Day 30: Where’ve I Been?

Life and work has taken hold, and sadly, my dedication to Veggie-Style has suffered. It’s been a full week since I last posted, and for that, I am sorry.

Rest assured that I have not had a single bite of non-fishy meat in the last 7 days of my bloggish absence, however. No cheating by me.

Today marks the 30th day in my 30-day vegetarian challenge, which means that, officially, I’m allowed to start eating beef and pork and chicken and human flesh again.

But I probably won’t.

At least, not nearly as frequently as I once did - if at all. It’s possible I might have a bit of a celebration meal this weekend, but other than that, I intend to keep with it. I find the discipline refreshing, and I’m slowly teaching myself to develop new and healthier eating habits. It¦s happening. Not overnight, but still. It is.

Thanks to everyone who sent in tips and encouragement this past month. You rock.

If all goes well, I plan on keeping Veggie-Style alive, with perhaps a post a week about something vegetarian-related. Some more fun posts like the one on vegetarian feminism, for instance, or 10 Great Ways To Make Tofu. And I love making the images that accompany the posts, so I’ll continue to post these to my Flickr stream and here on the site.

Do check back from time to time, and better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll be notified of anything new that comes down the pipe.

Rock on, veggie. Rock on.

Day 23: Thai

Meal One:

• Parfait
• Iced Coffee

Meal Two:

• Red pepper, cheese, marinara, onion, etc. wrap (There were black olives on this. I took them off because biting into one makes me gag. Seriously.)
  
• Kettle Salt and Pepper chips

Meal Three:

• Vegetable Pad Thai (gross compared to chicken - too many conflicting flavors)
• Spring Rolls
• Thai Iced Tea
  

What I Ate This Weekend

Plenty of good food this weekend. Let’s see how much I can remember.

Friday:

• Parfait
  
• Fish and chips
• Vegetable chimichanga, black beans, mexican rice

Saturday:

• Pumpkin pie
• Scrambled eggs with cheese
• Basil gnocchi
• Bread with red pepper dip
• Fried calamari
  
• Cabernet
• Figs with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette
• Double spresso
  

Sunday:

• Faux-chicken patties, long-grain rice
• Salad
• Quesadillas

That’s more-or-less the recap. Missing a couple things, probably, but this is pretty close.

Day 19: In The Groove

I can’t believe I’ve been meat-free for nearly 20 days. At this point, I feel like I could keep doing this forever, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that part of me misses the meat. Every now and then I feel myself about to reach for something animal - out of habit, I suppose, but also just a little bit out of longing. Watching a TV show like Dexter (about a serial killer) doesn’t exactly help, either. But each day that goes by it gets easier to forget that meat is an option. My refrigerator and freezer are growing less and less meat-filled, and I’ve begun to learn which lunch joints to avoid if I want to sidestep temptation. Good times, mostly.

Meal One:

• Banana Berry Jamba Juice

Meal Two:

• Strawberry & yogurt parfait
• McDonalds french fries (I had 5 minutes for lunch, and this was the only place with short enough lines)

Meal Three:

• Veggie corn dogs (pretty awesome, actually!)
• Hummus and pita
• Odwalla Blueberry B Monster juice
  

Other:

• Ice cream
  

Day 18: Controversy?

A reader named Karen left a comment on yesterday’s post to say that Coke contains animal products (and that the company are major human rights violators). My questions are as follows:

• Does Coca-cola contain animal products?
• If so, are any soft drinks vegetarian-safe? Which ones?
• What proportion of vegetarians go so far as to remove traces of such things in their food?
• There is a stereotype of vegetarians being more socially conscious than other folks. How much truth is in this? What might motivate this activism?

Found a bunch of great-looking vegetarian meat replacements today, including corn dogs, which I’m eager to try. Otherwise, a nice day for food. Plenty of variety, and plenty of tasty grub.

Meal One:

• Strawberry & blueberry yogurt parfait
• O.J.

Meal Two:

• Eggplant Parmesan
• Glacéau VitaminWater

Meal Three:

• Vegetarian chicken patty burger thing
• Fancy, whole-grain basil pesto penne primavera from the folks at Kashi (this had a bunch of random vegetables in it)
  
• Odwalla Blueberry B Monster

Other:

• Pumpkin PIE!!!
• Half of a nasty, nasty orange-colored white chocolate KitKat. NASTY. White chocolate = gag!
  

Day 17: Saving The Children

Meal One:

• Coke
• Chocolate Chip Cookie

Meal Two:

• Vegetable Vinaigrette Salad (carrots, red and yellow peppers, cucumber, celery, red onion, minted bulghur, feta, and a light champagne vinaigrette dressing)
• Ethos water (saving the kids!)

Meal Three:

• Carrot and ginger soup
• 1% reduced-fat milk
  

Get Skinny By Going Vegetarian

From 30 Days To A Slimmer You:

It’s hard to visualize what a vegetarian diet looks like, if you’re not a vegetarian. For a 1200 calorie a day diet, you could eat five servings of grains (bread, cereal), three servings of vegetables, two pieces of fruit, two servings of dairy products, and five ounces of beans, nuts or eggs.

That’s only 1200 calories, apparently. I can not imagine eating that much food. Then again, I must be, which is worrisome. How many servings are in my servings? How many bananas are in my banana? Part of the difficulty of maintaining a healthy vegetarian diet is fighting against years of the wrong habits. Not counting servings. Not paying attention to calories or fat content. Just eating. Chomp chomp chomp.

I’m trying to beat it.

Day 16: Pizza Party!

Pizza is awesome. Pepperoni or not, as the case may be. And leftover pizza is equally awesome, especially when, like me, you are on the verge of physical and emotional collapse on account of far too much work and far too little sleep. Cold pizza. Awesome.

Meal One:

• Vanilla Iced Coffee

Meal Two:

• Cream Soda
• Fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich
• Honey BBQ Kettle chips

Meal Three:

• Papa John’s Six-cheese pizza
  

Days 13-15: Busy

I don’t think it’s worth it to rehash everything I ate over the last three days, because there’s not much to say other than, “I was extremely busy. I didn’t eat meat. It was (mostly) good.”

Back to normalcy today.

Types Of Vegetarianism

Wikipedia has some great info about the different types of vegetarianism, as well as related dietary practices, and some unrelated practices that use neologisms derived from the word “vegetarian.”

Diet Name	Meat, (including Fish and Poultry)	Eggs	Dairy	Honey
Ovo-lacto vegetarianism	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lacto vegetarianism	No	No	Yes	Yes
Ovo vegetarianism	No	Yes	No	Yes
Veganism	No	No	No	No

Other dietary practices commonly associated with vegetarianism

• Fruitarianism is a diet of only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.
• Macrobiotic diet is a diet of mostly whole grains and beans. Not all macrobiotics are vegetarians as some consume fish.
• Natural hygiene in its classic form recommends a diet principally of raw vegan foods.
• Raw veganism is a diet of fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.
• Dietary veganism - where vegans don't use animal products of any kind, dietary vegans restrict their veganism to their diet^[6]

It should be noted that most vegetarians also are aware of avoiding products that may use animal ingredients not included in their labels or which use animal products in their manufacturing i.e. cheeses that use animal rennet, gelatin (from animal skin, bones, and connective tissue), some sugars that are whitened with bone char (e.g. cane sugar, but not beet sugar) and alcohol clarified with gelatin or crushed shellfish and sturgeon.

Diets that are not related with vegetarianism

Some non-vegetarian diets use terms neologisms derived from the word "vegetarianism":

• Pescetarianism — A diet in which the only animals consumed are fish or other seafood.
• Pollotarianism — A diet in which the only animals consumed are fowl and poultry.
• Semi Vegetarian - A diet in which the only animal flesh consumed is seafood and poultry.
• Flexitarianism — A diet that consists primarily of vegetarian food, but that allows occasional exceptions.
• Freeganism — argues all commodities produced under capitalism, not only those from animal sources, contribute to exploitation and avoid buying anything, including food. Freegans thus focus on acquiring foods and other commodities by means other than purchasing, including foraging for wild plants and gardening with intent to cause as little violence and ecological destruction as possible through their consumption. While many freegans are vegans or vegetarians, others will eat animal products that would otherwise go to waste under the justification that doing this does not encourage further animal exploitation.

What kind are you?

Day 12: Meetings

I didn’t mean to eat fish twice today, but I had a dinner meeting with a client in New Jersey and the only thing on the menu that was remotely vegetarian was a beer-battered fish sandwich (not counting the absolutely disgusting portobello mushroom sandwich that I wouldn’t order if my life depended on it). I’m beginning to see the problem that full-time vegetarians have dining out. Oh well. Fish is good, at least.

Meal One:

• Some kind of smoothie from Jamba Juice

Meal Two:

• Tuna salad wrap
• S. Pellegrino

Meal Three:

• Beer-battered fish sandwich
• “Chips”
• A glass of Pinot Noir
  

Day 11: Running Low

My food supply is dwindling, which means I’ll have to go shopping soon - likely sometime this weekend if I can find a minute. There’s still some food hanging around that I haven’t felt like eating (like the soup I bought, as delicious as it sounded when I picked it up), but for the most part, I’ve consumed a good amount of what I bought. Still plenty of cheese and various cracker-type things, but those don’t exactly constitute meals, as many of you have pointed out. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a client in New Jersey after my day job, which means I’ll have to find something to eat at Penn Station before getting on the train. This sounds tricky. Wish me luck!

Meal One:

• Iced Coffee

Meal Two:

• Odwalla Super Protein Pumpkin beverage
• Starbucks fruit and cheese plate (brie, cheddar, pepper jack, grapes, apple, orange, cranberry walnut bread)

Meal Three:

• Jack cheese and black bean quesadilla
• Cold sesame noodles (lots of leftovers from this gigantic portion!)
  

Day 10: The Pies Have It

My favorite time of year is autumn, if for no other reason than the predominance of pumpkin-flavored and pumpkin-containing beverages, pastries, and other edibles. The Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino or Pumpkin Spice Latte sold by Starbucks are great examples of delicious pumpkin-flavored indulgences, but Odwalla has a Super Protein Pumpkin drink, a whole host of breweries offer seasonal Pumpkin ales, and pumpkin cookies and muffins and pies and breads can be found hot out of the oven at numerous bakeries around NYC.

Pumpkins are awesome. I just need to figure out if it’s possible to eat a slightly healthier version of this seasonally ubiquitous fruit (that is, the ripened ovary of a flowering plant) or, as it is more commonly known - vegetable. Two for one. Sweet.

Meal One:

• Odwalla Super Protein Pumpkin drink

Meal Two:

• Black bean and cheese quesadilla
• Sprite

Meal Three:

• Salad with orange peppers, cucumbers, feta, and pepper parmesan dressing

Other:

• Hershey’s Special Reserve hot chocolate
• Cinnamon mint croissant
  

Random Photo: PETA Bread

Day 9: Starbucks Will Be My Downfall

God, it’s a good thing Starbucks doesn’t sell steak. Because who could possibly resist the ability to download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Store over an iPhone while jamming out to the Akeelah and the Bee soundtrack while nursing a frothy, whipped cream- and calorie- laden hunk of meat.

Not me, that’s for sure.

Today, I had a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino for the first time since the beverage was phased out in January or so. It was also my first trip to Starbucks in a little over a month. As much as I want to say I won’t, I probably will go back tomorrow. For the next thirty days or so, they’re handing out cards redeemable for a song-of-the-day from the iTunes store. Free music. And glorious pumpkin-flavored sugar and caffeine.

Maybe I’ll buy one of their Odwalla juices if I can focus my energies.

Meal One:

• Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino

Meal Two:

• Fettucini Alfredo
• Perrier

Meal Three:

• Pita and roasted red pepper hummus
• миш-маш (mish-mash, hodge-podge...a dish made of peppers, eggs, and feta cheese)
  

Cruelty To Vegetables

One of the hardest things I’ve noticed about having a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is buying the right amount, especially if you’re shopping for just one person. Fresh foods simply do not keep very long, so this means you must choose between having to make frequent shopping trips, throwing away food on the verge of rotting, gorging yourself and eating five bananas a day, or buying extra non-perishable (canned, packaged, processed) food to tide you over until you have time to make another trip to the market. Of the four, the one that in my experience is by far the most unlikely is the first. It so totally goes against the way I’ve been raised (and I imagine many people can relate) to make a lot of small shopping trips (not to mention the relative impossibility of fitting this into a busy schedule). Bulk, we’re all taught, is cheaper, more economical. Why buy one banana at a time when they’re six to a bunch? One apple instead of a bag of apples?

I’m sure there are some of you out there who have found a solution to this problem and eat fresh food all the time. Well, how do you do it? There must be some magic solution to keep food from going bad. Or at least a secret to planning your shopping. Anyone got an insight? Many thanks in advance. The vegetables thank you for your kindness.