The Art of Zen Living

“Be careful about changing your beliefs, because if you do, your beliefs will change you…”

My 2 weeks as a vegetarian are drawing to a close.  Or perhaps I should say that my two week commitment to being a vegetarian is drawing to a close.  I’ve seen a big difference in how I feel, my energy level and I’ve dropped 3 pounds without meaning to.  I’m guessing that’s due to the type of “whole food” vegetarianism I’m trying being naturally low in fats.  A side benefit is that almost all of the fat I do eat now are “good” fats - the omega fats, mono fats etc. etc.

My forehead is also much flatter.  I spend a lot of time slapping it and saying things like “Oh, RIGHT - pizza has cheese on it!” or “Hmmm.  Alfredo has cream in it…”.  This isn’t a problem, it just shows that I’m very new at this whole vegetarian thing.  Today I wanted to ramble on a bit, in no real order, about how I feel about this experiment, and it’s impact on my life.

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It’s been a little over a week since I began eating as a vegetarian.  I’m trying to find some downsides that really are downsides, but I’m not having much luck.  Yes, it makes it a little harder to go out - I went to Carrabba’s with my mom and my cousins, and there was only one thing on the menu that was vegetarian.  There were several fish dishes that I could have eaten under my “fish is OK” rule.  In practice, I don’t really like eating fish - at least not that often.  It feels like cheating.  In the 10 days I’ve been eating like a vegetarian, I’ve eaten fish twice, so I’ve been glad the option was there.  Having said that, I think that a large part of the reason for having to eat fish twice during the first week is simply a lack of experience on my part.  With a little more experience, I think I could have avoided at least one, and possibly both, fish entrees.

I am finding a lot of benefits.  I think it’s important to once again note that I’m not simply eating a vegetarian diet - you can eat nothing but cheetos, twinkies and Oreo cookies and say you’re a vegetarian.  In reality, you’re a “crapitarian”.  I’m looking for fresh vegetables, whole grains, and whole foods.  The less processing, the better.  Most of what grows out of the Earth, from what I can tell, tends to be healthy and good for us - it’s only when humans get a hold of it and start to process it that things start to get bad for us.  Sustainable practices is more of an environmental concern, but it’s something I try to stay aware of and support.

Here are my top five observations:

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I’m up a little late tonight, it’s been a bit of a crazy weekend - hurry up and wait, mostly.  Tomorrow morning, I start my vegetarian diet.  Earlier this weekend I made a batch of the Best! Black! Bean! Chili! Ever!, so I have it ready to go for the week.  If I could only give you only one tip about making any sort of drastic change in your diet, it’s this: have food ready so that you do not have to think about it.  It’s the thinking and choosing that destroys 99.9937264% (this number was made up completely out of thin air, but it has the ring of truthiness* to it) of diets.

Tonight I made a week’s worth of breakfasts - Barley Harvest Cereal.  Barley is one of the first grains ever domesticated by humans.  In ancient Egypt, it was used to make beer and bread.  For many Egyptians, that was their entire diet.  Today, barely is largely forgotten as a food - we use it mainly for beer and as animal feed.  It’s low fat, and has an extremely low glycemic index, which means it has very little effect on your blood sugar.  The result?  You stay full longer, and have more energy longer.  The other ingredients in this mixture were also chosen for their relatively low glycemic index - it ends up being a reasonable amount of calories, low fat, high fibre way to start the day.  Sitting down with a bowl of it also makes me feel somehow connected to those ancient ancestors, and to the earth.

Like bread, it doesn’t take long to put the pieces together, but you do have to come back to it a few times over the course of about 90 minutes.  I think it’s well worth it.  This is the second time I’ve made it, although it’s the first time I’ve followed the actual recipe.  The last time I made it with pecans, dried strawberries and bananas.  It’s a very flexible recipe that adapts well to a variety of flavors.  I think I’m going to try cranberries and almonds next!

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I just got back from a short walk, and man do I feel good.  In the past 2 weeks, between being sick and then moving, I’ve not gotten to take my walk on as regular a basis as I’d have liked.  Looking back at my chart, it looks like I only got to walk 4 of the last 14 days.  Ouch.

Even tonight I didn’t get to do my normal walk, but just getting out there again was just what I needed to clear my head and elevate my mood.  Every time I stop walking for a few days, whatever the reason, I always enjoy getting back out there again.  It’s me time, and I’m doing something I enjoy, and something good for me.  I highly recommend exercise as an expression of self love - because that really is what it is.

It looks like my new routine will be slightly farther at 2.4 miles a day (with weights) and 1.2 miles a day without.  That’s about .2 miles more than what I was doing at my old apartment.  The 1.2 miles is less for exercise and more of a walking meditation.  That shorter walk is one I will still do, even if I make a change.  Now why would he mention a change?

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I posted about Fitday.com a week ago with some initial impressions, but I’ve been using the site now for about 2 weeks.  In that time, I’ve had moments that range from good (Oh, cool!) to bad (Huh?  That can’t be right…) and downright ugly (Oh, that’s NOT good!)

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*Note: this is a re-post of an article originally posted on my old blog on March 23th, 2008

So far this year I’ve walked 116 175 miles.  I’ve set myself a goal to continue to track my walking (or running, if I try that out) until I reach 1000.  And it all started with a single step out the front door to “go for a walk”.

I’m not tracking all my walking - just the “for exercise” walking.  At my current rate, it will take me about a year and 2 months, barring days missed for various reasons (I missed a week earlier this year due to being too sick to get out of bed, then I had to work back up to my 2 miles a day, for example) - I’ll keep you posted!

So why this goal, this commitment?  Other than the fact that I enjoy my walks?  My experience is that consistency is the single most important factor in losing weight or gaining muscle.  The weights and reps may change, but the number of times a week and amount of time you spend needs to stay the same or possibly grow slightly.

One of my “hot button” issues (sorry, all the political nonsense is rubbing off - I felt a need to “spin” some “buzz words” ;) has always been weight, weight loss, and more to the point, the way denial sets in because we think it’s “kind” and “polite”.

I wish, when I was 300 pounds, (and I used all the usual excuses about being big boned and not being able to lose weight, etc. etc.) that SOMEONE had had the courage to tell me, in no uncertain terms, that I was what was called “fat”.  I really couldn’t see it.  2 events conspired to help me see it - the first was seeing myself in a picture I didn’t expect me to be in.  I was flipping through the pictures, and thought to myself “Hey, who’s that big fat guy coming in the door?”.  Since it was a digital pic, I zoomed it in, and it was ME.  Ouch.  I decided right then and there something needed to be done, but I lacked any urgency about it.  I was getting ready to leave for vacation and go see my mom, so there wasn’t a hurry.  I get to mom’s, and she had a scale!  Thought I’d hop on and see how bad things were.  The scale told me I was pushing 300 pounds!  Obviously broken.  So I asked mom if she knew how accurate her scale was.  As it turned out, she’d been to the doctor earlier that week, and when she got home, she checked her scale against the weight she’d been at the doctor’s - it was within half a pound.  Double ouch.  About 17 months later, I was at 170 pounds.

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Man, I wish I’d known about this back in December*.  I’ve got a rather convoluted Excel spreadsheet I’ve been using to track my weight, exercise, splurges and other things I think may affect my weightloss and fitness levels.  This, however, takes the whole thing to a new level.  It automatically calculates the number of calories you burn per day based on your size, how much you burn based on your activity levels and all of that.  What took me hours of research to track down, this site did in the 30 seconds it took me to fill out my profile.  Very nice.

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