February 2010 archives
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Sunday, February 14, 2010
halfway through the Daniel diet
To answer a few questions:
- Has it been difficult? Not as much as you might think. Kelly has been instrumental in this effort: she's looked up and tried lots of new recipes. My lunches, even the ones eaten out, have usually been pretty good.
- Do you feel any different? Yeah, maybe a little. I definitely don't feel as "stuffed" at the end of a meal, even a big one. I feel like my body may be digesting the food a little better as well.
- Have you lost any weight? Yes, a little. The last time I weighed was yesterday, and I had lost about three pounds from the beginning of the month. I haven't really been doing any exercise to speak of, so I'm left to believe that it's simply been a matter of eating less overall, and more of the right things.
- Are you taking a vitamin to supplement your diet? Yes, when I remember to.
- Are you going to keep doing this after February? Not full-time, no. I think that I could easily see myself doing it for a week at a time or so, though. As mentioned above, it seems to have a good effect on my body.
- What's the best thing that you've eaten so far? Probably the eggplant Parmesan, although the spinach enchiladas, spinach quesadillas, summer zucchini casserole, and the black bean chili that we've made have been quite good too. I'd eat any of them again.
- Anything that you've tried that you wouldn't eat again? Actually...no! It's all been good.
- Come on, level with us. How many salads have you eaten? Thus far, four.
Friday, February 12, 2010
for full effect, hum the theme to Jaws
We set the scene...
Oh, the snowmanity!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
the Daniel diet
On February 1, I became a vegetarian.
Okay, so it's not a permanent change. I'm only doing it for this month. So, why? you might ask. There are a few reasons.
The first is that I just wanted to see how it would be. I like pretty much all vegetables and grains, so I didn't think that I would run out of things that I'd enjoy eating. There have been times where I haven't eaten meat in a couple of days. I just thought it might be interesting to extend it to a month and see what would happen.
The second is the potential health benefits it would give me. In general, people who are vegetarian tend to be healthier and weigh closer to "ideal" body weight. I have not exactly let myself go over the years, but I have a little fat that I wouldn't mind losing. If, as a part of this process, I can drop a few pounds, so much the better. I'm also interested in seeing if processing less "heavy" things like meat would allow my body to function better as a whole. Sometimes I'm just sluggish in the afternoon, and caffeine doesn't really do a lot for me. I'm interested in seeing if a change in diet will help.
Finally, this represents a bit of a culinary quest. My cooking skills aren't really anything to write home about, but it's easy to just make a cold cut sandwich at lunch, or get burgers or fried chicken fingers. Kelly's not doing the vegetarian-only thing with me, but she's being very supportive, and as a result we're going to try new recipes.
I am following a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, which means that I can eat milk, cheese, and eggs. I'm not interested in doing anything more strict. I like cheese way too much for that to happen!
So it's been four days into the experiment, and I have actually really enjoyed it so far. I've only duplicated a meal once (I had salad for lunch two times). We've made rotini with sauce and mixed vegetables, bean and cheese baked nachos, and tonight we had eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Yum.
I'll try to tweet about my experience as I go through this month.