You Are What You Eat

Vegetarian Chronicles, Day 51:

I love the rituals of cleaning, chopping and preparing the fresh vegetarian meals I prepared.
And the aromas are amazing!

I actually didn't make it 51 days. Not for lack of trying. Remember, this was a seven day experiment which continued for nearly two months. But, each of our bodies are different and... well, vegetarianism lasted about 47 days for me. As of a few days ago, I've decided my diet just needs meat.

I felt sooooo good during this vegetarian experiment. And I made sure I got plenty of protein and a good, healthy mix of all other nutrients. Beans and split peas and quinoa and milk and eggs and cheese and veggies galore. Even new things like bok choy, swiss chard and kale. Alas, one can ensure he gets the nutrients he needs but his body may be screaming for more calories. And so is the case with me.

This may provide the calories I need,
but does nothing to help with the other goals.

I'm a.. well, I'm a thin guy with a crazy fast metabolism. And this experiment has proven that you are what you eat. Six weeks into this adventure & I started to look like a stalk of celery or a pale, white cannellini bean. I lost quite a bit of weight. While in Portland, a few of the maternal influences in my life kept telling me to eat more, eat more, eat more. So I did. But when I'm burning 1,200 calories on a training ride, I can't make up those calories with a truly healthy vegetarian diet. And eating pancakes or French toast for breakfast isn't exactly the solution I was seeking. Seriously, I would eat three pounds of food and it would equal something like 600 calories. I started to feel like one of those creatures that had to eat seven-times his body weight just to maintain.

Seriously, I was looking as pale and scrawny as one of these beans.

Delicious and nutritious as this is,
it doesn't support my body.

I tried online education. Followed a site devoted to endurance sport enthusiasts who are also vegetarians. Looked up meat-free recipes that were higher in calories. But it still didn't work. High-caloric meals that are meat free also come with a lot of fat and they throw off the balance I needed in nutrients. That wonderfully delicious replacement for meat, potatoes and gravy I made a few weeks ago had nearly half a bottle of olive oil in it. And I'm pretty sure many of those endurance sport vegetarians don't have my metabolism which, even without any exercise, requires three-to-four thousand calories a day. So, in an effort to avoid looking like Karen Carpenter, I've added meat back into my diet over the past few days.

First, my body's not too happy about this. It went through major changes & cleansing during the first ten days of my vegetarian experiment. And, again, it's going through major changes during this re-introduction to meat products. That's after seven short weeks. Amazing how quickly our bodies adapt to things. Hopefully, my body will re-adapt to meat products just as quickly.

Full of calories. And of fat. Although, it was "good" fat.

But now I've been left with a major question... how should I proceed? I noticed I made huge gains on my endurance and mileage while attempting this experiment. I want to continue working on lowering my cholesterol. Provide myself all the nutrients required for a healthy body. Ensure I have enough calories to get me through this training and this event. And do it all in a way that stays focused on what's good for the environment. In our culture that's asking a lot and, on the surface, seems nearly impossible.

I'm determined though and don't give up easily. So here's my revised plan:

1. Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. This helps in a few ways. First, the produce I receive will be freshly picked and seasonal which means it won't be subjected to a season inside a nitrogen-infused cooler and will be higher in nutrients than store-bought products. Second, the farms I'm looking at are completely organic and less than 50 miles away which lowers the carbon footprint for these purchases. Finally, they also provide animal products - mostly chicken and eggs.

2. Moderation with meat. Prior to this vegetarian experiment, I ate meat or animal products in nearly every meal. Now I will attempt to continue the experiment by adding meat back into my diet but minimizing the frequency. I'm going to start with 2-3 times per week.

Beef raised on a "corporate" farm.

Traditionally ranched beef. I'm pretty sure they're happier.

3. Real meat. Going organic is one thing. But Real Meat is a much harder (and costlier) proposition. As this experiment continues, and I add meat back into my diet, I will ensure the meat is raised in the traditional methods. I'm talking back to the days before chemicals, corporate farms, and genetic selection. We're talking the days of shepharding. Free-range, pasture-raised, grass-fed, humanely treated. This won't be easy since so few farms follow these guidelines. And it won't be cheap. I can buy a whole chicken from Albertson's for about four bucks. To get a chicken raised the old-fashioned way is going to run me about fifteen dollars. Same thing for beef which will come in around $20 a pound. And pork will run around $8-10 a pound. Poultry I'll get from my CSA. Beef will come from a ranch about 120 miles away (following the "slow food" ideals of keeping it as "local" as possible). Still looking for options for pork.

And seafood... I still need to do some research on this one. Even wild-caught seafood, which live on a diet natural to them and follow nature's food chain, can contain unsafe amounts of chemicals and heavy metals that are introduced into our water supply, including mercury and products from fertilizers that have long been banned. There's nothing we can really do about this because, as they say, it's in the water... literally. But if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Oh, and I discovered there's a name for this. Well, there's a name for everything, right? This approach is called flexitarianism. So now I can be pigeon-holed thank you very much. In the end, I apologize to you veggies out there who may be be troubled by the fact that I couldn't maintain a meat-free diet. I tried. I really, really did. But, in the end, I couldn't find a way to make it work for me while preparing for a 545 mile bike ride. The scales will definitely tip toward vegetarian (or even vegan) meals in my diet and, once the ride is over, I may go back to being a full-vegetarian. For now, meat is kind of a requirement - not for everyone but definitely for me. As for the livestock... following the "you are what you eat" idea, let's just say I'll do my best to ensure they had a happy life.