Vegan-ish-m
Maybe I should call it vegan-ish-m. Anyway, I came to this decision today when I stepped on the scale and saw that I have been continuing to gain weight.
Before we go any further, I should mention that the weight gain is a good thing. I have boobs, and an honest-to-goddess ass, and a round, female tummy. Yay! The weight gain has, interestingly enough, made me look younger. But the fact remains that I have had a 30% increase in my body weight in less than a year. I'm OK with doing that in 2011, but if I repeat that in 2012, that's too much of a good thing.
At first I chalked it up to the medication I started taking in January, which has a known side effect of appetite increase and weight gain. Now, however, I'm inclined to think of it as a side effect of not being keelhauled through severe manic episodes every few months, manic episodes that shot my metabolism through the roof at the same time it dropped my appetite through the floor. It was not uncommon for a manic episode to shave 10lbs. of me, and I had multiple manic episodes a year.
As a result, I developed a habit of deliberate high-calorie eating, always trying to build a reserve against the next manic episode. This included a lot of meat and a lot of dairy. However, I haven't had a real manic episode since January, and I kept eating the same way. Thus the weight gain. But now I have, so to speak, caught up with myself. It's time to quit eating against the mania. I have to learn how to eat like a healthy person (in more ways than one.)
So, in looking at my calorie intake, I came to the conclusion that the best way to stabilize myself at a healthy weight was to give up one of two things--animal foods or booze. The fact that I'd rather drink a cocktail than eat a steak, well, I'm not sure what that says about me, aside from the fact that I really like cocktails. (Speaking of which, I need to make another liquor store run. I'm almost out of gin.)
But I'd like to think there was some moral weight in my choice. Viedma has done a pretty good job, whether she knows it or not, of gently reminding me that eating meat is environmentally, economically, and ethically problematic practice. The fact is, I live in a very food-rich environment and I do not need to eat meat to eat well. Or at least, I don't need to eat meat as much as I need to drink gin. The other fact is that I'm not living in the same body that I was living in a year ago. In the past, I've actually had Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine practitioners tell me not to go vegetarian because I needed what animal foods could give me. I don't think that's the case now.
I've still got some lamb, cheese, and eggs in the fridge, which I will eat at some point, and when there is free food at work, I'm not going to turn it down just because it's got animal in it. I realize this puts me in the same position as the person who "quits" smoking but saves their last carton of cigarettes, and only smokes cigarettes they can bum off other people, but that's what I call vegan-ish-m. Also, real butter on toast, because margarine is nasty. We'll see about cream substitute in coffee. I'm on the fence with that one.
I'm trying it for a month to see how it goes. I better start researching seitan recipes.
Before we go any further, I should mention that the weight gain is a good thing. I have boobs, and an honest-to-goddess ass, and a round, female tummy. Yay! The weight gain has, interestingly enough, made me look younger. But the fact remains that I have had a 30% increase in my body weight in less than a year. I'm OK with doing that in 2011, but if I repeat that in 2012, that's too much of a good thing.
At first I chalked it up to the medication I started taking in January, which has a known side effect of appetite increase and weight gain. Now, however, I'm inclined to think of it as a side effect of not being keelhauled through severe manic episodes every few months, manic episodes that shot my metabolism through the roof at the same time it dropped my appetite through the floor. It was not uncommon for a manic episode to shave 10lbs. of me, and I had multiple manic episodes a year.
As a result, I developed a habit of deliberate high-calorie eating, always trying to build a reserve against the next manic episode. This included a lot of meat and a lot of dairy. However, I haven't had a real manic episode since January, and I kept eating the same way. Thus the weight gain. But now I have, so to speak, caught up with myself. It's time to quit eating against the mania. I have to learn how to eat like a healthy person (in more ways than one.)
So, in looking at my calorie intake, I came to the conclusion that the best way to stabilize myself at a healthy weight was to give up one of two things--animal foods or booze. The fact that I'd rather drink a cocktail than eat a steak, well, I'm not sure what that says about me, aside from the fact that I really like cocktails. (Speaking of which, I need to make another liquor store run. I'm almost out of gin.)
But I'd like to think there was some moral weight in my choice. Viedma has done a pretty good job, whether she knows it or not, of gently reminding me that eating meat is environmentally, economically, and ethically problematic practice. The fact is, I live in a very food-rich environment and I do not need to eat meat to eat well. Or at least, I don't need to eat meat as much as I need to drink gin. The other fact is that I'm not living in the same body that I was living in a year ago. In the past, I've actually had Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine practitioners tell me not to go vegetarian because I needed what animal foods could give me. I don't think that's the case now.
I've still got some lamb, cheese, and eggs in the fridge, which I will eat at some point, and when there is free food at work, I'm not going to turn it down just because it's got animal in it. I realize this puts me in the same position as the person who "quits" smoking but saves their last carton of cigarettes, and only smokes cigarettes they can bum off other people, but that's what I call vegan-ish-m. Also, real butter on toast, because margarine is nasty. We'll see about cream substitute in coffee. I'm on the fence with that one.
I'm trying it for a month to see how it goes. I better start researching seitan recipes.