Sunday, February 21, 2010

On becoming a vegetarian

I've decided that as soon as more of these steaks and roasts are out of my freezer I am going to work on switching the food around here. We're going vegetarian (well mostly) and I think its going to be a good change. I'm frustrated with the way that I feel about my weight and I'm going to admit I haven't worked out really at all this winter. With Andrew going to bed at 7pm and my work hours changing getting me home at 5pm and an array of other things have caused a total lack of motivation. It probably doesn't help that in order to cure my seasonal depression I want to cook and eat horrible food, which seems to be the only thing that makes me feel better. If I have to see anymore snow or deal with another month of this weather I'm going to turn into a cookie by way of eating too many!

I've watched how much Andrews parents health has improved from cutting out processed foods and meats, but I don't think that I can go vegan, I'm not ready for that step just yet. They have also lost a considerable amount of weight and just feel better in general. Its going to take some effort on my part to learn to change my cooking methods and at least with being a vegetarian we can still enjoy dairy, eggs and fish. My first plan of action is go to to Amish Country where they have a bulk food store and I'll start with dried beans and grains, testing new recipes and maybe letting us splurge with meat once a week (plus the two of us sort of have an addiction to chicken wings). I have one vegetarian cookbook and I plan on looking for more and as I get better I will start creating my own dishes and get creative. I don't want this change to be a burden in our lives, I want it to be something that is going to better our health and our future.

I'm getting ready to start on a new book here soon about the benefits of certain foods so I'll be sure to blog about it as time goes on. If anyone knows of any good blogs on this topic (and thank you to the bloggers that commented and sent suggestions when I wrote about this before) please leave a link in my comments!

Nothing exciting to report from the weekend, went out with my old roommate on Friday night and slipped and fell on ice, busted my elbow and it made this horrible back pain I've been having worse, but thankfully I didn't hit my head. Got my house cleaned really well and cooked dinner with Andrew - did my big Sunday breakfast today and that's about it!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Good luck! You'll have to let me know how it goes. I don't think I could do it. I'm really into chicken right now.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad to find this post because I'm trying to do the same thing! (It's not snowy here though, so I have no excuse.) Still, I think it's unhealthy for us to have heavy dinners every night with meat as our entree. I keep telling myself that if we ate vegetarian meals three nights a week it would be better. So anyway, please do keep blogging about your progress! I'm interested!

Amanda said...

Thanks to you both! I think its going to be really hard but I'm willing to work on it slowly.

And Caitlyn - we are chicken wing addicts around here so that is going to be hard!

Jessica said...

Best of luck! That would be such a challenge for me! :)

Amanda said...

Thanks, I know its not going to be easy but I am hoping to transition slowly and see how it goes!