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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One of the things I’ve been excited about since I moved into the new place what that I would be able to plant a garden.  We put a small strawberry patch in out front, and I’ve been working semi-diligently to get an area in the back cleared of grass, edged and free of rocks.  I’m sure we’ll be talking more about some of the details of the garden as I learn more about it.  A good example is the dirt.  I know it looks nice and dark and fertile, but it isn’t.  Today I just want to talk a little about the benefits of having a garden, and tell you a little about what I’m doing with mine.  I promise, no more bold, colored words in this post - I just wanted to get a little color into the front page.

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This has got to be one of the best, tastiest and easiest recipes I’ve had in a long time.

1 pound dry black beans

1 Pound carrots

6 Stalks celery

1 green pepper

1 medium onion

6 roma tomatoes (medium size)

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

Pepper and season salt to taste

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My loving kindness mantra gets good usage on any average day, but today was something special.  You’d think that perhaps I did a lot of driving in rush hour, or had a difference of opinion with a friend, or waited in line at a government service only to be told I had to go do something else first and come back.

My friend, it was nothing of the sort.  I went shopping with the intention to eat moderately healthy.  I wanted to see what the average shopper was up against in sorting through it all.  I went to WalMart - both because the prices there, according to my grocery guide, were likely to be lowest on the things I wanted, and because it was somewhere that a significant percentage of America shops.  Frugal and educational (for me) and relevant.

I wasn’t annoyed at Walmart.  The store was clean, and not too crowded.  The shelves looked a little picked over (for instance, I didn’t get the spaghetti squash that was on my list) but the things I wanted there was no problem finding.  Well, sort of.

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My sister looks at things differently than I do, and often will see things I don’t.  We were talking about how sustainability fits into frugality, and she asked why I wasn’t posting about my bread baking experiences.  She made an excellent point that home made bread is not only frugal and healthy, it’s also one of the very basic tasks that we no longer do for ourselves.  Two months ago, I couldn’t have baked a loaf of bread - my sister still can’t bake one.  I’ve learned to bake regular bread, a nice “no knead” bread that has sort of an artisan texture to it, and Irish soda bread.  I’ve been having a blast trying new things (as an example, my basic bread recipe seems a little dry for my taste, so my next loaf is going to include a bit of olive oil for moisture) and learning different baking tricks.  My sister suggested I do a series of articles on my adventures with bread - her reasoning was that if I could do it, then anyone could.  Sometimes I think she sees me as kind of a big, sweet semi-trained chimp.  I’m not sure she wouldn’t be mostly right.

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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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