Vegetarian Newbie CONFESSIONS
by Rachel Langley, Providence, RI
No one was more surprised by my decision to go vegetarian in 2014 than me. Not that it was something I didn’t support or encourage in others, but it certainly wasn’t something I pictured for myself. My daily consumption of brown rice and chicken was a staple in my health and wellness diet. Yet, I started to get curious about going vegetarian and began to wonder how making such a change might, in turn, change my body, my health and my mind. I started to do some reading and decided in mid-December that after Christmas, I would dive into a “trial” dietary change – making the switch to vegetarianism. This would mean kissing my chicken goodbye and learning to love protein alternatives. It would require paying closer attention to what I was eating, how often I was eating and making sure that going vegetarian did not mean just eating pasta every day. (Not that I would mind that at all!) Some of my early discoveries along the way have been unexpected. Here is a summary of things I’ve experienced and continue to experience as a newbie vegetarian:
Meat looks strange to me. Yes, you read that correctly. A couple weeks into this vegetarian lifestyle, I was flipping through the supermarket flyers and was struck by how odd and foreign the huge slab of ribs looked to me. And as someone who always loved a good “slab” of ribs covered in barbeque sauce, it was startling. This still ranks as one of my top “well that is strange” newbie vegetarian discoveries.
I’m still cooking up chicken for the rest of the household, but a portobello burger is usually what lands on my plate 36
RIFIT | Fitness, Health and Wellness
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Cooking for t wo. Literally. One of the most useful tips I read early on stated the importance of preparing a meal for yourself that provides all the needed nutrients, not simply eliminating the meat portion of a dinner you may have prepared for everyone else. No easy feat. I had grown accustomed to just throwing something together for dinner (usually involving chicken) for me and my main squeeze. These days I am compelled and required to ensure I’m compensating for the meat I’m not ingesting. Fueling my body has always been a struggle long before this lifestyle conversion. Somehow by going vegetarian, though, it has actually made it easier because I’m uber aware. I’m still cooking up chicken for the rest of the household, but a portobello burger is usually what lands on my plate. Shock & Awe. You are what? One of the most amazing and puzzling experiences to date is how startled and genuinely concerned people become when you tell them you’ve gone vegetarian. Something I’ve now started to refer to as the “V word”. The responses range from, “Well, that’s fine but I’m still eating steak,” to “You better take protein supplements,” and my favorite, “Please don’t start pushing your agenda on me.” Honestly, I’m not sure why saying I’ve removed meat from my diet equals a campaign of shock and awe, but it does. I did decide to keep fish in my diet, and when I reveal that, most folks take a step back and expel a sigh of relief. It is as if the thought of being able to live healthy without any meat in one’s diet is unattainable. I pleaded with some of my naysayers that legumes, nuts, quinoa and leafy greens like kale are excellent sources of protein, but it appears to have fallen on deaf ears. And that’s OK, I’m not trying to convert anyone. Heck, I am not even sure how I converted myself. Migraines Be Gone. One of the catalysts for this change, truth be told, is that I suffer from paralyzing migraines. I have an emergency prescription that normally stops them in their tracks, but my consumption of this “miracle” pill was becoming too frequent late last year. It is my only health woe, as everything else about me is as fit as a fiddle (knock on wood!). But the migraines? Oy! The frequency of taking such a strong medication was beginning to concern me. I decided it may be of benefit to make a drastic alteration to the foods I consumed and see what the result turned out to be. The verdict? Since December 26th, I have only experienced two