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Photo Courtesy of law_kevin (flickr)

The rumors are true . . . I am going veggie!  Ahhhh!  No, it isn’t that scary but it is worthy of attention.  My decision to eat vegetarian food was spawned out of a desire to eat healthier, be healthier, and feel incredibly better.  The real story is that a few important and coincidental revelations took place in my life that sparked my interest in becoming a vegetarian.

How and Why I Made the Choice

#1 – I saw the documentary Food, Inc.  Though I was horrified at the way our food industry treats animals, and on a moral stance alone I could have made this decision, that wasn’t it.  The real awakening I had was that I was mindlessly putting food in my own mouth every day without considering the consequences.  My greatest lessoned learned and my new commitment is that I will become a person who thinks about food.  I want to make conscious choices about what I eat and reap the benefits of making intelligent decisions whenever possible.  At the end of the documentary the filmmakers listed ways to help the food movement in America, including the simple fact that everyone votes 3 times a day for what they want, whether they realize it or not.  In my case, I didn’t realize that what I purchased and consumed was a vote in favor that item.  So, if I choose to buy and eat healthier foods, organic foods, vegetarian foods, foods that help the environment, foods that benefit farmers and not corporations, foods that clean the earth and not destroy it, then I will be making a difference with every bite.  For the most part, I now choose health instead of cravings, organic instead of processed, vegetarian instead of meat, and life instead of death.  When I say life, I mean the way I feel every day.  I want to feel alive.  I want to experience life in a very conscious and energized way, instead of drowning out my existence with fatigue, indigestion, and hangovers.

#2 – As much as I don’t want to admit this, I have a few pounds to lose.  I used to be the skinniest person I knew.  I also used to eat whatever I wanted and still manage to hold a six pack with minimal effort.  Those days are long gone.  I have matured into an adult body that doesn’t respond like it used to and I have not kept up with the changes fast enough.  I do understand that simply eating vegetarian foods alone won’t cut the fat, but my awareness of my food choices and increased self-discipline should do the trick.  Realizing that I need to lose weight didn’t happen overnight, but the motivation to lose the pounds snuck up on me faster than I expected.  I signed up to run a marathon and it’s happening in a few short weeks.  At the very least, I’m making this switch to be a better runner and I’ll take the positive health benefits as a sweet perk.

#3 – I bought my dog the best dog food on the market.  This is actually the moment I made the decision to go veggie.  My wife, Tessa, and I went shopping at a local pet food store a few weeks ago and the owner spent about 20 minutes going into detail about the various types of dog food available and how we could help out our little pug in a big way by changing his diet from grain-based, to grain free, because it wasn’t natural for his body.  After the conversation I went home, researched the food, and decided very quickly that I would only feed my dog the best dog food available (FYI, we now feed him Orijen Puppy mix).  That’s when it hit me, why would I buy my dog the best food available and not even consider that for myself?  It was at that moment that I made the choice to give the vegetarian thing a legitimate chance.  I updated my Facebook status later that day with my new revelation and I received more comments than ever.  Apparently people feel very strongly about their stance on meat and animal cruelty.

Total Healthy Body Makeover

After making the decision to learn more about food and consciously think about how I eat, I have a wonderful sense of confidence about my future.  I am completely aware that changing my eating habits alone won’t revolutionize the way I feel.  However, I have taken it upon myself to create a total healthy body makeover, starting with my marathon training that began a few months ago.  I am also committing myself to sleeping more in order to reduce stress.  I have been doing yoga for years, which helps, but I’ll be increasing that as well.   I have simplified my main activities to a few select priorities that will eventually transform the way I look, feel, and approach life.

Right now my focuses include the following: eating healthier foods (mostly vegetarian and organic), exercising more consistently and aggressively (marathon training year-round), sleeping more (at least 7 hours), stretching and breathing more (yoga), writing more (this blog and my book), reading more (mainly personal development books and blogs), and socializing more with my friends, family, and my pug Benny.

Losing My Vegetarian Virginity

When I first made the choice to eat healthier I still had a ton of unhealthy food in my kitchen at home and at my desk at work.  So, I have actually eaten much worse than usual in the last week.  I didn’t make the first move until yesterday when I spent almost two hours shopping for the healthiest foods I could find.  I only live a mile from Publix, who’s slogan is “Where Shopping is a Pleasure.”  The funny thing is that it’s true.  I really do enjoy shopping there and my experience yesterday was even more magical than usual.  As soon as I walked in the store I found one of the small vegetarian sections and read a sign that has changed my shopping experiences forever.  The sign said that all of the foods in the entire store are labeled with white price stickers if they’re normal or unhealthy foods, or a brown price sticker if they’re considered to be vegetarian, organic, or extra healthy.  This new knowledge allowed me to roam the store with a keen eye for brown stickers.  To be honest, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I did feel a since of arrogance as I pushed my “healthy” cart of food around the store and noticed other carts filled with “normal” food.  I didn’t expect that reaction from myself, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for any extra snoodiness.

I’ve listed the ingredients below for my first vegetarian meal and the entire shopping list of everything I bought from Publix.  Some of the items aren’t necessarily vegetarian, including the salmon, but I’m still very attached to eating fish.  Technically, if I continue to eat fish but cut out other meats I’ll be considered a Pescatarian.  Check out the list and point out all my flaws if you’d like.  I seriously do need to learn more about this adventure that I’m heading into, so feel free to leave a comment below.  At this point I have received a ton of great feedback from many people and I love the support and encouragement.

My First Vegetarian Meal

6 Clif Protein Bars

Feedback

Don’t Forget to leave a comment below.  Share your vegetarian story or make fun of mine.  Either one works for me.  Thanks!

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The Clueless Graduate,



Jeff Sanders

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