I’m going vegetarian for the month of March. No, seriously, I am. I’m a big nasty meat eater, so this is a big deal for me. There were two factors that persuaded me to try it:
- Honey’s post about National Justice for Animals Week.
- We had a guest speaker at my sports club recently and he spoke a lot about nutrition, and in particular, dietary habits for sports performance. As part of that, he explained in graphic terms why he would only eat beef from free roaming cows. I was pretty grossed out to hear how regular cows are treated and fed, so this pushed me over the edge.
I figured I would try it for at least a month and see how it affected my energy levels, training, and competitive performance. For the hardcore vegans out there, I realize a month is pretty weak, especially considering I’m still eating fish and eggs, but hey you got to start somewhere. Don’t hate.
Anyway, I started March 1 and will hammer through the project until April 1. I will likely make my vegetarian girlfriend take me to a steakhouse and feed me a steak at that point. We’ll see. She’s pretty stoked that I’m giving this a shot.
Here’s a quick breakdown of my first three days:
Day 1 (Sunday):
March 1st was a Sunday, so I had eggs and potatoes for breakfast, with a bigass glass of milk. I had a late lunch with my mom and she had a freezer pizza ready for me as a snack. This had big patches of pepperoni on it (yum!) but I was a good boy and pulled it off. She openly questioned my manhood but I stuck to my guns and feed the pepperoni to my cat. My mom thinks that all vegetarians are “Muslims” and she’s asked me more than once if Megan is Muslim. She is not.
For dinner, I baked Salmon for me and Megan. Sides of rice and broccoli. This is one of my favorite dishes anyway so it was smooth sailing.
While I was grocery shopping I seriously contemplated buying a steak because that’s what I wanted and I deserved it.
Day 2 (Monday):
Cereal for breakfast with blueberries and blackberries. Megan’s got me into eating superfoods, of which blue- and blackberries are, and it’s a nice upgrade to my diet. For lunch I had a Caesar salad wrap with egg from the joint next door. My lunch options suck where I work and I need to bring my own stuff more often. I grazed on strawberries and Combo’s throughout the day. I think I’m turning into a hairy treehugger.
I worked out at my gym and felt perfectly fine despite the almost 36 hours of meat deprivation. I was even able to bench press my normal amount, which surprised me because I figured my biceps would have atrophied to nothingness by now.
Day 3 (Tuesday):
Tuna sandwich from Jimmy John’s (yuck) for lunch, Megan made me wheat Ravioli for dinner that night. No meatballs or sausage in sight, hell not even a friggin skinless chicken breast. I told my carnivore roommates about my latest project and they ridiculed me without restraint. It was thoroughly emasculating. I nearly broke down and went and got a cheesesteak.
I checked my weight and I’ve lost 2 full pounds. Not sure if this is water weight or whatever but I think the muscle atrophy has begun. I have a huge bottle of whey protein so you can be sure I’ll be hitting that hard so I don’t waste away, but not sure how to combat the dementia and hallucinations that I heard set in around day 10. Any advice, please leave in comments.
This is going to be an ugly month. I simply don’t know how I’m going to make it.