Vegetarian Diet – Day 15

Wow, so much had gone on in life that the past two weeks feel like six. I’ve stayed on the vegetarian diet, though I generally don’t remember that I’m on it, it’s just that I don’t have any meat around so all I’m eating is fruit, some veggies, and some cheese.

The first few days were especially hard, not because I can’t resist temptation, but because I was just CRAVING meat, knowing that I couldn’t have any. Then I did the raw thing for a few days, and felt really, really healthy, but also pretty hungry, to be honest.

Thursday and Friday I stayed at New York New York Casino/Hotel to have some space and spa pampering and a bathtub. You have no idea how much I craved a bubble bath after only being able to take showers for more than a month now, staying in the RV. I thought being in a hotel, with room service, would make the vegetarian thing more difficult, but it wasn’t really. Since there was no food in the room, all I had to do was be disciplined about not ordering anything with meat from room service. So I got a huge fruit and cheese plate, and that pretty much took care of the first night AND the next day while I was working.

Then I went down to a restaurant in the casino and had dinner with Kevin in the Nine Irishmen, and they had this totally fun live Irish band. By now I had basically forgotten that I was vegetarian, it was more that I was just eating a lot of fruit instead of other, heavier foods. My appetite has also diminished enormously. At Starbucks on Thursday, I couldn’t even eat a whole cup of yogurt parfait. So here I am eating out Friday night, with no appetite but my first drink already warming my tummy and making me garrulous (I’m a happy, entertaining drinker), since there wasn’t much food in my system to absorb the alcohol. But there was no way I would be able to eat a whole serving of anything, so we decided to share and I suggested he order whatever and I’d just have a bit of whatever that was. I had completely forgotten that I wasn’t eating meat.

He remembered though, and without bringing it up he ordered some kind of potato bites appetizer thing to share and clam chowder for himself. Potatoes unfortunately, are something I’ve been avoiding for years, ever since I tried to diet just a little bit on the foods that seem to sit heavy in my stomach. I had simply eliminated potatoes and bread from my regular diet, and I lost a little weight (no, wait, I didn’t lose weight, but I IDID stop gaining weight, which was awesome because without exercise in two years, I’ve gotten embarrassingly flabby). I always felt like potatoes stuck to me more than other foods somehow, and while I’m sure I’m not the only person with this type of body/metabolism, I’m not sure a lot of people realize that they may feel better simply eliminating one or two items such as potatoes and bread.

So anyway, I tried one of the potato things and they were fried with an unusual seasoning that wasn’t bad, but the dips they brought with were, ummm, unappetizing. Between that and the potatoes being little fried slices, well, that basically solidified my decision that I was not hungry. The soup smelled pretty good though, and to open up conversation for an invitation to try it, I asked what was in it. He was like, “potatoes, carrots . . . ” and I was like, “and mussels and clams, and, are those scallops? It’s like seafood chowder.” He said, “yeah, I wasn’t sure if you were maybe eating fish on your vegetarian diet or if you were still doing it or not.” I blushed. “I completely forgot I’m vegetarian now!” So I tried a carrot. Eh, ok, but I can live without smooshy vegetables in broth, unless I absolutely have to eat. So, instead of “eating vegetarian” I basically didn’t eat that meal, just a few bites. But I wasn’t hungry, so that was enough. Later we sat outside Times Square (where the dueling pianos are) at a little café table by the Sicilian pizza parlor. I was dying for a slice of cheese pizza, but it was really late for eating, so I didn’t get any.

The kind of interesting thing was Saturday morning having breakfast before I got on the road. I haven’t had eggs all this time because I haven’t gone to a restaurant and I’m dry camping (no water) in the RV so I’m not cooking. I guess I could have boiled eggs, but it didn’t occur to me. Anyway, I love eggs, and I wanted eggs so I ate out for breakfast instead of just having a yogurt on my drive. I ordered eggs, toast, and hashbrowns. The serving was enormous, with so many potato wedges they took up two-thirds of this already oversize platter plate. I ate one of the eggs my old way, dipping a slice of toast into the yolk, or putting a bit of the egg on the toast. And after one egg, I started getting sick to my stomach. Now, there could have been any number of stress or emotional issues to raise Cain in my gut because I had a huge deadline at work Monday that I wasn’t done with yet and here I was driving 1500 miles to get to my parents house as well. I could have gotten a stress-related stomach ache, but I’m pretty suspicious of the over-easy eggs. Who knows.

I’ve been on the road again the last couple days, and while it’s hard to pass the fast food places I normally would have stopped at before on a road trip (Arby’s being a particular favorite because fast food hamburgers are just plain scary for content, once I thought I bit into a tooth, and that grossed me out so bad I gagged on it and have had another burger since). It was harder to get myself to look for fruits and vegetables when I stopped for gas, since my tendency would be to get some kind of crunchy snack. Luckily I had some grapes left over in my RV fridge, but by last night I was craving something more substantial and I got a microwave pizza with mushrooms and spinach. The flavor was fine (well, as fine as you would expect of something like that cooked in your microwave), but similar to the eggs, after eating my stomach was upset.

Tonight or tomorrow night I’ll get to my parents’ house, and then the real trial begins. So many of my favorite things that my mom cooks are meats, I think this is going to impact all three of us. Mom the least because she barely eats to begin with and rarely eats any more than just a taste of the meat she prepares for a meal, but Dad will really be affected because, like me, he likes my Mom’s cooking and meat is a staple in the Midwest. Meat and potatoes. Yippee, I’m going to the Midwest for seven weeks and trying to maintain a potato-free vegetarian diet. Just shoot me now, before I get within reach of my dad’s shotgun. Just kidding.

One annoying thing . . . I’ve been tired ever since Saturday morning. I didn’t sleep well Friday night, but come on, it’s Monday now. Why am I still dragging when I’m doing all my usual morning perks (meditation, Runecasting, journaling) before starting the day job work? I would drag my feet getting out of bed for work or can have a hard time staying energized through the whole day for my job these days, but how tired I suddenly have become is ridiculous.

It’s probably time to look into some vitamins that my mentors in the Pavlina forums suggested. Well, after a couple nights home with normal sleeping hours, anyway.