No doubt some of you are planning some lifestyle changes as part of a New Year Resolution. Or perhaps you're making some changes "just because". Whatever the case, here's a quick description of a change I made in 2010.
Back on January 17, 2010, I began a new diet. I don't mean a "diet" in the "weight loss scheme" sense of the word. Rather, I upended my whole approach to food. This was a lifestyle change designed to shake up my notions about food. It was an adventure, not a chore. Or at least that was the plan.
Initially I went full vegetarian. In retrospect that was a bit silly. My taste buds weren't ready for that kind of move, and besides, I had no idea just how complicated such a change could be. For one thing I didn't bother to tell the household grocery shopper about my decision. Nor did I tell the cook. (She happens to be the same person.) If this new plan was going to work I was going to have to make some adjustments.
The first thing I did was allow myself meat at three meals per week. Then two. Then I fiddled with fish and shrimp in place of land-loving meat sources. I never made it to all-out vegetarianism. However what I learned was that by permitting myself some meat it made my non-meat meals significantly easier to swallow (so to speak). I also discovered that "meat substitutes" generally aren't nearly as awful as they've been made out to be. Veggie products that try to be meat often fail miserably, but products that instead try to take the place of meat often do an admirable job.
Fast forward to today, just shy of a year later, and where am I? For the most part I have evolved into a pescatarian. That is, I eat fish and shrimp, and occasionally other types of seafood, a couple times per week at most. I eat non-seafood meat now and then, ranging from twice a week to once every three weeks. When I do eat meat (of any type) I try to keep my portions smaller than average. Four ounces is typically plenty for me. Along the same lines, my entire meals are significantly smaller than the quantities I used to eat. I still do the same amount of activity, just with less weight in my belly.
My health seems good. I didn't get a checkup last January (and I regret that) so I don't have a baseline to compare to. Anecdotally I feel less sluggish than I used to. I lost fifteen pounds over the course of 2010. The first five came off extremely quickly; the next five took about a month; and the last five took a couple months. I've been at a stable weight for about six months now. It's a weight I'm happy with. I don't put much stock in BMI, but for reference my BMI is 22.6. The chub came off my face, and my belly fat -- which really began to appear around my thirtieth birthday -- is about half gone.
I plan to stick with this diet for a good long while. Even if absolutely nothing else had changed, my eating habits in 2010 introduced me to a wealth of new foods and new presentations of old foods. That alone made the switch worthwhile. Well that, plus the look on my mom's face every time she sees me eating foods I never would have touched previously (like raw broccoli).
If you're making some sort of lifestyle switch, I wish you good luck. I hope you have as much fun with your changes as I've had with mine.
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