However, I work from home on most days... which means A) I don't have to put on pants and B) I don't have to hunt for a lunch venue. I love to cook and having the option to do so for breakfast, lunch and dinner makes my choices for veggiepalooza kind of easy, or so I assumed at the beginning of the week. I made black bean wraps, sweet potato stir fry, baked goods, veggie pizzas, pumpkin smoothies, the list goes on. The difficult part was not making meals that were starch based. I had to revisit the food pyramid and truly, just because I like to cook doesn't mean I'm some 50's housewife in heals running around with 12 baking sheets of homemade what-the-hells. Some days I'd get lazy and end up eating an entire bowl of corn for lunch or a plate of lettuce with craisins on it.
After the week was up, I made a few observations:
- I felt cleaner
- I felt more energetic
- I felt excessively bloated
- I felt like my bowel movements were seriously fibrous (aren't you glad I shared that one)
At the end of day #7 our triathlon team had a cuban pig roast party. There was table upon table of food, a 100+ pound slow cooked piggly wiggly, sangria, dips, deserts... it was a smorgasbord and as soon as I laid eyes on it, my will power went on vacation.
I had shrimp first, it was amazing, light and juicy and went down with such ease. I could've eaten 12 more cups of these little pink sea creatures. As soon as the pork was done I rushed over, "Fork It", this little piggy is going to market and market tastes goooooood. Post meal, I felt a little off though (maybe it was the sangria) and I slowly remembered the things that pissed me off about red meat: fatty bits, skin, random tendony things, bones. Vegetables and fruits have annoying innards but they never gross me out or sneak up in unassuming bites, "aw man, an apple core, foiled again!"
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| Hey Baby, want some-a my cider *wink* *hides ankle bracelet* |
Now I know the scale is just about as trustworthy as a drunk ex boyfriend but the next day I was 2 pounds lighter. I see how it is, already trying to screw with me Scaley McScalestein. I stepped off in a confused stupor and figured maybe he just needed more time, he'd tell me the truth eventually.
So where do I go from here? I was supposed to go for a full 3 weeks but perhaps I don't fit the mold of a true vegetarian and trying to continue on as such may just be a wasted effort. After just 1 week I figured out that I did enjoy making vegetables the star of my meals, I didn't like reintroducing red meats and I did adore the fishes... cause they're so delicious. So I'll stick with the things I like for awhile and see if they like me back. But I do give a huge kudos to all the vegemites out there, especially the real job types who have to find lunch food out in the real world...my race hat goes off to you!
