Friday, May 4, 2012

Eating, eating eating!

Hello, little foodies!  Are you out there?  I know you are.  ;) 
This week has been SUPER healthy!  For the past month or so, I've been Bodyrockin' (a website that features trainers and intense circuit training programs) and LOVIN it!  What is Bodyrock, you may ask? Check it out here - you may just become addicted like I did!  They also have these 30-day challenges every once in a while.  Currently, I'm taking the 30 day challenge for May.  This where you challenge yourself to be good for just 30 days and Bodyrock it every day.  At the end of the month, you look back and see how much you've improved and how you feel.  This means CLEAN EATING. 
I've been eating clean (if man made it - don't eat it!) for about two weeks now, and I can honestly say that - barring the day that I had a 24 hour bug and puked my ever-livin' guts out - I've never felt so good!  I never realized how many options are out there.  At first I thought: well crap, I'll eat one or two things tops and just repeat that menu every single day.  NOT TRUE!  There are so, so, so many options that are not processed and super tasty! This got me thinking about what foods trigger discomfort for me, and other dietary options.  I notice that an excess of dairy (especially cheese) and pasta (I cannot do pasta at all, unless I want to be in severe, bloated discomfort for the rest of the night) are my main triggers.  This led me to consider veganism.  When I was first weaned, I was weaned onto a vegan diet, so my tastebuds naturally developed around whole foods and fresh fruits and veg.  This is the main reason I'm a vegetarian.  I just plain don't like meat.  Veganism wouldn't be such a huge change from my vegetarian diet that I have been maintaining for about 13 years (minus the traditinal bite of turkey at Thanksgiving), either.  I feel like the substitution of almond milk, soy yogurt, and tofu (for eggs) won't be that drastic.  As long as I'm still getting the nutrients I need, I don't see how it could be unhealthy.  However, I don't want to overburden myself with amazingness, (plus it would limit my diet incredibly if I could eat nothing but raw fruits and veggies and some nuts - to the point where I might say "f*** it!" and down a whole box of Little Debbies) so I've decided that this month, I'm going to continue eating clean.  Next month, I'm going to voyage into the vegan foray!  If I don't like it, cool.  No harm, no fowl - at least I can say I tried it and it wasn't for me.
These dietary choices might sound limiting and drastic, but to be honest, I find them very liberating!  (The fact that coffee and tea are both vegan and clean might be my saving grace.  You can even get a soy latte!  yeah, I think I'll be juuuuust fiiiine.  ;) ) I don't see "I CAN'T have cheese, and I CAN'T have eggs, and I CAN'T have a jumbo-deep-fried-pepperoni-pizza"; instead, I see "how will you feel after eating that Twinkie?  Like crap?  Do you really want to eat that montain of pasta? No?  You'd rather have a salad? (Well, maybe at the moment you want the mountain, but trust me, later tonight you'll be glad you opted for the salad!) Well then *shoop* boom - don't eat the twinkie.  Here's a handy-dandy label that you can throw out there to let people know I'm not shunning you or being a snob, I just don't eat this stuff."   And as for the issue of eating out or at a friend's house - A.) we have few friends... and even fewer that we eat dinner with, so no problemo there. B.) our families are all aware of my vegetarian restrictions, vegan just means don't have the cheese on the burrito.  Not that different from vegetarian, and C.) I cheat.  It's ok.  I'm not gonna get real bent out of shape.  I'm just not that strict.
Sooo... make a long story short (don't you hate that phrase?) I'm super excited to get started!  I'll let you know how it goes.  I can say that week 2 of Clean Eating Month feels fantastic
Do you have any special dietary restrictions?  How do you deal with them?  Are there usually enough choices for you so that you don't starve? ;)

1 comment: