Meatless marchings

We continue to try and go meatless. We've done really really well the past two or three weeks. I think we are averaging 3 meals a week with meat in them. That's pretty good considering we've done dinner out, entertained, and eaten at friends' homes these past 3 weeks. I still have yet to really make more than 2 or 3 meals total in the past 2.5 months with meat in them. Whoo hoo! That's great because we are also trying to go "high fructose corn syrup less" as well as "trans fat less" which means more expensive snacks and other grocery goods. But that really is another blog.

One odd side effect I've noticed is that when I eat meat now I am uncomfortably full. Yesterday for lunch I had half a left over chicken chimichanga from a Mexican restaurant (no, not Taco Bell!). Only half of it and yet I was full for hours! Today Kate, the girls and I went out to lunch at Wendy's. I had a salad that had a fried chicken breast on top. That was 3 hours ago and I'm still stuffed! I am actually not enjoying the feeling at all. Granted both lunches over the past 2 days have probably been incredibly high fat, but still, isn't it interesting that both lunch meals with meat have made me very very full?

I have to say though. Going semi-veg is about the best diet choice we've made since we've been married. John and I always strive to eat healthy and it seems every 6 months or so we've tried to implement another fad health plan to our life. We've tried the "You on a Diet" book, the "Good Life" diet, adding extra fiber, going more lean meats and veg and less carbs, among others. This by far feels the best to both of us. It just feels so incredibly right. It's funny because in college I tried to be vegetarian and couldn't do it. I'm not sure if I was just eating mac and cheese with a side of fries every night or what, but after 5 months I gave it up. This is so much easier and feels so much more right. Not only that, I'm starting to feel in my gut the need to stay away from meat. You know when you diet and you see something and it looks so good and you want a bite and you reason with yourself and maybe when it's all said and done you have a bite or maybe not? This is totally opposite. There is almost no desire to consume meat for me; the opposite is true. I feel frustrated and stuck when I am in a situation where I have to eat meat: a friend's house or a restaurant with poor veg choices-but I'm not going to just eat mashed potatoes and green beans while everyone else enjoys theirs with a side of meatloaf. Anyway, the point of that pointless rambling was that this feel so good and so right to us. It is such a relief to finally have found an eating style that is easy and right and healthy.