where I ate a simple pasta dish with marinara, as I had to play in about two hours. After basketball was over, guess how I felt. Go ahead, take two minutes. I am waiting right here. If you guessed hungry, you are correct. I went to subway and ate the new foot long falafel sandwich loaded with veggies. I’ll have to admit, it wasn’t half bad. The balls were on the softer side but it still got the job done.

Well, there you have it. So far, I have really enjoyed the challenge of eating properly without the protein powerhouse that is meat and look forward to find new and innovative ways to replace it. This week’s observation shows that vegetarianism isn’t too difficult. The only real problem is the inconvenience and the lack of calories. Of course the latter is certainly not a problem for those looking to slim down, and so I would definitely recommend it to those suffering from obesity. For me, I have tried to compensate for the fewer calories by eating more often and making sure to consume the right amounts of certain foods.

            The next post will be about the second week of my diet, and I guarantee it will be wildly entertaining. Almost as entertaining as this joke that I got off of the Internet. I actually have no clue what it means. Please leave your interpretations in the comment section. Here it goes, from vegetus.org: “I'm not vegetarian because I love animals, I'm vegetarian because I don't like vegetables.” There might be a typo in there but please leave your thoughts. Also, I’ve decided to go on a hard vegan diet after these vegetarian shenanigans are over. I’ll only eat vegans (vegetus.org).

Thanks for reading, hope you visit again.