On Being Veg

As a quick sidebar: Zach hates when I call us "veg's" because he thinks it sounds like "vag's" and apparently that's bad?

Anywho, it's hard to believe we've been rockin' the vegetarianism for over a year. I remember when I first started that it seemed nearly impossible. If you'll remember correctly, this little lady went gaga for a good steak. And prime rib? You better shut up, I loved that stuff so much. But I read the book "Eating Animals" and I knew I had to try it.

A year later I must say that I feel great. I don't miss meat at all, which is mind boggling to think about. But honestly, I have never felt better. Which is saying something. Have I mentioned I ran track in college? And worked out about 6 hours a day and could squat an obscene amount of weight? Yeah I feel better now than I did then. Does that shock you? Because it does me.

Then about 3 weeks ago Zach and I watched the documentary, "Forks Over Knives" and decided we'd try out the vegan thing for a bit. Why not, right? I actually feel even better. Maybe the most impressive thing about it is that I used to have HORRIBLE allergies. I'd be on allergy medicine from about mid-April through September/October. In case you haven't heard Iowa has had the warmest spring EVER this year so my Facebook has been a flutter with people reporting their current allergy situation. Finally yesterday I realized I had no symptoms whatsoever. As I was trying to figure out what it could be it hit me that it might have something to do with the lack of dairy in my current diet. After a quick Google search (we all know that's where you find truth ;)) I realized many others have reported this as a positive side affect of cutting out dairy. Amazing!

I constantly get well meaning friends and family saying things like, "Oh I feel bad for you that you can't have meat/cheese/milk" or something like that. It's hard to tell them that it's not that I CAN'T have it (truth be told if I really wanted it, I'd just have it) it's that I just don't want it. Particularly not the kind that's on virtually every shelf in our grocery stores. Once you start this new way of life you realize your taste buds change, you actually crave things that are good for you.

I've also noticed it's hard to stuff myself so full that I feel miserable these days. Probably most of you have better self control than I do but I was seriously prone to eating so much I felt horrible for the next hour or so. It just doesn't happen when you eat primarily whole foods. Who knew?

A lot of people when they hear I've had this change of diet ask if I've lost much weight. I'm not ever sure how to answer that since that's not the reason I got into this in the first place. Also, I haven't weighed myself since approximately 1995 so I'm not entirely sure. Anyone who has ever trained with me can tell you I put little weight into weight (haha, I got jokes) and put more into how you feel, how your pants fit, inches lost, etc. Those are much better/healthier gauges. That said, I feel great, my pants fit and so by all accounts, it's working in that department as well.

So there you go. I had someone who was just catching up on my blog ask me about it last week so I thought I'd give an update. Now you can sleep well tonight knowing my thoughts on being veg for a year. ;)You're welcome.

:)Tell me, what do you eat?