So I posted this in the general coronavirus thread in response to a post about meat shortages and @ChrisV asked me what I’ve been eating. In the interest of not detailing that thread, here we are.
Here’s the answer to Chris’s question, and at the end I’ll get into the impetus for going “mostly vegetarian.” Also, according to 23 and Me I should do best if I go low fat, so I try to keep that in mind although it’s a little tougher on a vegetarian diet so far. Never the less, it’s worked quite well.
Morning snack: fruit, usually mango lately because I’ve been on a mango kick.
Breakfast: A wrap with low carb tortillas (don’t care about carbs but they’re only 50 calories), spinach (raw), black beans, fat free cheddar, jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, and egg whites. This is delicious, filling, and 250-300 calories.
Snacks: I’ve mostly been snacking throughout the day instead of eating a big lunch. Carrots/celery/pita bread with hummus, apples with peanut butter/almond butter/chickpea spread, chickpea salad, black bean salad, strawberries, etc… I just pick one and eat it when I get hungry, usually 2-3 times through the day.
Dinner: This can vary more, I’ve done veggie stir fries with broccoli, snow peas, zucchini, squash, bell peppers and onions and some kind of a sauce. I’ve done veggie pasta with fat-free mozzarella. I’ve done chickpea pasta with sauce. I’ve done TastyBite microwaved Indian or Thai food with Ready Rice. The girl I’m dating has cooked for me - mac and cheese stuffed in bell peppers, a quiche, a vegetarian lasagna. Sometimes I’ll also just have the snacking foods in higher quantities.
Her cooking is less healthy, but given the overall low-cal nature of my diet, it’s been ok to consume more calories at dinner. Sometimes I’ll also just tweak the breakfast to make it into a quick dinner: wrap, fat-free cheese, black beans, jalapenos, peppers and onions.
It’s tougher in the current situation, but in a better situation I’d like to be having salads mixed in with spinach/romaine, chickpeas, jalapenos, banana peppers, red peppers, onions, and a low-fat dressing.
The one big frustrating thing is it’s been very hard to avoid running out of spinach without wasting spinach during the quarantine. it’s the type of thing that you really need to just run to the store to get the day or day before you need it.
Hopefully some of these tips are helpful, anyone can feel free to fire away with questions about the meals I’ve been eating.
How I Got Here And Early Reactions
I’ve basically always been overweight and I’ve always had a huge sweet tooth. Over the last couple years I’ve seen documentaries like Forks Over Knives and come to understand that going vegetarian would be healthy, but I love meat too much. I had an aunt go vegetarian on my Mom’s side and sing its praises and a cousin on my Dad’s side go mostly vegetarian and have great success losing weight and building muscle.
In February I hit a breaking point with trouble sleeping, lacking energy and feeling generally like shit. Just everything felt bad. I was thinking my trouble sleeping might be related to consuming too much processed sugar, and decided that something had to be done. I decided to try a week or two as a mostly vegetarian - if I went out to eat one day a week or whatever, I could get meat, but I’d mostly go vegetarian. I felt like if I cut processed foods and went vegetarian and it helped, I’d then be able to add stuff in and see what caused problems and what didn’t.
I was shocked how easy it was, and I realized that most of the meat that I ate at home was just meh. I used to have turkey, egg white, jalapeno, and Swiss wraps for breakfast. But it’s not like the turkey was super flavorful, even though I enjoyed them. Sometimes I’d get sandwiches or wraps from the market across the street - they were good, but not the type of thing where you bite into it and say “Oh my God!”
Just realizing that most meat eaten at home isn’t anything special or particularly delicious made it easy to cut it out, and what surprised me the most was that I barely missed it at all. I went vegetarian 2/21 to 2/27, then went out on a date to a Spanish restaurant and got tapas, I think 2 of the 5 had meat - it was a great meal. Then I went back to vegetarian, and stocked up and locked down and went without meat until Easter and I had no cravings or issues. On Easter we made ribeyes for dinner, I enjoyed them, and now it’s back to being vegetarian. I don’t miss meat, I enjoy my meals more than before, and I find I’m actually getting more interesting flavors in a lot of ways - maybe just cause it’s different.
Overall, it was helping my sleep. I think it’s unfair to try to measure that now, given the lack of sleep due to the pandemic and my stress over that. It was and still is helping my energy - even after getting less sleep, I wake up feeling more energetic… and the weight loss I mentioned in the quoted post from the other thread is obviously awesome.
Long term, when things get back to normal, I expect to eat meat on average about once a week, but I’m not going to sweat it if it’s two or three days in a row then not at all for a month. If I go on vacation and go out to eat every day, I might be the most carniverous dude on the planet that week. But if I’m chilling at home and not going out to eat for a few weeks, I might be 100% vegetarian.
If anyone has questions, feel free to fire away.
