More Overhauling
90% Vegetarianism.
I used to eat meat every day and there were times in the past that I did not understand vegetarians. When I was doing a lot of yoga, I tried but I found I couldn't lose weight unless I had a lot of protein and meat was a better and yummier solution. But at the end of last year, I felt like crap, I was binging and my cholesterol was really high and my triglycerides were astronomical so I decided to try vegetarianism again. In the past, I missed meat so much that I could never stand it for very long and I was eating so much crap that it didn't really matter what I ate. A few years ago in December a doctor gave me a really terrible prognosis, right before my care plan ran out. I told 4 people what that doctor told me and it was so difficult and awful that I never said anything about it again until much much later when I spewed it to some people while very intoxicated.I got to around that anniversary and I thought, why am I helping bad stuff happen?
For much of my life I justified eating anything I wanted with "I'll eat what I want then die, younger, happily." As I got older and I experienced the effects of my diet and choices and observed those of others I have realized that nobody eats/drinks what they want and suddenly dies. Our bodies get destroyed one painful and expensive chunk at a time. I've known that for years but I never really was willing to change my life enough - because it requires a complete change - to do it. I always said "next year" or "someday in the future." Ultimately, any major change can only happen if I want it badly enough.
How bad did I want it? I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to live cheaper. I wanted the calm that comes with it. And the slimmer physique. And the non-violence of it as well. I wanted to try it for a month at least to see.
After 2 weeks, there was a noticeable difference in the way I felt; I had a lot more energy than before and I felt less heavy. Getting through 2 cons with only 1 meat eating session each was good and I felt so much better and not burned out or hung over or full of post-con depression. The end of January through the middle of May was disastrous for many of my friends. 3 of my friends had heart attacks in that time and 2 others were hospitalized for other problems and one was hospitalized for a severe mental episode. That made my decision to change my diet and lifestyle ironclad.
When all the gastric distress happened, it was easier to recover via fruits and vegetables. I've eaten some shrimp and fish and a little meat here and there but overall I'm really enjoying and liking the vegetarian life. It's harder to go to restaurants indiscriminately but it does mean I eat a lot better overall because of not going to Denny's or fast food places. Not having decent food court options made me pack snacks, which allowed me to control the content of everything I was eating. My nutrition class made a big difference.
I stuck through the long meat related detox and felt much better for it. I ate a little chicken here and there and some pork in dumplings or soup or chicken stock in soups from time to time. When the comfort food cravings come from some psychological bullshit they want MEAT but we have learned that if they win that it's bad for everybody. I once, in an hour of utter weakness, ate a Philly cheesesteak and fries, something it seemed even my bones were crying out for. It tasted weird but still kinda good but it hurt me for the rest of the day. I felt like I was drugged and I even took a 90 minute nap because I was so dopey with meat and cheese and fried food coma. I will never do that again. Although this may sound awful or stupid, this is my effective way of behavior modification. Why do I not eat chicken fried steak anymore? Because I ate the best I ever had then got lost in a forest in 103 degree heat for a couple hours. I will not eat Philly cheesesteaks or diner burgers or pizza with any kind of meat again. Even though those were things I loved they were hurting me. When I was 20 they hurt me a little but I was invincible. Now I'm old and highly vincible and they hurt me in an unpleasant way.
As a result of giving up meat (mostly the high protein) and not eating a lot of potatoes made my potassium levels normalize and now I can drink orange juice and eat yogurt AND have a banana on the same day. (Spread out over the day.) I brought yogurt, applesauce, fruit, nuts, granola and trail mix to school as snacks. One week I realized that I needed more carbs so I added those little Nabisco Handi-Snak cheese and cracker things with the little red stick every third day for a bit.
My appetite for chocolate has dropped and now I'm only interested in good chocolate and especially in really great chocolate, high end truffles and such. One little truffle is 3 servings for me and it's so satisfying. A bar of really good dark chocolate lasts me 2 weeks now. Somebody awesome sent me a really good darck chocolate bar with cherries and almonds last month and I'm about 1/3 of the way through it.
I think I might like ice cream a little more than before but I eat very little of it anyway.
"90% vegetarian"? Everything in moderation, including moderation. Most of the remaining 10% is shrimp and fish with some occasional chicken at restaurants. It's not going to be possible sometimes on roadtrips to stay happily vegetarian so I could have some chicken in a salad or grilled chicken or turkey or something. It is more important to keep a moderate balanced diet than it is to starve because of my dietary preferences, which only leads to more unhappiness. (And binging.)
There are times that I've wanted a hamburger, my old favorite food from childhood on, and there are a few occasions where I decided to have one such as at Casino El Camino in Austin, best burger anywhere. I'll eat a hand-formed grilled burger or maybe a bit of really amazing kabob once in a great while and as long as it stays once in a great while then it doesn't matter. As my body takes in less and less meat, burgers may become painful and unpalatable but so be it.
A lifetime of obesity did its work on my body. My spine and hips and knees supported all that mass for so long and through so much. To my dismay, I think I am going to be a little taller after this, maybe 1/2 an inch. Just what I need. I never realized some of the places where people could have stretch marks.
When I say that I'm changing my lifestyle, I'm not becoming a political vegetarian activist or any of that, just changing my diet and eating patterns. I'm no0t now, nor will I be, militant about food choice (although I was sometimes in the past) and I don't care if nobody else in the world ever eats another vegetable. Well, I do care but people know more what they need than I do and the last thing I know about people's diets are what they need more than them! There are so of my friends, especially folks who are not doing too well physically, who I would like to see make some changes so that they will live longer and be happier but it's their choice, not mine Nothing that anybody else eats has any philosophical, moral or other ramifications for me. Your business is your business.
I've already had to deal with some very anti-vegetarian/pro-meat people who did not feel the way I do about leaving people alone about their food and had to try to make some points that their nutritional choices were Right and mine were Inferior. They told me that the human body was meant to eat meat and I agreed and asked them how they knew that. After some mumbling, I talked about vitamin B12 and heme iron, both of which are most effectively absorbed from animal flesh. That being said, not one of them knew what Vitamin K or folate is, none of them could name a single B vitamin, none of them knew what ATP, is and all of them had perfectly fine cholesterol and triglycerides, thank you for asking. Like they checked or even knew those numbers. My point is that, as is so often the case, some people judge others without the slightest inkling of what's going on in their own bodies or why others really make the choices they do. They're not dumb people at all, just people laboring under an illusion and being defensive about their food choices. It was that way with yoga to some degree too. A few people told me that they though that the spiritual side of it was hokey bullshit, which doesn't matter to me, that it was too fake and "girly" and that they could find more effective ways for them to exercise. Cool. 5 years later I have organ systems I would otherwise have lost and they're all still depressed and look like meatbeasts and human fireplugs and are unhappy with their bodies. Guess that didn't work out.
If it came up for a vote, I would never ban trans fats or what have you because the food choices people make have nothing to do with me. I feel somewhat the same way about smoking but cigarettes have no redeeming value (even as a stimulant they're crap) and the stink gets on me and my clothes and if I'm confined with it, cigarette smoke makes me nauseous and sick. You can eat whatever you want, in pretty much any fashion you want, and it's not going to hurt or even affect me. You want to go through the McDonald's drive-thru when we're driving? I don't care. You want to eat a triple Wendy's Baconnihilator? Fine. You want to eat nothing but meat for an entire week? I don't care. (I will however, not wait for you for 45 minutes to get out of the bathroom each time, covered in the Meat Sweats, so we can go somewhere. Sorry, you'll have to hold it and go at the museum or mall.) I've gone out to a lot of places where everybody around me was eating copious amounts of meat and I was doing my own thing. It's a lot like drinking in that respect. If I drink, it hurts and enough of it will kill me so I don't drink, nor do I have the desire to drink at all.