September: Vegetarian Diet
Who’s got the beets?
In September, I decided to challenge myself by following a vegetarian diet. I have never followed a specific diet before, so I thought this would be a good thing to try. Before starting this challenge, I went back and forth, deciding if I would do a complete vegan diet or just a vegetarian one. I ended up choosing the vegetarian diet, and here is why.
The Challenge Year is not intended to add unwarranted pressure on your life or be overwhelmingly time-consuming. If I switched to a completely vegan diet, I felt I would be adding stress and would have to spend a lot of time figuring out what I could eat. Going completely vegan would be too far out of my comfort zone. So, vegetarianism was the correct answer for me. It would still be challenging to not eat meat or fish, but it would not be challenging in the sense of me trying to gauge if said food was vegan.
The first 10 days of this challenge were a breeze as I did not feel different. Not only did I feel fine, but I found it easy to avoid meat and fish. At this point, I thought the entire month would be extremely easy.
But then, day 11 came around, and I felt like someone had punched a hole through my body. This was when the vegetarian diet started to become a challenge. I was not hungry, but I felt empty every day. My energy levels were also decreasing. These feelings lasted about 10 days. To help me overcome these feelings, I started eating more, especially more protein. I noticed that beans and nuts were the best fillers for me. My go-to for the month was a vegetarian burrito from Chipotle with extra beans; I probably had this close to 10 times.
One thing I really enjoyed about this challenge was trying new things at restaurants. I found it very easy to find great alternatives to meat and fish when eating out. Throughout this month, I ate things I would never have tried before, and I am very thankful for that. One night out, I ate a bowl of assorted mushrooms; it was incredible! On other occasions, I ordered delicious tofu and great squash ravioli. It was a great experience to go outside of my comfort zone and try new foods.
With the increased amount of carbs I was eating, this is not a big surprise, but throughout the entire month, my runs felt great. On the contrary, I felt weaker when lifting weights, especially the further the month went on. Coming into the month, I thought I would lose weight with this diet. Surprisingly, I did not.
Another big challenge I faced this month was temptation. It would have been so easy to cheat on this diet. My mind knew that, and I often said to myself, “Who would know?" or "It won't matter if you have meat right now." I was tempted often, especially as the month went on, but I never gave in. I pushed through by asking myself what caving would get me. Like I found with other challenges this year, the benefits did not outweigh the negatives of giving up. By sticking with this challenge, I have proved to myself and gained confidence that I can and will do everything within my power to accomplish something.
I recommend this challenge for two reasons. First, this helps you bolster your mettle in a situation of constant temptation. With this challenge, it is easy to cheat as no one would know but you. This is a great way to practice shrugging off your negative internal voice. The second reason I recommend this challenge is to broaden your pallet. Like I said earlier, I ate some fantastic and unique things I would never have tried.
I can't control the outside world, but I can control how I respond to my mind. If I can learn to challenge the internal voice that brings me temptation, then I can also learn to challenge that same voice that brings me words of discouragement and worry. Through this power, I can create a sense of control over the outside world by confidently taking on anything that may come my way.
