The Amateur Vegetarian

As I type this first sentence, I've completed 10, count 'em 10, days of a vegetarian diet. And I still don't really think I know what I'm doing. But I'm still healthy, so I must be doing something right. Right? Until very recently, I specialized in being a carnivore. Today's post is going to talk about what I've been eating since I decided to step away from meat for a while.

Breakfast
This meal hasn't changed a bit for me. It still usually consists of bread and peanut butter or a bowl of cereal if I have the time. Obviously the abandonment of meat is not going to change anything there. However, when I went out to breakfast at locally-famous Theo and Stacy's over the weekend I did have to pass on my usual Western omelet, instead going for French toast, sunny-side up eggs, and hash browns. A more than adequate substitute in terms of taste and fulfillment.

Lunch and Dinner
Eleven days ago or so, essentially every lunch or dinner I was a part of included meat. Lunch was almost always some kind of cold-cut sandwich or a pizza after a shift in the dishroom at the cafeteria I work at on campus. Dinner generally involved a rotation of frozen supreme pizza, frozen beef burritos, fish, chicken, sloppy-joes, and macaroni and cheese with a hot dog thrown in. Ok, you got me, two hot dogs thrown in.  Don't get me wrong, I still ate a balanced diet. Salads, vegetables, fruit, and pasta were all in the mix. But meat was always present.


While meat isn't my mainstay anymore, I'm still eating similar foods. Bean and cheese burritos instead of beef. Cheese-only pizzas. And still plenty of mac and cheese, but without the hot dogs. I've also started eating some main courses that are meatless to begin with, like red beans and rice. I haven't really tapped the tofu scene at home yet, but I did have an amazing tofu sandwich at the Crow's Nest. (It's on S. Westnedge Ave in the student ghetto. If you haven't been there, you really should make a point to.) And of course, veggies are still a major source of nutrition for me.

Snacks and Other Foods
Snacking hasn't changed that much for me either. I still pop open the bag of chips every other night or so at around eleven or midnight. I used to grab a slice of deli ham or something similar for snacking as well, but the urge to do so has been gone since I began this endeavor. I did buy a protein-substitute drink to make sure I'm still getting proper nutrition. But I haven't had to tap too much into it. I think I'm still getting enough protein from other sources.


Status Report

Important parts of my new diet.

As of right now, I'm actually not missing meat all that much. It's really surprising to me. Sure, I'll see a commercial for a Whopper and think, "Boy, that looks delicious," but I haven't had even the slightest urge to break my new habit. Cheese has become a major part of meals. Maybe it has allowed me to enjoy some of that "heartiness" I enjoyed with meat. And I'm still getting a balanced diet. Peanut butter, nuts, and beans are all helping me maintain my health.

Perhaps my relatively smooth transition from meat is because, as stated before, I am eating foods that are basically the same products, minus the meat itself. But that's just fine with me. I wanted to try vegetarianism because of the environmental impacts of meat consumption, not because I wanted to discover vegetable-centered cuisine. As long as the meat is gone, I'm fulfilling what I set out to do.

So far, the experiment is going pretty well.