veg out

The other day, Steve read a blog post by a writer for The Dallas Observer who said she was going vegetarian for a month.  I think it was part of a bet for her; she is a huge meat lover, but is committed to going without.  Steve forwarded me the post and asked, "Should we do this, too?"  My immediate answer was, "Yes; let's do this."

Let me give you a little background: a couple of years ago, when Steve was training for his first marathon, he really scaled back on eating meat.  Most weeks, he didn't eat any.  I was pregnant ... so don't bother asking what I was eating.  Since that time, he and I have both gone through meatless spurts, and it feels good.  This has nothing to do with morals or how we feel about animals, it just has to do with what we want in our bodies.  I know that plenty of meat can be prepared in a way that's healthy, but there are also so many foods out there that provide the same benefits without the meat.  That's what we're going for.  My cholesterol, while under control now, remains a concern and a motivating factor for sticking to a low fat, high fiber diet.  We want to pay attention to not replacing meat with an unhealthy, non-meat ... that would defeat the purpose.

We don't consume a whole lot of dairy anyway, but we will keep eggs in our diet.  Other staples will include beans, brown grains, tofu, and hearty vegetables such as eggplant and squash.  We've already identified many recipes we want to try, and there are quality vegetarian options available at many of our favorite restaurants.  Right now, I'd consider this whole thing more of an experiment that anything else ... we'll see how long we last and how we feel in the end.  We are definitely food lovers, and I'm hoping what we'll find is that we can enjoy delicious, flavorful, fulfilling meals without meat.  

We were going to wait until June 1st to begin our meatless month, but decided to let the fun officially start tomorrow. We'll see how this goes!