A Fitness Christmas Present

For Christmas this year one of my presents was a Fitbit Flex. It is a bracelet you wear that tracks your steps, your activity level throughout the day and can even tell you how well you're sleeping at night. Seeing how few steps I take has been a bit of a wakeup call. So today I finally stepped on the treadmill that I made BF help me carry up the stairs. While walking, I watched the first two episodes of The Walking Dead. According to my Fitbit, so far today I've logged over 17,000 steps. Is that for real?? Thanks, mindless TV-watching!

Veganism: time to try it!

Last April I decided to become a vegetarian with the goal of being vegan by 25. This is for multiple reasons. I knew that vegetarianism wouldn't be too difficult because I have never been a fan of red meat. But to get rid of milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream....? Impossible. Here are my reasonings for becoming vegetarian, and hopefully mostly vegan:

• Factory farmed animals lead painful, short, horrible lives and experience suffering when they are processed (killed). I don't want to help animals suffer.
• Factory farms are also incredibly stressful on the environment. Tons of antibiotics, fertilizers, bleach, and other chemicals are used in the raising and killing of animals. I want the earth to be around for my great-grandchildren, and if everyone ate like Americans, we'd need six Earths (Michael Pollan).
• Everyone I have ever met or heard was a vegan is pretty dang skinny. Perhaps they don't get enough protein, like nay-sayers like to point out, but a well-planned diet can successfully include plenty of non-animal protein. It seems to me that there is something inherent in not eating animal anything that allows your body to be incredibly efficient and, I hope, assist chubby people in slimming down. I want to lose weight, so perhaps eating less cheese (which does have a lot of fat in it) and other dairy products would shrink my waistline.
• By removing meat, dairy, and processed foods, you're left with the kinds of foods that hold most, if not all, of the nutrients your body needs: vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, mushrooms, beans, etc. Eating lots of these things helps you be healthy and live longer!

My vegetarianism rate has probably been around 90% or higher since I began. I'm human, and I've slipped up a few times. Interestingly, it's always the uber-processed meats that get me, like hot dogs and chicken nuggets. I usually only cheat when I'm alone and there's no one to lecture me. But if I totally quit eating fast food, many of those tempting meat options are even more of a no-no.

My first vegan swap was cow's milk for soy milk. It was a weird taste for a week or so and then I was used to it. Now, I've done some reading and am a bit concerned about the estrogen levels in soy, so I'm experimenting with almond milk. However, almond milk does not have nearly as much protein as soy milk, and I'm worried that the current version of my diet probably lacks the necessary protein.

I quit eating yogurt, although it was mostly greek yogurt, and I miss it. I made some lovely batches of tzatziki over the summer and I don't think any non-dairy alternatives will really stack up. I've also officially stopped eating ice cream, which is pretty easy to do in the fall and winter; however, I didn't eat much over the summer, either, so here's hoping.

The most difficult thing, I always knew, has been/will be cheese. I love it so much. But it's also probably part of the reason I gained about 10 pounds during the first quarter of my senior year. I was in an apartment and did a lot of "cooking" for myself using my oven/stove and it usually involved cheese. Additionally, when I decided to become vegetarian I also gained weight, probably due to my misguided attempts to find things to eat that weren't meat (but also weren't vegetables).

Currently I am trying not to eat any cheese--really any animal product--since I am attempting "12 Days of Veganism" (Like 12 Days of Christmas). Unfortunately I've already failed because I was sick and BF bought us pizza. I am going to extend it for a few days now that I'm feeling much better and see how it goes. Before I got sick I did make what I thought was a great couscous recipe; however I think that I've learned that I'm not the biggest fan of couscous.