Argh! I’ve had the worst writer’s block for the last two weeks. The reason: Megan and I broke up for real and it’s f’ed up my creative process. Much more to that story…I’ll try to cover in other posts.
To bust the writing slump, I thought I’d write an easy post about the conclusion of two recent personal projects, namely, how I went vegetarian for a month and how I stopped drinking for 2.5 months.
Lance’s Great Vegetarian Experiment
I attempted to go vegetarian for the entire month of March and let me tell, it was much harder than I thought it would be. I missed the mark badly. I also allowed myself to eat eggs, fish, and drink milk during the experiment, which is like a really puss version of going veg. Besides that, I lasted about 2.5 weeks before succumbing to my carnivorous urges in a BIG WAY. Here are several bullet points.
- When eating out, I found the options really limiting and thoroughly tedious at almost every place I visited. The good news is this forced me to eat and cook for myself, which cleaned up my diet and saved me some cash.
- When I traveled with the sports team I coach, we always had catered meals, so the options were even more limited. I dropped the ball almost every time on these trips.
- When my roommates cooked for the house, I couldn’t partake.
- I grilled and ate Tofurkey sausages daily. These are actually pretty good depending on how you cook them, so I’ve integrated them into my normal diet.
- Combined with no drinking alcohol during the month of March, I lost five pounds.
- Going veg made me much more aware of what I was buying and eating.
- I ate a tons of fruits and vegetables.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I went to a wedding about three weeks in. They had prime rib and there was no fucking way I wasn’t going to eat it. And I did eat it. After that, I went back to regular meat eating. Interestingly, Megan, who accompanied me to the wedding, ALSO ate the prime rib, and she’s been a vegetarian for eight years. It was that good.
I’d definitely do this again, but I’d be more strategic about it and spend more time planning out meals. This best part was cooking and how I had much more control over my diet. This was a really interesting experiment and I would recommend it for anybody.
Riding the Wagon for 2.5 months
One of my new year’s resolutions was to go dry for a month and I had some good success there. Starting January 8, I went dry for 2.5 months, with only a couple of slip ups. During that span I had a total of 8 drinks and most of those came at a Superbowl party. Two of the drinks were glasses of wine at two different dinners.
I used to be a big partier, so going dry for a long stretch is a big deal. I will admit, though, that I’ve done the 1-month dry thing several times over the years, so I knew what I was in for.
- When I go dry, I basically don’t go to parties or bars. My nightlife was lame.
- Megan told me to my face that I had become boring during this stretch. This actually became a point of contention, as she likes to go out and have a good time. Imagine how lame those 2.5 months must have been for her…
- I definitely lost a bit of weight and looked leaner.
- Despite ditching the alcohol and cleaning up my diet, I didn’t notice any significant changes in fitness or energy level.
The most interesting part of the whole deal was I got to a point, about 3 weeks in, where I had zero craving for alcohol and in fact the thought of it sort of repulsed me. Not the being drunk part, but the fact that booze is basically a toxin and how it has such a negative effect on your body. Yuck.
I recommend trying this one also if you’re really serious about your diet and health in general. If you want to lose some weight, try cutting out all alcohol and meat for a month and see what it does for you. Both of these are good ways to feel clean, healthy, and lean.