My Vegetarian Experiment

So, in dealing with my digestive issues, I've tried lots of things. Fibre supplements. Whole grains. Eliminating dairy. Eliminating gluten. The thing with IBS is that it's not always a dietary issue. It can also act up due to other factors. In my case, it's usually stress. So it's not always something I can control with diet. Each of the attempts above have worked for a limited period of time, and then it just stops working. So now I'm going to tell you about my latest try!

I've been vegetarian for almost a week now. If you've known me for a long time, you'll know that I used to be a vegetarian while I was a teenager. Back then, I just did it because I wanted to. I also did what a lot of vegetarians do when they go vegetarian...replace everything they eat with pasta and cheese. That's the problem with not really having a solid reason behind doing something. You do it halfway and wrong, and it ends up being pointless. However, many of my dietary changes lately have been for the sake of my health, and that's a pretty strong incentive to do something properly. I am also doing this for the sake of my fitness. One of the best examples I have found of the things that are possible on a vegetarian or vegan diet while focusing on building muscle and losing fat is a woman named Amber, who runs the website gokaleo.com. She used to be obese, and is now totally smoking hot, and very strong, all while being on a vegan diet. In terms of fitness and diet, she encourages people to be critical of the messages they are receiving and not to go along with fad diets. I find her to be very informative and encouraging of all body types and abilities. She's definitely inspired me to give this a try!

So far this is what I've been eating:

The same thing for breakfast I usually do: a smoothie. ½ banana, some frozen organic strawberries, greek yogurt (made the switch to FULL FAT om nom!), almond/coconut milk (not a huge fan of coconut but I'm getting used to it!), and some whey protein power (ya it's not vegetarian protein powder but it's all I've got).

Snack: usually the rest of my banana with some natural peanut butter. Sometimes almonds and some dark chocolate chips. I had some rice chips and salsa the other day...yum!

Lunch which is more like dinner: if we make pizza, I put tomatoes on my half instead of pepperoni. I made a fried rice thing the other night with frozen veggies, an egg, and rice. It was delicious. I also love rice and beans, and I'll make some kind of salad to go with that. We also like to have burritos with homemade tortillas and beans and cheese in them. I put salsa in mine too. Yum! If we have pasta, I like to have corn pasta with butter on it and tomatoes in it.

Another snack if I get hungry: veggies with yogurt-based ranch dip or a salad. Or eggs and fruit.

'Dinner': I sometimes eat some and sometimes don't. I'll usually have a salad of some type or some fruit. I don't normally get hungry at this time, and I don't like to eat heavy things because we usually go to bed an hour later.

So that's pretty much been my first week of vegetarianism. It's not quite as varied as other diets so far. I'm still trying to find my place in it. At first I was concerned about eating so much rice, but I've been fine so far. We have a huge bag of Basmati rice that we are working our way through right now, and after that is gone, we will switch to brown rice with the occasional Basmati because Basmati is OM NOMS. As you can also see, I'm still eating eggs. Since I'm not going vegetarian for moral reasons, I don't really feel the need to justify this, but I'll just say that chickens lay eggs normally anyways, and there's no reason to waste them. Plus eggs are pretty much the perfect food and super healthy for you (even the yolks...yes they contain cholesterol, but they also have choline which prevents cholesterol buildup so ha!). And every once in awhile I'll still have some kind of meat. Like this weekend we wanted burgers so we're going to go for burgers. In any diet change I make, I still want to make sure that I can live a life that's not separate from my husband's. I cannot picture him ever being a vegetarian, although his diet has gotten much healthier lately. Therefore, if he wants to take me out and it's for burgers, I'll eat it. Once a week won't be that bad.

So far these are my results:

Digestion – has been much better. I haven't been as bloated as I usually am, and my stomach hurts less than it usually does. What had been happening is that I'd feel like my stomach wasn't emptying. My NP blamed it on eating fibre-rich food, but honestly that makes no sense to me. Shouldn't that improve my digestion? But since cutting meat, I haven't had that feeling in my stomach, and my digestion feels a lot smoother. My IBS hasn't been acting up either. Yay! I'm going to keep this up for a couple more weeks and see if it stays this way. To date, these have been my most encouraging 'week one' results.

Fitness/Body – I lost a pound this week. I also lost about ½ an inch around my belly. I've noticed the tone in my arms is more visible, and even Daric remarked on it the other day. I definitely think I've lost a bit of fat or bloat or something because I can see a difference in my legs too. The big thing is that I haven't been to the gym in a while as my car is broken. However, we have begun taking kickboxing, boxing, and doing circuit training classes, all at the MMA gym we recently joined. Therefore, I've taken it a little easier for the workouts I do on my own. I have noticed an increase in my muscle awareness when working out though. This could be because my body feels better due to the dietary change, it could be because I'm more than halfway through my personal trainer course and I've just learned enough to be more aware about effective movements, or it could be that changing up my fitness routine with the new workouts has made me more aware. Focusing on having power or speed while moving is not easy, so you really need to be aware. An example of this muscle awareness would be a workout I did yesterday. I used a 10-20lb resistance band to do a little full body workout. I did some lat pulls and rear delt flies with the band and I can definitely feel it in my back today. Quite honestly, I didn't think I would, but it was extremely effective because I concentrated really hard on using my back muscles. This proves what every personal trainer knows: you don't need a gym to get a good workout, as long as you make your workout effective and concentrated.

So far vegetarianism is working for me, mostly because I'm doing it right this time. I will continue to add in more variety to my diet, and so it will only get better! I am a more mature cook this time as well, so the flavours in my food are more interesting and varied.

I don't intend this post to say everyone should be vegetarian. Whenever I say 'every body is different', I mean it. Natural shape, natural skills, natural diet. These things will vary for everyone. The one thing I emphasize for myself is to eat real food. I try not to eat a lot of packaged and processed food. As long as you focus on that, then whatever your diet is will be up to you. Some people thrive on a no-grain diet. Some people do well on the Paleo diet. Some people enjoy vegan/vegetarian diets. If you think your diet is holding you back, you might try eliminating some things from it, little by little, substituting them for others. For example, at present I have substituted different kinds of beans for meats in my food. Maybe try doing that swap and see how you feel.

Next time I'll share some of my favourite vegetarian meals!

Amanda <3