After spending a refreshing weekend at a yoga retreat (that I still need to blog about), I realized that one of the things that contributed to that good feeling was what we were eating. Local, organic, vegetarian, healthy cuisine, a lot of it using dairy and gluten substitutes so people with dietary restrictions would have options. Maybe in an ideal world I'd be eating like that all the time, but through some experimentation I've figured out that any diet I impose on myself has to not only have good justification but the potential for sustainability in order for it to succeed.
I don't think I can be a vegetarian. Don't even get me started on being a vegan. It's mainly because I don't have good personal reasons for not eating meat. I only have good reasons for eating less meat. And because I'm not ethically or religiously opposed to eating meat, I end up facing one thing that makes me start eating meat again: at some point, I end up in a situation where there is a lack of acceptable choices for me to eat.
See, I really like eating. I'm willing to forego a giant portion of deep fried stuff in order to keep my arteries unclogged. But I'm not going to order something that I 1) don't like, 2) don't think is a good option, or 3) shouldn't eat just for the sake of not having meat. No vegetarian pho. No $22 corn risotto at a seafood restaurant. No large fries at McDonald's. And inevitably I will end up in those situations.
So as a reasonable personal compromise, without sacrificing the spirit of this "diet," I have decided to become a pescetarian, with the caveat that I can have up to two meals each week that contain meat, if I really need to.
This seems to be working out so far.
1) I love seafood. Long term, giving up seafood is much harder for me than giving up meat. But I don't consume that much seafood anyway (it's expensive and generally less convenient), so keeping it around as an option isn't hurting anything.
2) Seafood provides me with a good option at nice restaurants that doesn't make me feel like I'm missing out on anything. So I have salmon instead of chicken. That's actually a better option for me.
3) I do not abuse my meat meals. I'm on my third week of this, and I think I'm really only using one meat meal per week.
4) Having such a low limit for meat makes me be really picky about what I'll choose for my meat. I won't eat Burger King or Lean Cuisine, but instead, I'll have a bowl of pho.
5) Even with the seafood allowance, I eat mostly vegetarian anyway. I have been cooking a lot more and fixing myself yummy salads.
6) I do not feel the need to end this diet. With one exception - I have some meat in my freezer that I'd rather eat than let go to waste, so I might have to give myself a week off or something.
I have made for myself:
1. Lots of salads
2. Sunomono salad with shrimp
3. Cold soba noodles (broth from scratch! I made my own dashi) with fried tofu, shitake mushrooms, green onions, and peanuts
4. Shrimp fried rice
5. Vegetable frittata
6. Vegetarian red beans & rice
7. Chana masala
I'm definitely feeling healthier in general and that I have a bit more energy. I haven't been as good with the exercise, so it's hard to measure the effects on my weight, but I don't care so much about that. So yay, fishies! Let's see if I can maintain this for a longer period of time.