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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 Elder29903 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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I was a vegetarian for close to three years, but at some point I couldn't manage to maintain a healthy diet without meat, ending up eating almost pure carbs. Adding chicken breast and some fish to my diet really helped me get into better shape.
I went from 95 kilos (pants size 36/32) to 66 kilos (pants size 31/32) and then to 62 kilos (30/32) after changing the diet twice.
So while I still sometimes have a bad conscience about eating birds and fish (having three vegetarian room-mates doesn't help), I feel really much more healthy.
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Thought this was going to be about training at x100 Earth's gravity and becoming a super saiyan, moderately disappointed.
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"If you try to drink that large milkshake or eat those heavy fried foods, your body rejects the excess sugar, salt, and fat. "
I don't think it has anything to do with meat, more so the correct balance in your diet. I feel the quoted sentence illustrates that.
But regardless, good to hear this works for you
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On September 20 2013 15:53 SC2John wrote:
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.
Oh right of course. Because the only two options in diet are vegetarian or a big fat MacDonalds meal.
There's nothing wrong with eating fresh fruit and veg. I do it a lot. But with meat, that shit is off the hook. A little jerk spices, 3 tomatoes, 2 bell peppers and 500g of chicken is a meal fit for a king.
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good job on changing your unhealthy eating habits! It's a pity there isn't a college 101 course on the simple stuff like eating healthy, or managing your expenses, or time management
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United States24615 Posts
On September 20 2013 16:31 Staboteur wrote:+ 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.
I think the other big reason for why people choose to be vegan (besides ethics regarding animals) is because they believe it is always healthier to eat plant-originating protein than animal-originating protein. That means that they won't eat dairy either since the protein originates from the cow that was milked, and is less healthy than the protein they could get from a vegan diet.
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United States4883 Posts
On September 21 2013 00:14 Logo wrote:For what it's worth you can just call yourself a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism rather than vegetarian that eats seafood though it's kind of a pretentious sounding when you do.
To be fair, I rarely eat fish, so it's a little bit of a grey area. I didn't realize people would go so overboard on trying to correct me as to what type of vegetarian I was; I just figured less people would identify with "pescetarian" when I made the topic. I apologize if I've offended people by using the wrong term. I'm fairly new to this, okay?
I think a lot of people are seeing this as a sudden life change that I made that seemed a little overboard. Perhaps I was a little shaky on the time lapse, but my journey to becoming a vegetarian has taken place over the course of a full year and has been steady and gradual. I didn't suddenly throw everything I ate out the window and go health crazy and eating only raw vegetables or something like that. I'm not one to go on fad diets and try to get skinny; my whole goal over the past year is to slowly ease into a healthier lifestyle. It's been slow progress, and each step has made me much more wholesome and content with my body. That being said, I don't "hate meat" or condemn my past. I just understand where I was versus where I am now and I know that I'm in a much better place now.
I know there are some objections to vegetarianism and a lot of modern nutritionists will outright say that not eating meat is bad, but after experiencing these things, I just can't agree. I have no scientific proof or research to back up my opinion, but I'm convinced that eating little to no meat and primarily plant-based foods is good for you. You can still have a balanced diet and get all of the necessary nutrients needed for survival without any real side effects. It's not that meat is horrible or that it will kill you, I just think that there's an overemphasis of it in this country and it's really only supposed to make up a minority of your diet.
Random sidenote: I haven't eaten McDonalds in years, I would probably outright throw up if I ate there today.
Other random sidenote: If you want me to post some vegetarian recipes, I can most certainly do that
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On September 21 2013 00:50 SC2John wrote:Other random sidenote: If you want me to post some vegetarian recipes, I can most certainly do that
Do it!
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On September 20 2013 23:51 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2013 16:31 Staboteur wrote:+ 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. I think the other big reason for why people choose to be vegan (besides ethics regarding animals) is because they believe it is always healthier to eat plant-originating protein than animal-originating protein. That means that they won't eat dairy either since the protein originates from the cow that was milked, and is less healthy than the protein they could get from a vegan diet.
That is the rationale. The other rationale, though it tends to be a bit more over the top is the idea that such products are evil and vegans don't want to support companies that do things like that to animals.
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lack of meat has nothing to do with your diet being healthy or you feeling healthier, and nothing to do with you losing weight.
meat doesn't have "excess sugar, salt or fat". meat also has fuck-all calories, so is nothing to do with your weight gain/loss.
what you are referring to (instead of meat) is "processed foods". milkshake, Chik-Fil-A (there is little "meat" in a Chik-Fil-A anyway) and soda.
nothing to do with meat
i recommend adding small portions of meat to your veggie diet and renaming your diet the "real food" diet, and telling people you no longer eat processed food. the protein and nutrients you gain from meat (since you are an omnivore) will be of great benefit, especially if you ever decide to add any form of exercise to your new lifestyle
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On September 20 2013 20:10 Paljas wrote:
good blog
hoenstly, the most convincing argument to become vegetarian is the moral aspect imo.
As someone who's lived in the third world, I feel this is a very narrow view. Personally, I've cut back on meat because of the added hormones. I can't afford to eat organic but that's a goal. Overall I try to do what the OP suggests in terms of eating plant based meals with occasional meat instead of meat based meals with occasional plants.
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On September 21 2013 02:00 y0su wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2013 20:10 Paljas wrote:
good blog
hoenstly, the most convincing argument to become vegetarian is the moral aspect imo. As someone who's lived in the third world, I feel this is a very narrow view. Personally, I've cut back on meat because of the added hormones. I can't afford to eat organic but that's a goal. Overall I try to do what the OP suggests in terms of eating plant based meals with occasional meat instead of meat based meals with occasional plants.
Could you elaborate on that, as i neither see the connection, nor understand what you actually mean with "narrow view".
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You can live healthily with meat in your diet, you know. You just have to eat the right kind, not all that processed shit from the supermarket. You felt better after you stopped eating that because it was, indeed, bad, but you might as well have swapped it for the good kind of meat for the same effects.
It's admirable that you did change your previous eating habits, though, they sound dreadful.
As for the moral aspect, I don't see it. We are born killers. The strongest survives. As long as we don't kill animals just for the sport of it, but to feed instead, I see it as perfectly fine.
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Im a breatharian, I refuse to kill plants or baceteria in water for my own personal gain - the moral aspect is just too heavy. I haven't eaten plants in years. Probably would throw up if I tried some now.
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Congratulations!
Can you post your sushi recipe, please?
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This is awesome. I'm glad to hear someone is getting healthy and bouncing back from obesity. I've never been overweight, so it's hard for me to fathom what an overweight person's mind is like. Is it harder to think? I would think it would be, just because of all the blood pumping to the other "excess" areas of the body. So sometimes I assume their minds have slowed due to this idea, and that makes it even harder to recover from because they just can't think or focus a whole lot anymore.
From a moral standpoint, I believe in a more collective energy field that some people might call god. For me, I'm not sure what it is. In this case it's difficult for me to look at a dead animal. I believe that after I watched my cat get put down (instant death or paralysis) something changed in me. I was really close to her. I had been thinking about trying to go vegetarian for a while but this was the last straw for me. Hunting for food seems somewhat morally sound in the grand scheme of things, especially when you bring in the concept of a predator-prey population relationship, but ours is a special case because we really don't have predators eating us. However when I think of a dead animal it reminds me of my cat's dead eyes after receiving the lethal injection, and I just can't deal.
Later on down the road, a friend of mine showed me the movie Earthlings (you can find it on youtube). It's a documentary about the processed meat industry, and the crazy things people do to animals. If you want to know where hell is, go to a slaughterhouse. Earthlings is really not for the faint of heart but I watched it anyway. Sometimes I regret seeing it but it makes me feel that the industry of meat production (as opposed to hunting an animal to provide food for the week) is not morally sound. Then I started hearing about all the crazy shit people are putting into the meats these days (e.g. Meat Glue) and I just said enough, I will not have crazy people polluting my body for their own financial gain. I will be mindful about what is going into my holy body, what it is telling me, and I will move towards becoming a healthier person with more energy for life.
One thing I will say is, try to avoid tofu/soybeans so much. They have pseudo-estrogens in them, which is a female hormone, and it can be dangerous to eat too much whether you're male or female. That said, tofu is a great protein source for vegetarians, but I would say to try to eat something else more often as your primary protein source.
What I don't get is why a lot of people tend to want to attack or give weird advice to vegs. At first, my family thought it was weird and gave me shit for it, tried to sneak a bit of meat into my rice dish (which I really got mad about but didn't say anything because it could have been a mistake all those times), etc, but they got over it. Then one of my obese cousins from up north came down for a visit. They were eating stuff like pure chicken, giant steaks, stuff with lots of cheese in a dish, etc and it just hurt to watch but I remained understanding of their choice. Anyway on one of the last days my cousin was here she gave me a quote. "Y'know what they say? Eat healthy, die anyway." I just smiled and agreed, but inside I thought "Eat unhealthy, feel like shit physically your whole life until you change it."
If someone looks uncomfortable with eating meat in front of me I lay it out and tell them it's a personal choice and I am not offended by it, which I'm not. Then I'll say "in fact meat smells good to me sometimes, I just don't eat it anymore."
Anyway good luck in keeping with what you believe. It's tough to stay veg when it's so easy to just buy a burger or even cook your own. I think you have the right approach by listening to your body.
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On September 21 2013 04:13 hp.Shell wrote:
This is awesome. I'm glad to hear someone is getting healthy and bouncing back from obesity. I've never been overweight, so it's hard for me to fathom what an overweight person's mind is like. Is it harder to think? I would think it would be, just because of all the blood pumping to the other "excess" areas of the body. So sometimes I assume their minds have slowed due to this idea, and that makes it even harder to recover from because they just can't think or focus a whole lot anymore.
What the fuck dude? Seriously what were you thinking when you wrote this?
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so why do you keep eating fish? its pretty unhealthy as well...unless you dont mind eating plastic
On September 20 2013 17:55 Tobberoth wrote:
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.
you are really misguided on pretty much everything you said
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On September 20 2013 22:43 QuanticHawk wrote:
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.
ALL OF THESE THINGS. + Show Spoiler +wait, except the veggie is overboard bit.
And double on the share recipes bit.
Also @micronesia - I did not know that! I haven't met any vegans that are doing it purely from a health-conscious standpoint, only vehement animal rights activists that seem to project the attitude that they're willing to kill a human for hurting an animal... and of course sane normal vegans, but they aren't as fun to talk about.
On the subject of vegetarianism being overboard... I'll betcha it functions the same for SC2John as it did for me : It forces you to look at the labels of the things you're buying and make conscious choices on what you're going to eat. It's less about "don't eat meat because it's bad for you!" but more about actively experimenting with your diet instead of eating stuff that says "food" somewhere on the label.
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Vegetarians don't eat fish. They call themselves pescatarians but to me it's bullshit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism
So you eat healthy. Congratulations, but you're not a vegetarian, nor does your blog really concern vegetarianism at all, rather adopting a non-suicidal diet.
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On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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?
Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi.
On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed.
edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity.
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On September 21 2013 07:41 MoonfireSpam wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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? Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi. On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed. edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity.
A lady friend of mine and I made some sushi as a going away meal for me, and we used jasmine rice. We just googled "how to make jasmine rice" and followed the recipe. Ours was at least as good as all of the sushi places I've tried.
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United States4883 Posts
On September 21 2013 08:25 Foblos wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 07:41 MoonfireSpam wrote:On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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? Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi. On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed. edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity. A lady friend of mine and I made some sushi as a going away meal for me, and we used jasmine rice. We just googled "how to make jasmine rice" and followed the recipe. Ours was at least as good as all of the sushi places I've tried.
That's unbelieveable since Jasmine rice is not sticky nor soft like Japanese rice. Rice is arguably the most important part of making sushi, and it's really important to use the right kind of rice and cook it the right way.
I may not be the MOST qualified person to speak on this subject, but basically: you need specifically Japanese rice
(I don't know what the proper name is) as it's the only rice that really sticks together well enough to be used for sushi. Jasmine and Bismati Rice (the Indian rices) are bad for this, as is "sweet" or "glutenous" rice. To prepare it, you rinse the rice until the water isn't cloudy anymore and cook it in any rice cooker. When it's done, you put the rice in a non-metallic mixing bowl, add "seasoned" rice vinegar (most rice vinegar you buy is already seasoned unless you buy it directly from an oriental market), and then "fluff" the rice. Fluffing the rice is essentially folding the rice while it cools; this is what gives sushi rice it's fluffy, sticky nature. I think that fluffing is the most important part of the process. I think this is a pretty good video explanation of sushi rice.
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United States4883 Posts
On September 21 2013 04:13 hp.Shell wrote:This is awesome. I'm glad to hear someone is getting healthy and bouncing back from obesity. I've never been overweight, so it's hard for me to fathom what an overweight person's mind is like. Is it harder to think? I would think it would be, just because of all the blood pumping to the other "excess" areas of the body. So sometimes I assume their minds have slowed due to this idea, and that makes it even harder to recover from because they just can't think or focus a whole lot anymore. From a moral standpoint, I believe in a more collective energy field that some people might call god. For me, I'm not sure what it is. In this case it's difficult for me to look at a dead animal. I believe that after I watched my cat get put down (instant death or paralysis) something changed in me. I was really close to her. I had been thinking about trying to go vegetarian for a while but this was the last straw for me. Hunting for food seems somewhat morally sound in the grand scheme of things, especially when you bring in the concept of a predator-prey population relationship, but ours is a special case because we really don't have predators eating us. However when I think of a dead animal it reminds me of my cat's dead eyes after receiving the lethal injection, and I just can't deal. Later on down the road, a friend of mine showed me the movie Earthlings (you can find it on youtube). It's a documentary about the processed meat industry, and the crazy things people do to animals. If you want to know where hell is, go to a slaughterhouse. Earthlings is really not for the faint of heart but I watched it anyway. Sometimes I regret seeing it but it makes me feel that the industry of meat production (as opposed to hunting an animal to provide food for the week) is not morally sound. Then I started hearing about all the crazy shit people are putting into the meats these days (e.g. Meat Glue) and I just said enough, I will not have crazy people polluting my body for their own financial gain. I will be mindful about what is going into my holy body, what it is telling me, and I will move towards becoming a healthier person with more energy for life. One thing I will say is, try to avoid tofu/soybeans so much. They have pseudo-estrogens in them, which is a female hormone, and it can be dangerous to eat too much whether you're male or female. That said, tofu is a great protein source for vegetarians, but I would say to try to eat something else more often as your primary protein source. What I don't get is why a lot of people tend to want to attack or give weird advice to vegs. At first, my family thought it was weird and gave me shit for it, tried to sneak a bit of meat into my rice dish (which I really got mad about but didn't say anything because it could have been a mistake all those times), etc, but they got over it. Then one of my obese cousins from up north came down for a visit. They were eating stuff like pure chicken, giant steaks, stuff with lots of cheese in a dish, etc and it just hurt to watch but I remained understanding of their choice. Anyway on one of the last days my cousin was here she gave me a quote. "Y'know what they say? Eat healthy, die anyway." I just smiled and agreed, but inside I thought "Eat unhealthy, feel like shit physically your whole life until you change it." If someone looks uncomfortable with eating meat in front of me I lay it out and tell them it's a personal choice and I am not offended by it, which I'm not. Then I'll say "in fact meat smells good to me sometimes, I just don't eat it anymore." Anyway good luck in keeping with what you believe. It's tough to stay veg when it's so easy to just buy a burger or even cook your own. I think you have the right approach by listening to your body.
Thank you for this post, and I definitely agree. Once you start eating healthily and being conscious of what you're eating, you stare in disbelief at people who gorge themselves on triple cheeseburgers and milkshakes and your heart breaks for them, especially if it's a common thing. The people I'm surrounded with on a normal basis (my co-workers, I'm a bus driver) are all particularly unhealthy and eat out almost every night at places like Longhorn and Hibachi Grills and fast food places. A lot of them are overweight and a lot of them are on horrible diets, and it just kills me to watch them get more and more unhealthy while I feel like I've figured out the secret to life lol.
I...kind of understand your first paragraph, but no, that's not true. Fat people do not think slower. But, as a side note, I feel like exercise stimulates your brain and makes your brain more constantly active throughout the day.
On September 21 2013 05:12 Staboteur wrote:
On the subject of vegetarianism being overboard... I'll betcha it functions the same for SC2John as it did for me : It forces you to look at the labels of the things you're buying and make conscious choices on what you're going to eat. It's less about "don't eat meat because it's bad for you!" but more about actively experimenting with your diet instead of eating stuff that says "food" somewhere on the label.
This is correct. It has expanded my diet a lot and allowed me to try a ton of things I would have never tried before . If I ever do add chicken back to my diet, it will be in the far future, once I get a lot more comfortable with vegetables and fruits as main parts of meals. For the record though, I don't think cutting out meat entirely is overboard; you can get all of the same things you need from meat through plant-based foods, excepting some "essential proteins". The only reason it seems overboard is because it's against the norm of our meat-based culture that places tons of importance on getting as much protein and calcium as possible.
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You can get all essential proteins from plant foods. I have this crushed hemp seed that's supposed to be used in a shake, and it has the mg or μg content of each protein per serving on the label. I just cook with it because I'm not familiar with juicing. It's kinda gross tasting (like a very green sandy plant) but I'm lazy and it tops off my protein if I need it.
On September 21 2013 04:38 Incze wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 04:13 hp.Shell wrote:
This is awesome. I'm glad to hear someone is getting healthy and bouncing back from obesity. I've never been overweight, so it's hard for me to fathom what an overweight person's mind is like. Is it harder to think? I would think it would be, just because of all the blood pumping to the other "excess" areas of the body. So sometimes I assume their minds have slowed due to this idea, and that makes it even harder to recover from because they just can't think or focus a whole lot anymore.
What the fuck dude? Seriously what were you thinking when you wrote this?
On September 21 2013 08:58 SC2John wrote:
I...kind of understand your first paragraph, but no, that's not true. Fat people do not think slower. But, as a side note, I feel like exercise stimulates your brain and makes your brain more constantly active throughout the day.
So when I said that I wasn't trying to insult fat people. It was kinda stream of consciousness. The way I think of it is, when you have food in your stomach, there's more blood being pumped to that organ for digestion. I guess there isn't blood being pumped to the stomach if there's no food in there. I made a logical error in assuming that the blood would still go there just because someone had a big gut, but now I realize that is probably not true. OTOH, obese people may have food in their stomach more often than others.
It's like when you have a big meal and you feel tired because there isn't as much blood going to your "vital" organs, it's being diverted to the stomach. It's almost like not being completely sober. (Not that it makes it harder to drive, but that it can make you fatigued and hazy.)
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On September 21 2013 08:39 SC2John wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 08:25 Foblos wrote:On September 21 2013 07:41 MoonfireSpam wrote:On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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? Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi. On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed. edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity. A lady friend of mine and I made some sushi as a going away meal for me, and we used jasmine rice. We just googled "how to make jasmine rice" and followed the recipe. Ours was at least as good as all of the sushi places I've tried. That's unbelieveable since Jasmine rice is not sticky nor soft like Japanese rice. Rice is arguably the most important part of making sushi, and it's really important to use the right kind of rice and cook it the right way. I may not be the MOST qualified person to speak on this subject, but basically: you need specifically Japanese rice (I don't know what the proper name is) as it's the only rice that really sticks together well enough to be used for sushi. Jasmine and Bismati Rice (the Indian rices) are bad for this, as is "sweet" or "glutenous" rice. To prepare it, you rinse the rice until the water isn't cloudy anymore and cook it in any rice cooker. When it's done, you put the rice in a non-metallic mixing bowl, add "seasoned" rice vinegar (most rice vinegar you buy is already seasoned unless you buy it directly from an oriental market), and then "fluff" the rice. Fluffing the rice is essentially folding the rice while it cools; this is what gives sushi rice it's fluffy, sticky nature. I think that fluffing is the most important part of the process. I think this is a pretty good video explanation of sushi rice.
Give it a shot if you'd like. I'm not a sushi expert either, nor a master chef but all of the sushi I've made myself has been bad, but the stuff I made with her was as good, if not better than all of the other sushi I've had before.
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Good for you man, taking note of your diet and gaining proper knowledge of what goes into your body is so key, and most people overlook it.
However, every eight days I go to town at KFC or IHOP, or Taco Bell or something. It's my cheat day. I'm in great shape and I feel fantastic. But I understand what you were trying to say about switching your diet away from mainly eating that stuff.
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On September 21 2013 10:30 Foblos wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 08:39 SC2John wrote:On September 21 2013 08:25 Foblos wrote:On September 21 2013 07:41 MoonfireSpam wrote:On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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? Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi. On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed. edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity. A lady friend of mine and I made some sushi as a going away meal for me, and we used jasmine rice. We just googled "how to make jasmine rice" and followed the recipe. Ours was at least as good as all of the sushi places I've tried. That's unbelieveable since Jasmine rice is not sticky nor soft like Japanese rice. Rice is arguably the most important part of making sushi, and it's really important to use the right kind of rice and cook it the right way. I may not be the MOST qualified person to speak on this subject, but basically: you need specifically Japanese rice (I don't know what the proper name is) as it's the only rice that really sticks together well enough to be used for sushi. Jasmine and Bismati Rice (the Indian rices) are bad for this, as is "sweet" or "glutenous" rice. To prepare it, you rinse the rice until the water isn't cloudy anymore and cook it in any rice cooker. When it's done, you put the rice in a non-metallic mixing bowl, add "seasoned" rice vinegar (most rice vinegar you buy is already seasoned unless you buy it directly from an oriental market), and then "fluff" the rice. Fluffing the rice is essentially folding the rice while it cools; this is what gives sushi rice it's fluffy, sticky nature. I think that fluffing is the most important part of the process. I think this is a pretty good video explanation of sushi rice. Give it a shot if you'd like. I'm not a sushi expert either, nor a master chef but all of the sushi I've made myself has been bad, but the stuff I made with her was as good, if not better than all of the other sushi I've had before.
Heh sorry for derailing the blog into sushi rice making.
I agree that the final step gives it that "look and feel". I was kinda just wondering more on ratios of ingredients (if you happen to have your own measurements, would be curious to know what they are) and at which point people add stuff. Since a sushi chef wandered into the thread, it seemed worth a shot! However as with all cooking, everyone has their own way and I'm always looking to incorporate or experiment with other peoples methods.
Man I could sure go for some of that eel in the sweet sauce.
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On September 21 2013 11:01 MoonfireSpam wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 10:30 Foblos wrote:On September 21 2013 08:39 SC2John wrote:On September 21 2013 08:25 Foblos wrote:On September 21 2013 07:41 MoonfireSpam wrote:On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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? Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi. On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed. edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity. A lady friend of mine and I made some sushi as a going away meal for me, and we used jasmine rice. We just googled "how to make jasmine rice" and followed the recipe. Ours was at least as good as all of the sushi places I've tried. That's unbelieveable since Jasmine rice is not sticky nor soft like Japanese rice. Rice is arguably the most important part of making sushi, and it's really important to use the right kind of rice and cook it the right way. I may not be the MOST qualified person to speak on this subject, but basically: you need specifically Japanese rice (I don't know what the proper name is) as it's the only rice that really sticks together well enough to be used for sushi. Jasmine and Bismati Rice (the Indian rices) are bad for this, as is "sweet" or "glutenous" rice. To prepare it, you rinse the rice until the water isn't cloudy anymore and cook it in any rice cooker. When it's done, you put the rice in a non-metallic mixing bowl, add "seasoned" rice vinegar (most rice vinegar you buy is already seasoned unless you buy it directly from an oriental market), and then "fluff" the rice. Fluffing the rice is essentially folding the rice while it cools; this is what gives sushi rice it's fluffy, sticky nature. I think that fluffing is the most important part of the process. I think this is a pretty good video explanation of sushi rice. Give it a shot if you'd like. I'm not a sushi expert either, nor a master chef but all of the sushi I've made myself has been bad, but the stuff I made with her was as good, if not better than all of the other sushi I've had before. Heh sorry for derailing the blog into sushi rice making. I agree that the final step gives it that "look and feel". I was kinda just wondering more on ratios of ingredients (if you happen to have your own measurements, would be curious to know what they are) and at which point people add stuff. Since a sushi chef wandered into the thread, it seemed worth a shot! However as with all cooking, everyone has their own way and I'm always looking to incorporate or experiment with other peoples methods. Man I could sure go for some of that eel in the sweet sauce.
We just used whatever nori was in her kitchen, enough rice to spread out over the entire nori save about an inch at the end, carrots, tofu that we marinated for about an hour in a soysauce mixture we found on the internet, avacado and cucumber. Like I said, I'm not good at making sushi so I can't be super precise, but we used just enough rice and only as much of everything else as we needed to cover the width of the nori. The reason I said it was as good as professionally made sushi though was because of the rice. The carrots we used had been out for a while and were cracking and dry, the avacados were a little bit less than ripe and the cucumber wasn't as good as others I've had. The only thing that was good (aside from the rice) was the tofu, but imo, like OP said, the rice makes or breaks the sushi and I thought it was really really good. Give it a shot sometime. You might like it a lot :D
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I've had seven big macs in the last 3 days. I'll make up for your deficit bro.
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On September 21 2013 07:41 MoonfireSpam wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2013 21:44 North2 wrote:
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? Off topic but if you happen to read this, got any tips for making the rice? Tried a bunch of recipies, but can't quite get it as good as stuff from Sushi places. Argh I fucking hate being in a town with no sushi. On topic, grats on new lifestyle. Being active and not eating shit feels awesome indeed. edit: Fuck that pounds to kilos stuff. If I weighed 100 kilos at 5'7 (which is my height) i'd probably feel like shit too. Its like supergravity.
I can't really give advice unless you can somewhat identify what is exactly not good about your sushi rice compared to the restaurants. I'd like to know what kind of recipes you go with, and a detailed explanation of how you make it.
We just used whatever nori was in her kitchen, enough rice to spread out over the entire nori save about an inch at the end, carrots, tofu that we marinated for about an hour in a soysauce mixture we found on the internet, avacado and cucumber. Like I said, I'm not good at making sushi so I can't be super precise, but we used just enough rice and only as much of everything else as we needed to cover the width of the nori. The reason I said it was as good as professionally made sushi though was because of the rice. The carrots we used had been out for a while and were cracking and dry, the avacados were a little bit less than ripe and the cucumber wasn't as good as others I've had. The only thing that was good (aside from the rice) was the tofu, but imo, like OP said, the rice makes or breaks the sushi and I thought it was really really good. Give it a shot sometime. You might like it a lot :D
I personally don't think carrots are any good with sushi even if wasn't cracked and dry.
In terms of veggies if you want to make your own sushi, I suggest some combination of cucumber, avocado, burdock roots, daikon sprouts (Kaiware), plum paste, ooba leaves, and asparagus. Plum paste and ooba leaves together (the umeshiso roll) is one of my favorites, and I'm not even vegetarian. Plum paste is the paste of umeboshi that I was talking about earlier, for those that are wondering. There's a few other niche ingredients, but they're pretty hit or miss.
To be honest, I think your sushi rice tasted good because of the tofu. I prefer any kind of tofu dish to be complimented with regular steamed rice over sushi rice, if at all.
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The closest I have gotten so far is:
For 1 cup of uncooked rice. 2 tbs rice vinegar, 1.5 tbs sugar, 1 tbs mirin, 1 teaspoon salt.
When I really have a go at it, I will wash the rice a few times (not till the water runs clear), then leave it to sit for 1 hour while it drains. I cook the rice over low heat throughout starting from ~1cm of water resting over the rice. I'll cook it for about 15 minutes until the texture feels "done" by nibbling on a few bits. I'd turned towards not disturbing the rice at all while it's cooking. Once done it gets transferred to a wide glass or big plastic mixing bowl and start falling it while folding it over itself. When the rice has cooled some (to warm enough to touch, for a few seconds, but not much more than that) I'll add the vinegar mix and continue to fold and cool until its at room temp.
For the vinegar mix, I'll heat the stuff over a low heat just until everything dissolves.
I guess the qualitys I think it lacks are it tends to come out a little heavier / stickier than stuff in restaurants at equivalent temperatures. It clumps together a bit too much, which just gets more obvious which I've tried to dry the rice out over extended time / cool it below room temp / left the rolls for a bit in the fridge. I have experimented with using the minimum of water (on one occasion topping it up with hot water since it started to dry out). It feels like it lacks some MSG type flavouring / taste (or umami as I learned later) rather than pure under seasoning.
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The closest I have gotten so far is:
For 1 cup of uncooked rice. 2 tbs rice vinegar, 1.5 tbs sugar, 1 tbs mirin, 1 teaspoon salt. I did try adding 1-2 tbs of saki to the cooking water a couple of times, I think it made minimal difference.
When I really have a go at it, I will wash the rice a few times (not till the water runs clear), then leave it to sit for 1 hour while it drains. I cook the rice over low heat throughout starting from ~1cm of water resting over the rice. I'll cook it for about 15 minutes until the texture feels "done" by nibbling on a few bits. I'd turned towards not disturbing the rice at all while it's cooking. Once done it gets transferred to a wide glass or big plastic mixing bowl and start falling it while folding it over itself. When the rice has cooled some (to warm enough to touch, for a few seconds, but not much more than that) I'll add the vinegar mix and continue to fold and cool until its at room temp.
For the vinegar mix, I'll heat the stuff over a low heat just until everything dissolves.
I guess the qualitys I think it lacks are it tends to come out a little heavier / stickier than stuff in restaurants at equivalent temperatures. It clumps together a bit too much, which just gets more obvious which I've tried to dry the rice out over extended time / cool it below room temp / left the rolls for a bit in the fridge. I have experimented with using the minimum of water (on one occasion topping it up with hot water since it started to dry out). It feels like it lacks some MSG type flavouring / taste (or umami as I learned later) rather than pure under seasoning.
edit: aaaaaaand fuck, im hungry again
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Our recipe uses no mirin. Try no mirin, and just stirring the vinegar mix together instead of heating it. If you do use mirin, you do need to heat it in order to blow the alcohol away. Add the vinegar with the rice right after it gets cooked(while it's still hot). Use a spatula to 'cut' the rice so the vinegar will soak thoroughly.
There's two types of 'clumping'. If there's parts that are clumped and parts that aren't, it means that you aren't 'cutting' the clumped parts of the rice enough. Remove All clumping while cutting it with the spatula. If the whole thing feels heavier like you mention, then it means you're either cutting and cooling it too much, or using too much vinegar mix. It definitely does not need to cool to room temperature, that is way too much. Rice should still be warm when making the sushi. Try cutting the rice faster and keep it warm somehow(or use it right then and there). The cooler it is, the harder the rice becomes and the tougher it becomes to spread it over the nori.
Also, you may or may not be cutting the rice too much. Theoretically, if you cut it long enough you can make Mochi(look up what that is). What I'm trying to say is that the longer you cut it, the stickier it'll become. For a family dinner, cutting the rice takes less than a minute for me. Fast and thorough is what you ought to aim for.
We do use umami. We put the actual dried seaweed inside. I do hope you don't believe in the MSG scare (it's not bad for you). If you have a moral problem with using the additive, you can always buy the actual dried seaweed like we do. In terms of taste though, using the umami powder is just fine. You only need about a teaspoon in that mix.
Hope that helps.
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On September 20 2013 23:35 sc4k wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2013 15:53 SC2John wrote:
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.
Oh right of course. Because the only two options in diet are vegetarian or a big fat MacDonalds meal. There's nothing wrong with eating fresh fruit and veg. I do it a lot. But with meat, that shit is off the hook. A little jerk spices, 3 tomatoes, 2 bell peppers and 500g of chicken is a meal fit for a king.
I saw this all the time in college. White American guy whose parents never bothered to show him how to cook/eat vegetables becomes overweight and eats really unhealthily -> becomes obese and sad because he/she eats fried food and starches all day. Realizes that they're really unhealthy and decides it must be the meat, swing in the other direction to vegeterianism and decide, holy crap I feel much better, it must be the meat! Either that or they stay fat but think they're healthier while they eat cookies/cakes/other "healthy" vegetarian options.
I dunno why Americans are like this... it's like there's no reasonable middle ground between eating a chicken fried steak slathered in diet coke sauce vs eating tofu and salad everyday. It's always one extreme or the other.
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On September 21 2013 09:38 hp.Shell wrote:You can get all essential proteins from plant foods. I have this crushed hemp seed that's supposed to be used in a shake, and it has the mg or μg content of each protein per serving on the label. I just cook with it because I'm not familiar with juicing. It's kinda gross tasting (like a very green sandy plant) but I'm lazy and it tops off my protein if I need it. Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 04:38 Incze wrote:On September 21 2013 04:13 hp.Shell wrote:
This is awesome. I'm glad to hear someone is getting healthy and bouncing back from obesity. I've never been overweight, so it's hard for me to fathom what an overweight person's mind is like. Is it harder to think? I would think it would be, just because of all the blood pumping to the other "excess" areas of the body. So sometimes I assume their minds have slowed due to this idea, and that makes it even harder to recover from because they just can't think or focus a whole lot anymore.
What the fuck dude? Seriously what were you thinking when you wrote this? Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 08:58 SC2John wrote:
I...kind of understand your first paragraph, but no, that's not true. Fat people do not think slower. But, as a side note, I feel like exercise stimulates your brain and makes your brain more constantly active throughout the day. So when I said that I wasn't trying to insult fat people. It was kinda stream of consciousness. The way I think of it is, when you have food in your stomach, there's more blood being pumped to that organ for digestion. I guess there isn't blood being pumped to the stomach if there's no food in there. I made a logical error in assuming that the blood would still go there just because someone had a big gut, but now I realize that is probably not true. OTOH, obese people may have food in their stomach more often than others. It's like when you have a big meal and you feel tired because there isn't as much blood going to your "vital" organs, it's being diverted to the stomach. It's almost like not being completely sober. (Not that it makes it harder to drive, but that it can make you fatigued and hazy.)
Shit dude... if you know so little about how the human body functions, keep your random opinions to yourself.
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On September 25 2013 17:44 Passion wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 09:38 hp.Shell wrote:You can get all essential proteins from plant foods. I have this crushed hemp seed that's supposed to be used in a shake, and it has the mg or μg content of each protein per serving on the label. I just cook with it because I'm not familiar with juicing. It's kinda gross tasting (like a very green sandy plant) but I'm lazy and it tops off my protein if I need it. On September 21 2013 04:38 Incze wrote:On September 21 2013 04:13 hp.Shell wrote:
This is awesome. I'm glad to hear someone is getting healthy and bouncing back from obesity. I've never been overweight, so it's hard for me to fathom what an overweight person's mind is like. Is it harder to think? I would think it would be, just because of all the blood pumping to the other "excess" areas of the body. So sometimes I assume their minds have slowed due to this idea, and that makes it even harder to recover from because they just can't think or focus a whole lot anymore.
What the fuck dude? Seriously what were you thinking when you wrote this? On September 21 2013 08:58 SC2John wrote:
I...kind of understand your first paragraph, but no, that's not true. Fat people do not think slower. But, as a side note, I feel like exercise stimulates your brain and makes your brain more constantly active throughout the day. So when I said that I wasn't trying to insult fat people. It was kinda stream of consciousness. The way I think of it is, when you have food in your stomach, there's more blood being pumped to that organ for digestion. I guess there isn't blood being pumped to the stomach if there's no food in there. I made a logical error in assuming that the blood would still go there just because someone had a big gut, but now I realize that is probably not true. OTOH, obese people may have food in their stomach more often than others. It's like when you have a big meal and you feel tired because there isn't as much blood going to your "vital" organs, it's being diverted to the stomach. It's almost like not being completely sober. (Not that it makes it harder to drive, but that it can make you fatigued and hazy.) Shit dude... if you know so little about how the human body functions, keep your random opinions to yourself.
Ok.
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EPT
