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United States4883 Posts
As it is with most people, when I came to college it was my first experience on my own: cooking, cleaning, time management, etc. Luckily, I'm incredibly OCD and have a pretty good work ethic if I start a project, so cleaning and time management went okay, and I managed to get through my first couple of years in college without incident in those areas. Food, however, was a different case. It was a really bad case that was constantly getting worse, and I didn't even realize it.
When I lived in a dorm, I didn't have a kitchen readily available to me. So I did what most college students did: I ate nothing but corn dogs, microwave dinners, macaroni and cheese, sandwiches, and chips (and ramen :p). It was bad. But I didn't know any better. So after a semester I moved into my own apartment and began cooking again. Now, I actually really love to cook, and I used to cook all the time in high school when I lived at home. But the main problem was that I never learned how to cook healthy foods; my mainstays were dishes like hamburgers and ramen, pork and feta tacos, meat sauce lasagna, baked macaroni and cheese, etc., etc. So even though I was cooking and had strayed away from microwave food solutions, I was still eating high calorie, high fat, high sodium food that was slowly killing me. In addition, I ate dessert more often (because hey, I could, I was in college) and gorged myself on midnight snacks. I stopped doing any kind of physical activity. I mostly just worked and went to school (neither of which is physically taxing), then came home and ate big dinners and sat around playing SC2 or watching Netflix. I didn't realize it, but I was slowly killing myself.
It wasn't until about last year this time that I noticed the problem, that I slowly realized I was not just a little overweight but obese. I realized I had not just let loose a little, I was incredibly unhealthy and a prime candidate for heart disease. I was 5'7" and weighed 220 lbs. while my fellow roommates were both 6'0" and weighed close to 180 lbs. None of my clothes fit anymore. My shirts were all extra larges or stretched out extra larges. I couldn't do a pushup. I couldn't run more than 100 feet before having to take a 10-minute breather. I was in very bad shape.
So I started to change things. I started to walk at the nearby botanical gardens every day and try to do situps, squats, and modified pushups every morning when I woke up and every night before I went to bed. I realized my eating habits revolved strongly around high-calorie meat/dairy-based dishes, so I stopped buying meat and forced myself to figure out meatless dishes (though I still ate meat when I went out to eat 3-4 times a week). I cut out sodas entirely and began drinking only water, milk, and the occasional juice. And one day, I simply decided to just finally cut out the meat altogether (with the exception of fish/seafood). All this time I had spent trying to be healthy, I entertained the thought that I would eventually go vegetarian, but I never thought I could do it until the one day I did. And now that I've experienced it, I don't know if I could ever go back. Here are some of my experiences and things I've learned from being a vegetarian:
1. The first thing to note is that your body feels AMAZING the week or two after you stop eating meat. It literally feels as if all the toxins in your body were flushed away and all of your limbs are lighter, stronger, and leaner. You just feel so much healthier. After a while, the effects wear off, but I think the reason is that you just become used to being healthy. And once you're healthy, it's impossible to do unhealthy things again; your body tells you, you can feel it. If you try to drink that large milkshake or eat those heavy fried foods, your body rejects the excess sugar, salt, and fat. You feel sick, you feel unhealthy.
2. Before becoming a vegetarian, my diet was almost completely made up of meat, cheese, and bread/pasta. I loved meat. I used to think that a meal was not a meal if it didn't have meat. But becoming a vegetarian completely changes your mindset and the way you look at food. You start to try to balance your diet better and get all the essential nutrients you need each day. You don't get as many calories so you start to redefine what a "meal" is (to me, a meal is ~500, eaten 4-5 times a day). You become aware of what you're eating instead of just eating to fill a space.
3. Many people don't know that vegetables have tastes. That sounds silly, but it's true, and I was one of them. Eggplant, black beans, and spinach are DELICIOUS, but I would have never thought that 2 years ago because to me all of those things were not as good as meat. When you start eating more vegetables and stop letting the flavor of meat overpower things, you start to taste a lot more and appreciate so much more food. You also learn to love things like frozen berries for dessert and trail mix or pieces of fruit for snacks; you aren't driven to make a dozen chicken tenders or a hot pocket or something else high in calories to fill that hunger. Even with soda, when you cut it out, you start to prefer water to it just because you begin to like the taste of water and the feeling of being healthy.
4. I don't miss meat (except the occasional craving of Chik-Fil-A). For the most part, I'd rather just eat vegetables or tofu than meat now because I think it will taste more interesting and my body will feel healthier. It's not a constant nagging. Interestingly enough, it also means I cook at home a lot more and go out less, as most fast food places are meat-based and don't cater well to vegetarians. And I'm okay with this, I love to cook and experiment with new recipes.
(5. I love sushi so much. I just tried it for the first time this year and I fell in love with it. I don't particularly like fish but I love sushi, so that's the main reason I left fish/seafood on the list of things I could eat. As long as you don't get fixated on fatty fish, sushi is an incredibly awesome, incredibly healthy, high-energy snack. I learned how to make my own because I loved it so much. If you want healthy meals, try out sushi roll!)
All in all, I'm very happy with my decision to become a vegetarian. It's been a wild ride and I've had a lot of difficulty adjusting, but it's been a turning point in my life and one of the greatest learning experiences I've ever had. At this point, I'm down to ~180 lbs. My blood pressure is down from pre-hypertensive (~130/100) to normal (~90/60). I feel healthier, it's easier to just transport my body, and everything is starting to come together. This isn't the final destination of my journey, but it's already been a great journey so far.
+ Show Spoiler +If I ever went back to eating meat, I would only eat a plant-based diet with the occasional meat added in. The biggest problem in America is that we're raised eating a meat-based diet with the occasional plant product. We're eating all processed foods. We're drinking sodas, energy drinks, and Powerade. It's a societal disaster and it hurts my soul to see (unhealthy-looking) people stocking up on Chef Boyardee specials and getting 2 dozen wings and pizza rolls for game days. I know the kids of America will not be raised healthily, just as I was not raised healthily, but they may not ever realize what they're doing to their body. It scares me a bit. If I could, I would spread the gospel of vegetarianism all across the globe. It matters to me so much.
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oh I didn't know vegetarian can eat fish, that's interesting.
just be careful because to get a balanced diet from a veggie meal can be a bit difficult. some illness happened to my friend because he didn't get enough certain vitamins.
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Bearded Elder29902 Posts
Vegetarian =/= Vegan
Vegan can't eat fish. Also I can't imagine myself living without meat.
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Great job on your achievements! Don't be afraid to add meats like lean chicken breast to your diet.
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Technically this is pescitarian (Eats "no meat", but does eat fish!) but honestly, I'd want to outright shoot anyone that'd be snooty enough to say "You're not actually a vegetarian!" :D
What's important is knowing what you're eating and having made a conscious decision to eat these things, rather than eating miniburgers and pizza pockets because they're there and convenient. As for ETisME's comments on balanced diets - it's as true in a vegetarian diet as any other. Unless you've got specific dietary needs (I.E. you're a bodybuilder) what you need to get and what you can get is the same on a vegetarian diet as it is on a MASSIVE QUOTES normal diet END MASSIVE QUOTES. There's a small concern for vitamin b12 that can make supplimenting b12 a fairly wise choice, but that's largely in the case of a vegan diet, which would cut out cow's milk, eggs, and other natural sources of b12.
As far as I've ever noticed the whole protein game is a hazy place only relevant to those trying to pack on a bunch of muscle mass; I'm 5'11 and 140, have always been a toned skinny guy(Endo/ecto bodytype), and have neither lost weight nor muscle mass despite becoming a vegetarian and intentionally reducing my protein intake (was curious :D) about a year and a half ago. If you're trying to become huge, sure you'll need 100g++ of protein a day... but if you're not shooting for that, these recommended health studies you'll come across that suggest a 140 pound man should intake 103 grams of protein a day... I've been taking in at most 50g a day for well over a year with a physically active lifestyle and have never felt poorly because of it (to the best of my knowledge). I ain't no doctor, but it worries me when the recommended intake on one hand is 56g / day, where others will recommend well over 100g for no terribly clear reason.
ANYWAYS. SC2John, I salute you for your conversion to a veggie's lifestyle. If you ever make a badass black bean soup, you should hook me up with the recipe :D
+ Show Spoiler +On September 20 2013 16:07 739 wrote:
Vegetarian =/= Vegan
Vegan can't eat fish. Also I can't imagine myself living without meat. Vegetarian : Doesn't eat any meat (including fish). Does eat animal products (eggs, dairy products) and plant products. Pescitarian : Doesn't eat meat (excepting fish). Does eat animal products (eggs, dairy products) and plant products. Vegan : Doesn't eat meat (including fish), does not eat any animal products, avoids using products that test on animals, avoids using/owning/purchasing non-edible animal products (leather, wool). The mantra of vegans is "No suffering" - meaning that anything that involves animal suffering is something that they'll explicitly avoid. While it's true that a Vegan wouldn't eat fish, it's also quite common for people to abstain from fish as well as other meats, but not go so far as to not wear wool shirts and give up on cheese or other animal products. As such, there are three choices, and technically the OP is a Pescitarian, but really that falls under the Vegetarian tree. Vegan, on the other hand, comes purely from an ethics standpoint and thereby isn't necessarily under the Vegetarian tree. A vegetarian / pescitarian can be such for health and/or ethical reasons, whereas a vegan will only be a vegan because they don't want animals to hurt.
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Good choice, but honestly the most important imo is to stop drinking sodas. You also mentioned blood pressure, so try to reduce your sodium intake.
When I started to eat less meat (90% of my meals are vegetarian, I get myself a nice Wagyu steak once in a while. I like meat but it's very hard to get quality products here), I thought I would crave meat, but actually, the less you eat meat, the less you want to.
Get good vegetables, and learn how to cook them well, that's the spirit, people who don't like veggies don't know what their talking about!
Good luck!
@poster below : the word you are looking for is "organic". "Bio" is how we say it in French/German 
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Congratz, you started to think about what you eat, a great step. My wife is also a vegetarian, which is ok, because we do not force our children to eat meat or not, and I like a lot of meals without meat. And we have fruitful discussions about eating, which leads to more awareness of what we are eating in general.
I think your body will always benefit from getting more valuable food. I personally love meat, but I have never eaten meat every day in my whole life, "The Dose Makes the Poison", as Paracelsus said.
I also think eating junk veggie is not better than eating meat, for example gene veggie is horrible as well.
The poster before me got it right: Get good food, in Germany we call it Bio, meat, vegetables, fish, or whatever you like. Cook a lot by yourself, don't go to McDonald's more than a few times in a year. Cooking is an art, it should be celebrated like that. Drink more fresh water, fresh juice and your body will be grateful. Go to regional food retailers, if you can, buy from a local bio farmer.
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On September 20 2013 15:53 SC2John wrote:
As long as you don't get fixated on fatty fish, sushi is an incredibly awesome, incredibly healthy, high-energy snack.
What do you mean fixated? You're aware fatty fish is the healthy kind, right?
Anyway, sounds like a typical nourishment disaster overreacting. But right on, whatever you do it'll be more healthy than your microwave diet.
Btw. Lasagna Bolognese (meat sauce) isn't unhealthy if you do it properly and should almost contain more veggies than meat.
On September 20 2013 17:02 papalion wrote:
Last edit: 2013-09-20 17:14:15
Why did you remove your most important remark? 
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I don't know, it sounds from your post like you ate really shitty stuff, then went overboard and went veggie instead in some form of idea that meat is the criminal in the drama. Meat is healthy, unless you ate really shitty meat for some reason.
Not to say that you have to eat meat to eat healthy, but I'm surprised you'd go vegetarian for health reasons, it's far harder to eat healthy on a vegetarian diet.
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The unhealthiest foods in the world: wheat, barley, rye, oats, fried food, all oils (olive oil, coconut oil, etc.) meats that have nitrites/nitrates added as preservatives, well done red meat, cooked skin of potatoes, and carbonated beverages with a meal.
Healthiest foods: eggs (not well done,) salt, full fat dairy, non processed meats, nuts (no peanuts) veggies, fruits.
Make sure you salt everything bc your body needs it to make strong stomach acid, salt has nothing to do with high blood pressure. Its a medical myth. High blood pressure is caused 99 percent of the time by lack of Calcium.
https://connectpro84292131.adobeconnect.com/_a993364313/p76srqlm89m/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal
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On September 20 2013 17:57 TheWorldToCome wrote:The unhealthiest foods in the world: wheat, barley, rye, oats, fried food, all oils (olive oil, coconut oil, etc.) meats that have nitrites/nitrates added as preservatives, well done red meat, cooked skin of potatoes, and carbonated beverages with a meal. Healthiest foods: eggs (not well done,) salt, full fat dairy, non processed meats, nuts (no peanuts) veggies, fruits. Make sure you salt everything bc your body needs it to make strong stomach acid, salt has nothing to do with high blood pressure. Its a medical myth. High blood pressure is caused 99 percent of the time by lack of Calcium. https://connectpro84292131.adobeconnect.com/_a993364313/p76srqlm89m/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal
Pure lies.
Edit: seriously, a warning is in place here...
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On September 20 2013 17:57 TheWorldToCome wrote:
The unhealthiest foods in the world: wheat, barley, rye, oats, fried food, all oils (olive oil, coconut oil, etc.) meats that have nitrites/nitrates added as preservatives, well done red meat, cooked skin of potatoes, and carbonated beverages with a meal.
Wrong. Wheat, barley, rye and oats (including the husks) is fine in moderation, there are some studies that imply it shouldn't be our main source of nutrition (contrary to the traditional food triangle), but it's not "bad" for you. Not all oils are bad for you. Fish oil in particular is the source of many rather uncommon vitamins associated with good health. There are many, many more natural oils that are rich in nutrients that are very healthy. Obviously palm/olive oils in excess aren't good though, but the same is true for anything, and the only reason they're able to be consumed in excess is because they're extremely concentrated.
Potato skin is not bad for you, what the fuck? Nor is cooked meat, although whether undercooking it is slightly healthier is debatable.
On September 20 2013 17:57 TheWorldToCome wrote:
Healthiest foods: eggs (not well done,) salt, full fat dairy, non processed meats, nuts (no peanuts) veggies, fruits.
These aren't necessarily the healthiest foods, apart from salt which is found in just about everything you eat and is massively overconsumed in western society by an order of magnitude. Salt causes hardening of the arteries and, along with cholesterol, increases your risk of heart disease immensely.
On September 20 2013 17:57 TheWorldToCome wrote:
salt has nothing to do with high blood pressure. Its a medical myth. High blood pressure is caused 99 percent of the time by lack of Calcium.
Wrong! Start reading peer reviewed studies, not pseudo "science" rubbish and people might take you seriously.
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SC2John
1. The first thing to note is that your body feels AMAZING the week or two after you stop eating meat. It literally feels as if all the toxins in your body were flushed away and all of your limbs are lighter, stronger, and leaner. You just feel so much healthier. After a while, the effects wear off, but I think the reason is that you just become used to being healthy. And once you're healthy, it's impossible to do unhealthy things again; your body tells you, you can feel it. If you try to drink that large milkshake or eat those heavy fried foods, your body rejects the excess sugar, salt, and fat. You feel sick, you feel unhealthy.
I don't eat much meat. It actually happens sometimes that I don't eat any meat 2 weeks in a row. I want to note that I neither feel any better when I don't eat meat (not even the first time) and I don't feel sick or unhealthy when I eat unhealthy stuff once in a while.
Did you consider that this might be more based on your general change of life style, things you did expect and the success to change something?
Everything seems to gets bad when you eat to much of it. I don't think that not eating any meat at all is a good idea, cause you limit what you can eat (, what seems to be natural to eat) and you force yourself to be very aware of your diet to get everything you need. Did you consider to eat meat like once a week?
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good blog
hoenstly, the most convincing argument to become vegetarian is the moral aspect imo.
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On September 20 2013 15:56 ETisME wrote:
oh I didn't know vegetarian can eat fish, that's interesting.
We can't, that's pescatarian.
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I'm really disappointed, I came in here expecting a troll blog on Becoming a Vegeta. I'm not kidding. My brain is weird.
And Theworldtocome...wow. I know nutrition is a trolly topic but dayum son.
On topic, congrats on making a change in your life! I don't know what I'd do if we didn't have a kitchen in our appt in college. However like a few others noted, it seems as if simply changing around a few processed foods for fruits and veggies might be an acceptable middle of the road if you do decide to pick up meat again. Also, don't shy away from fatty fish, it's easily one of the best sources of healthy fat out there if you are intent on eating fish (is it pescitarian? so many idk anymore).
Sadly most of my girlfriends have ended up being vegetarians. The plus side of this was that I learned to cook a ridiculous amount of vegetarian dishes and would highly recommend checking out Greek/Mediterranean cuisine as well as Japanese dishes and Buddhist meals in general (although there are some vegetables that they cannot eat, mainly garlic).
Also just to note, never forget the placebo effect and its place in any diet lol. I may seem like a Debbie Downer but 99% of people feel really good for the first couple of weeks after they make a change in their diets. Especially if this is the time when you cut out soda as well. If it's something you really like and are happy with the results though, keep doing it.
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On September 20 2013 15:56 ETisME wrote:
oh I didn't know vegetarian can eat fish, that's interesting.
just be careful because to get a balanced diet from a veggie meal can be a bit difficult. some illness happened to my friend because he didn't get enough certain vitamins.
Vegetarians don't eat fish. You aren't a Veggie if you eat fish. It's a good start nonetheless. You have to realize though that eating fish is as terrible for the environment as eating birds or mammals. It's definitely healthier though.
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On September 20 2013 19:46 Rollin wrote:
Potato skin is not bad for you, what the fuck?
That's not necessarily the case. Potato skin contains solanine. You can also read about the toxicity of potatoes.
Yes, young potatoes are not bad, but for older ones, I'd remove the skin.
Also, of course nothing happens when you eat a "bad" potato's skin once.
@OP:
It's cool that becoming a vegetarian made you eat healthy. But everything you say has basically nothing to do with eating meatless, but just with eating healthy (no soda, no processed foods) & and you starting to work out.
But if it's easier for you to eat healthy if you cut all meat - whatever floats your boat 
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Good call! Although I'm very neutral in terms of vegetarians/pescetarians (I don't respect or disrespect them, as long as they don't think they're better people), I would like to congratulate anyone who's gotten out of the life of obesity. As a sushi chef, I would like to warn you that there is a surprising amount of sugar in the rice that we use. It's still waaaay healthier than most meat dishes though. You can always ask for your rolls to be light on rice too, and the sugar isn't even bad if you burn it.
Japanese cuisine offers a whole lot of pescterian meals that are very healthy (surprise, surprise). I encourage you to venture further out of just sushi and try other Japanese food.
Fish fat is generally good. It's not good to overeat them, but having a moderate amount of it is actually good for you.
For cooking at home, I suggest at least trying Umeboshi or Natto with rice THREE TIMES, with one week intervals in between if you didn't like it the first time. Very easy to make(you literally just need to cook the rice), but a rather acquired taste for both. Some people just won't like it, but as it is an acquired taste, it just takes getting used to for many people. You should have some side dish to go with it.
Okra is an awesome veggie, tastes great. It's kinda hard to find, but I definitely suggest it if you haven't tried it already. It tastes great with just soy sauce and bonito flakes as far as I'm concerned, although I love it in miso soup the most. I hear there's a lot of Mediterranean dishes that use it as well, although I have no idea about that part.
As with anyone changing a lifestyle, I always warn people not to label their original lifestyle as evil. It's a lot easier to stick with where you're going when you understand that you aren't "staying away from the temptation", you're simply choosing a lifestyle that you feel is better. Why go back to what you feel is inferior?
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vegetarian is a but overboard and def not necessary to become healthy, but good for you! Now share some recipes.
There's a lot of good veggie indian food.
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EPT
