Thursday, February 10, 2011

Januarian, Vegetarian.

I have officially completed one of my New Year's resolutions! I mentioned this one a couple posts ago, but didn't give any details other than the fact that I started on January 4th, and since it was a month-long goal I successfully finished on February 4th. Did you gather what the goal was from the title of this post? I went vegetarian. Why? Well, for many reasons: I had never tried it before, I wanted to learn how to cook more vegetable-based dishes/experiment with cooking, I only cooked 1 to 2 meat dishes a week anyway (who wants to wait that long to cook a meal when you get home from work and you're starving?), I have a roommate who is vegetarian, and I was just curious.

Let me make sure I clarify the definition of a vegetarian here (thanks to merriam-webster.com):

Definition of VEGETARIAN
1
: of or relating to vegetarians
2
: consisting wholly of vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and sometimes eggs or dairy products


My results? I felt slightly healthier in some ways (nothing dramatic in my case), I had to plan ahead to have a balanced meal, I enjoyed feeling full on produce, and I never once cheated or slipped up on my goal! It really wasn't a difficult talk for me either since I was used to not having meat every day. The only time I wanted to break my goal was when I was down to the last 8 or 9 days and my boss took everyone out to dinner - at a sushi restaurant. My coworkers seated close to me all gave me a ton of grief (I am the only female employee of the company), and tried to convince me to throw in the towel early and just order the sushi. I resisted anyway, and I had some sympathetic waiters who took pity and brought me some excellent vegetarian dishes, some that were on the menu, and some that weren't.
Seaweed salad wrapped in avocado and topped with other greens, served on a slab of stone (cool!)
I think my favorite was the dessert platters they brought out for everyone to share.
It was an interesting experience - one I'm not likely to repeat, but I do know that I'll continue to eat little meat (1-2 times a week), and I plan on adding more vegetables to each meal. I like veggies, so this shouldn't be hard. I also got better at controlling how much I eat; noticing when I'm actually full and not feeling like it's necessary to always have seconds. Goal 1 - Check.