Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Going Vegetarian

I am considering going vegetarian.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I really need to start eating better.  First of all I eat way too much junk food.  I realize that becoming a vegetarian is not the answer, but I think I eat way too much meat especially red meat.  I am not a major animal rights person with regards to being a vegetarian, but eating less eat would be a great way to start doing better with regards to animal rights.  I really need to start eating more veggies.  Becoming vegetarian or at least a semi-vegetarian would definitely help with that.  The other thing is that I don't deal well with too much fat in my diet.  Don't get me wrong, I love fatty food, it just makes me sooooooo sick!  Red meat is so high in fat and calories, plus if you believe the blood type diet, I should be eating more vegetarian anyway.  Plus, I really should look at the Body Ecology diet since that is a really healthy way to eat.  I really should at least do the food combining.  That may make things better for me health wise.  I think becoming a vegetarian will help with my belief that we need to start thinking about our impact on our planet.  I think the best way for me to do this is to start by cutting red meat out of my diet.  Then I can cut out poultry and fish.  I don't think that i am against eggs and dairy, but I definitely think that I want to cut down on those too.  Maybe I'll look into a vegetarian book.  I should never have gotten rid of my Moosewood cookbook.

My goal is to be the healthiest I can be, for me, my wonderful husband and my 3 beautiful kids!

Wish me luck!
Amy

4 comments:

  1. My only reservation about vegetarianism is that it assumes you have to be all or nothing. I 100% agree that most of us (Americans) eat far too much meat. And most of that meat his from factory farms that feed their animals unhealthy diets and contain them in unhealthy situations. If we all focused on eating animals that are raised appropriately (think cows roaming pastures, eating grass; chickens running free, eating seeds and insects; etc.) we would eat less because that kind of meat is more exepnsive and we would be eating healthier because that kind of meat is much better for our bodies. All of my milk and butter is from pastured cows and I try to get most of meat from pastured animals as well. Not always easy to find but worth it. Doing this has actually made me eat more vegetables and fruit because I would go broke otherwise!

    Just some food for thought :)

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  2. Nicole-I could never go 100% vegetarian either, but that being said, I need to eliminate a good amount of unhealthy meat from my diet. I totally agree with you about eating meat that is raised properly. I should by more meat this way, healthier for us and also for the environment. You're right that buying smaller amounts of good quality meat and increasing fruits and veggies is probably the best way to go. Where do you buy your milk and butter?

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  3. my milk and butter is from whole foods. I buy High lawn Farm milk and Family of Farms Pasture butter. Both from cows raised on pasture. This helps get different saturated fats into our bodies that we are probably lacking as a result of corn-fed beef and processed food (also corn and soy based). Our bodies need all different kinds of saturated fats to work properly but unfortunaley the American diet is skewed towards a few kinds of saturated fats and this results in an imbalance in our bodies. That imbalance can lead to diabetes, heart diease, obesity, etc.

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  4. The American diet is so off with regards to nutritional values. My goal is to start eating 20% protein and 80% veggies or eating veggies and grains together. I really need to start looking at food combining. I don't know if you believe in that but it certainly makes sense in my mind.

    I am also trying to eat more salmon for the omega-3 (I think it's 3) oils and definitely less processed foods. I'm not always good at eating less processed foods, but i am doing better.

    Thanks for the info!

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