June Goals
Eat A Plant Based Diet
June Fears
I love cheese.
This month I wanted to experiment with eating a plant based diet.
It’s nothing revolutionary, and before you start throwing stones over being faddish, remember that I am a self professed cheese addict who shamelessly eats hamburgers, Lunchables, and late night bowls of popcorn. None of that has changed.
My inspiration was pure curiosity. I have no glaring health issues to solve, nor am I particularly worried about dairy giving me cancer (the latest trend). I just wanted to see if something, anything, would happen.
To sum it up, being vegan is never going to happen for me. Vegetarian, maybe. But dairy? I love vegetables as much as the next girl, but salad after salad gets very old, especially without cheese.
I did make some good recipes though, despite my lackluster performance sticking to this diet. If I’m being really honest, I only ate strictly vegan foods for about a week. After that I still cut out meat but only limited dairy.
I lost five pounds.
Austin was on board at first, but has recently made a fuss about being hungry after meals. While we have always limited meat consumption for social and financial reasons, we were still carnivorous at least once a week and he’s been missing the beef. Fortunately for him, I’m ending this journey a little early this month as we’re leaving for vacation Friday where I most certainly will be eating crab legs. Please don’t take away my crab legs.
If you’re wondering, the reason I didn’t spill the beans earlier on June’s goal was because my biggest fear about eating a plant based diet was not actually giving up cheese, but becoming annoying. No one wants to be the girl always talking about how healthy she is. No one likes that girl, especially me.
What about you? Are you vegan? Vegetarian? Proudly carnivorous? Have you ever tried cutting anything out? Dish (and then bring me some wings).
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For More Info On The 2012 Project Click HERE
I’m that girl. Whoops.
Nah. I’d tell you.
Proudly carnivorous here. I love me some Chick-Fil-A too much to ever go vegetarian. Vegan is not even an option. EVER. Ice cream is a staple in the summer.
However, I mostly eat poultry and fish. I eat beef too, but given a choice, I’ll choose chicken, turkey or fish any day.
Poultry is my weakness. Have you had a leftover thanksgiving turkey sandwich? Because I live for those.
My new years resolution was to cut out processed foods, which meant that dairy and meat were fine as long as they weren’t processed…aka homemade. I felt SO much better doing it. Better sleep, more positive attitude, more energy…etc. It was hard though, and only lasted about 2 months. I still do it off and on, depending on the week. (cheating, I know) I just found this awesome blog though, where a mom is doing the same thing. She’s got great advice, resources, and recipes.
Check it out: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
Thanks Ellie!
I think that there’s a difference between being the girl who talks about how healthy she is or BEING the girl who is healthy. I think that’s what you’re talking about. There’s a difference between living healthy and being condescending towards others who haven’t made healthy choices (which is what I think you’re alluding to).
I tried a plant based diet, but failed miserably. I do limit meat though (once or twice a week as you do) and have tried to cut back on dairy. It’s hard, but probably a good idea! Good experiment. Thanks for always being honest about it. Appreicated.
There’s a BIG difference between being healthy and being preachy. Big.
Did you eat a lot of beans? I always get so tired of beans.
Yes! Though we ate a lot of beans before.
I do get tired of beans, but not as tired as Waylon. If he has them two meals in a row–they end up on the floor and I end up like Cinderella on my hands and knees picking them up.
I am proudly carnivorous but only eat grass fed (socially responsible) beef and chicken. It’s awkward though to talk about, because I struggle with the same thing–I don’t want to boast about how I’m trying to do the right thing. My husband is a vegetarian and I think he does it the best way–keeps his mouth shut unless someone asks. He has a very open mind when it comes to other people’s eating habits and tries to lead by example. I’m the one who struggles to keep my mouth shut. I often find myself spouting off about pink slime and people’s eyes glaze over. BAH.
Pink slime!
We butcher our own grass fed beef from the family farm, but I do buy chicken from the grocery store.
It’s hard to know how much to share without over sharing. I tend to be more like your husband, but not because I’m humble–I just don’t want to be annoying. I should work on being more humble.
Is that your garden? I’m impressed! I hate gardening but do it anyway.
Yes!
I love cheese. I can’t believe you gave it up for a week. Good work.
I’ve gone vegan on a couple of occasions for a few months at a time, and I always lost weight and felt good about what I was doing. But, like you, I missed cheese. So much. (And have you ever tried soy cheese? It’s like orange rubber. Not good.) I didn’t miss eggs or meat or other dairy (okay…maybe ice cream…but they make some decent rice and soy ice creams). But oh, cheese! Life is too short to not enjoy cheese.
I could never eat another egg for the rest of my life.
And you’re right, soy cheese is the worst.
After trying it, I truly believe eating limited meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs and nuts is the secret to health. Fat is good. Sugar, dairy, and grains are the problem.
But that plan is no fun, is it? That’s why today I’ve eaten oatmeal with brown sugar, tea with milk, pizza, and a Pepsi. Amen.
Amen.
I wish there was a like button. I think I have the exact same opinions and approach. Every now and again I go (and now take the husband with me) on a crusade to eradicate soda, boxed cereal, and anything from a box that contains ingredients I can’t cook with at home. It does make me feel good about the food I am preparing, the choices we are making, and I often see improvement in my complexion and energy.
But it really can be no fun and and sort of inconvenient. I always find it to be a slippery slope once you ‘cheat’. Who skips cake at a birthday party – maybe for a couple months – but no birthday cake for the rest of your life? And then the flood gates burst – we had cake today! Might as well have McDonalds breakfast sandwiches tomorrow… then we will go back to being good! Once a couple days of indulgence pass we settle back into our original ways with conventional milk on our boxed cereal, sandwiches with meat and cheese, and typical American dinners – served with Diet Coke.
I think a lot of us are in the same boat here, because this is exactly me. Once you “cheat” –it’s such a slippery slope. It takes a real effort to eat what you SHOULD eat.
I was actually a vegetarian (who ate some fish) from 13 to 23. I did it for animal rights reasons (seeing your best friends family sell their cows to McDonalds will do that to you. But now I wonder if that story was true….) I wasn’t a healthy vegetarian though. Lots of refried beans, cheese, pasta and french fries. Not such a well rounded diet.
Now we follow a very loosely based Paleo diet. Isla June is soy, gluten and lactose intolerant so that doesn’t leave much room to practice vegetarianism. I don’t think she could live off of vegetables alone (although she might try just fruit).
The more I read about food allergies and diets though, I see the purpose of meat in our diet. But, we only eat organic and only chicken or turkey or fish. I’m just not attracted to red meat.
I really could write an essay about this. so, I’ll stop here.
I would like to read your essay.
Thanks for sharing. I need to read more about Paleo.
For 6 weeks I followed the Paleo Diet (veggies, protein, and no refined sugars, etc.) which led me to lose 10 pounds and clear up my skin. Since then I try to eat 80% paleo and 20% whatever. This is difficult because eating is such a social event: friends inviting you out for pizza and beer, family reunions with food, food and more food. I enjoy paleo because I can still eat meat and as long as I eat small portions often, I never feel like I’m starving. It’s funny because up until I tried paleo I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted (for 24 ish years). I am lucky to have a somewhat fast metabolism. I would have an occasional stomachache and was once labeled as having IBS by a doctor. Now that I’m in my mid-20s I feel as though I am more aware of what I put into my body and how it makes me feel. It’s funny because I laugh at myself about how it’s so hard to stick to paleo throughout the week, yet I think back to how I used to eat whatever I wanted 24/7 for 24 years and now I have a hard time surviving one week eating healthy? Pathetic. Anyway, some other diets I have heard people do: Drew’s Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit and once this girl told me that she only eats chocolate on the weekends and not during the week (maybe you could do that with cheese?). One more thing about paleo – there are some awesome cookbooks out there and I have learned to cook with almond flour, agave syrup and coconut oil (things I barely knew existed). On top of healthy eating habits, just walking in the evening after dinner has really helped the way I feel and makes me sleep more deeply at night.
Long comment now done./
PS. I buy my meat from Costco in bulk, food saver it and then freeze it. It’s a hassle, but in the end, saves so much more money that buying weekly at a local deli. (Although, don’t get me wrong, I love my local food stores and I shop there weekly for fruits and veggies.)
It’s the social outings that get you, I know!
I’ve done the whole food cheats on the weekends thing. It sort of works, although Monday is always rough.
You’re the second person to mention Paleo. Googling!
We tend to be at-home vegetarians – maybe meat once a week. We buy local stuff when we can. That’s it. We LOVE to eat and we say that as long as it’s in moderation, everything is fine to eat. I have very very very sadly cut out mint and strawberries because I have acid reflux and those 2 things kick it up bad.
p.s. We once traveled to Switzerland, the land of cheese where they eat cheese for dessert. It was heaven. I was very constipated. . . but it was heaven.
I bought laxatives in Switzerland. I’ll leave it at that.
Amen to moderation and so sorry about mint and strawberries. Please feel free to throw yourself a pity party over some of summer’s finest.
I face this challenge daily. I try to eat healthy and generally do. I could never ever go vegan because I love yogurt, cheese and butter way, way too much. I have been vegetarian before (all through college) and really enjoyed it, but I also really enjoy bacon. We stick to eating meat about once a week for environmental, health and financial reasons. Since we try to eat the best we can, our meat is generally better than average supermarket hamburger, so it is a bit more price- but so worth it.
Good luck!
was just checking out your 2012 project again and correct me if i’m wrong but wasn’t one of them to wear your wedding dress again. maybe i just made that up but for some reason i was looking forward to that one. i am a sucker for weddings and dresses and especially wedding dresses. i still love trying mine on and it’s been 9 years. i can’t breathe in it now but that’s not the point…
Good memory! Yes. I was supposed to wear my wedding dress again this month but still don’t feel confident enough to get back in it. I mentioned it before, but should have mentioned it again!
Someday, someday. Because I am a sucker for wedding dresses too, especially mine!
We bought a juicer back in April and since then I’ve gone to a mostly vegetarian diet. I say mostly, because I, like you, LOVE cheese. I also love Greek yogurt. I have cheese and yogurt much less frequently than I had before and have cut out almost all meat, except organic, free-range stuff that we buy occasionally at the farmer’s market. Also cut out milk, since seeing Food Inc, Fork over Knives and Fresh. I just think there are healthier options out there in terms of milk-type beverages – I LOVE almond milk and coconut milk.
It’s weird – since shifting to a plant-based diet, I’ve noticed that I have started to crave fruits and veggies, instead of the crappy processed foods I had been putting into my body. I still have a cookie or chocolate once in awhile, but I’m trying to eat clean 80% of the time and so far, it’s working for me.