Body Conscious Ramblings

It’s time that I admit something publicly – I have cheated on my vegetarian diet. Not once, not twice, but many times now. So what went wrong? Well, first of all I came to the conclusion that I cannot envision my life without fish (fresh or smoked salmon are a must for me). So if I decide to include salmon, why not grilled chicken or turkey? And that’s exactly what has happened. One day, after a month’s worth exhaustion with trying to come up with edible meals that don’t include meat I just gave in and suggested chicken for supper. My other half looked at me in amazement and asked “Are you sure?”. I think that deep down he was hoping this day would have come. So I said yes, I was sure. Now at this point I was having doubts and fears of failure. I was month and a half into this vegetarian conversion, not a long time, and I was already giving up! So after a moment of silence I said “You know what, forget it, I can’t do it!”. Long story short, he did go to the grocery store to pick up some skinless, boneless chicken breast. From that moment on the meat started to regain its place in our lives. However, it’s not as simple as that…

I’ve always associated vegetarianism with healthy foods but I’ve come to realize that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Vegetarianism CAN be a healthy diet but in my search for healthy vegetarian dishes I have learned that vegetarianism can be just as unhealthy as “omnivorism”. I’ve found countless of blogs and online resources on how to become vegetarian and I must say that most of them disappointed me in that they didn’t offer healthy choices. I have bought several vegetarian cookbooks, all of which didn’t account for healthy eating. Heavy sauces, sugar, white four, refined grains were all present everywhere! Yes, I suppose I could just skip those ingredients and adapt the recipes to my liking. But that’s not the point. The point is that I have been duped! I have been lead to believe that vegetarian equals healthy and that is clearly not the case. Another problem was the fact that many of the cookbooks did not include very many MAIN dishes. They were full of sauces, dips, salads and deserts, but when it came to making a main dish all they offered were Veggie BURGERS or rice and noodle bowls! I don’t know about you, but for me loading up on refined carbs is not my most favourite thing to do. Yeah, it might be yummy for 20 minutes it takes you to consume them, but it’s not so yummy or fun when 60 minutes afterwards you feel hungry again!

So, I officially quit vegetarianism and I don’t feel bad about it. Of course I’m still open to good quality, healthy veggie dishes, but I will no longer freak out at the sight of meat (mostly chicken, turkey and fish). I have never given up my yogurt anyway, so I have never been truly vegan or anything. Part of it has always felt to me a little bit like a fad thing.

Now that I have this bit off my chest I can move on

Here is some vegetarian humour for you:

Downloading corn

What do Humanitarians eat?

Lettuce

Food chain position