I have thoughts about calorie restriction. I have no scientific basis for this. I could probably scour the internet and find studies that back up my ideas, of course, but I'm not really interested in that. I also don't believe this is true for everyone, but I'm certain it's true for me.
I don't think calorie restriction is safe or healthy, for me at the very least. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. It's mostly an intuitive thing. I mean, I know I could probably drop some weight by restricting calories again. I bet it would be really easy to stick to 1300 calories on a low carb diet. But I fear what that would do to my health.
I'm 28 years old, 5'7, and 185 pounds. I don't track my calories every day, but once in a while I do, and on those days, they're about 2000 calories. If I was older, maybe post menopausal, I probably would have to be lower calorie simply because my hormones and metabolism wouldn't be the same as they are now.
I have a long history of malnutrition (eating a high carb, vegetarian diet, and making myself really sick with it). I know my body is still recovering from that, and I feel like calorie restriction would only hold my body back from healing itself. A healing body needs more nutrients and calories. Mine needs more protein. You wouldn't believe the muscle I've put on without lifting weights.
I'm also trying to conceive a baby right now. A woman's reproductive system needs to know that her body is well fed, that the baby will be well fed, or it's not going to cooperate. Chad and I have been trying for 13 months, with the only glimmer of hope being a possible early miscarriage (a chemical pregnancy) six months ago. I don't think we're going to conceive until my body has finished healing itself, and it's not going to get any better if I restrict calories. I also think Chad's body needs to continue to heal, too. He was pretty unhealthy before we started, and his body has changed dramatically since going low carb. He's leaner, more muscular, happier, and more energetic than he used to be, but I'm sure he still has a ways to go.
And besides, what do calories have to do with it? I think if you have a very deranged metabolism, yes, calories matter. But I lost weight as soon as I switched from a high-carb, 1600 calorie, vegetarian diet to a low-carb, 2000 calorie, meaty diet. And so did Chad.
So for now, I'm going to continue eating a lot of calories. I'm not concerned about losing more weight. Yes, at 185 pounds, that makes me overweight. As a matter of fact, my BMI is 29 or so, which makes me almost obese. But you know what? I managed to lose 90 pounds (I used to be 275). I have so much loose skin that I wouldn't be surprised that about 15-20 of those "overweight" pounds are actually extra skin. Not to mention the fact that I come from a family of big-boned women, with big feet, wide hips, broad shoulders, and large hands. Of course I'm going to weigh more than someone with naturally petite bones (such as my husband). And despite the fact I've been gaining lots of muscle (I can actually see the difference), I haven't gained any weight. So that tells me I'm trading in fat for muscle.
And I'm healthy, much healthier than I was as a low-calorie, high-carb vegetarian. Isn't that more important than weight?
Showing posts with label ex-vegetarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ex-vegetarian. Show all posts
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Adventure!
Becoming a meat eating, paleo/primal/low-carb person has really expanded my diet. Along with the conventional meat that I'm now eating, like beef, chicken, and bacon, I'm also finding myself getting more and more adventurous. First I tried ground lamb (I won't be trying that again; too gamey), then beef liver. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up goat meat at the farmer's market!
And then, last Friday, I saw something I knew I had to try. Strolling through the farmer's market, in the same stall that had the goat meat (I went back to pick up more!), I saw.... this.
....Duck eggs? I mean, I know they're birds. I know other birds lay eggs. I know theoretically you can even eat those eggs. But I've never actually seen anything but chicken eggs. I knew I had to get them. But first, I had to ask the guy behind the counter what they tasted like. In the same beat, both the seller and my mom said "they're richer". Later on, I found out my mom had kept ducks and chickens when she lived in California as a young wife. Jealous!
For $2 a half dozen, I figured I had nothing to lose. So I brought them home. They look similar to chicken eggs, but.... different, too. The shells are slightly translucent in spots. And they're a little bigger than the farm eggs we buy (which I think are jumbo sized).
It got really interesting when I cracked them open. The membranes under the shells are much thicker, so you really have to pull the shell apart to get the egg out. And then the white was incredibly thick. Like.... I don't even know how to describe it. If I tried, I probably could have gotten the egg white to stretch several feet. The yolks were quite large, and they were very dark.
Out of curiosity, I cooked two chicken eggs along side two duck eggs.
It surprised me to see that the duck egg whites are much whiter than chicken egg whites. Once they were fully cooked, the duck eggs where pure white, whereas the chicken eggs were more ivory.
As for taste? There honestly wasn't that much different. The duck eggs were a little more sturdy in texture, and the yolks tasted a little yolkier. Bot otherwise, they were eggs. And they were delicious.
And then, last Friday, I saw something I knew I had to try. Strolling through the farmer's market, in the same stall that had the goat meat (I went back to pick up more!), I saw.... this.
....Duck eggs? I mean, I know they're birds. I know other birds lay eggs. I know theoretically you can even eat those eggs. But I've never actually seen anything but chicken eggs. I knew I had to get them. But first, I had to ask the guy behind the counter what they tasted like. In the same beat, both the seller and my mom said "they're richer". Later on, I found out my mom had kept ducks and chickens when she lived in California as a young wife. Jealous!
For $2 a half dozen, I figured I had nothing to lose. So I brought them home. They look similar to chicken eggs, but.... different, too. The shells are slightly translucent in spots. And they're a little bigger than the farm eggs we buy (which I think are jumbo sized).
It got really interesting when I cracked them open. The membranes under the shells are much thicker, so you really have to pull the shell apart to get the egg out. And then the white was incredibly thick. Like.... I don't even know how to describe it. If I tried, I probably could have gotten the egg white to stretch several feet. The yolks were quite large, and they were very dark.
Out of curiosity, I cooked two chicken eggs along side two duck eggs.
 | |
| Chicken eggs on the left, duck eggs on the right. |
It surprised me to see that the duck egg whites are much whiter than chicken egg whites. Once they were fully cooked, the duck eggs where pure white, whereas the chicken eggs were more ivory.
As for taste? There honestly wasn't that much different. The duck eggs were a little more sturdy in texture, and the yolks tasted a little yolkier. Bot otherwise, they were eggs. And they were delicious.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The view from the other side
Not long ago, I was a vegetarian. Not just a vegetarian, but someone who chose that lifestyle as a young teen and who stuck with it, through old fashioned family gatherings and getting married to a meat eater, for almost 14 years. I wasn't a zealot about it, and I believed that it was everyone's choice to eat what they felt was best. But to me, being a vegetarian seemed like the only choice that made sense, for my health and for the planet.
After a while, it started becoming a central part of my identity. Hello, I'm Julie, a Vegetarian. Everyone knew, because I had to be treated differently. I'd ask at parties if there was meat in the dip. I'd have to find out how the soup was prepared. And for God's sake, don't put bacon bits on my salad! I thought that being a vegetarian made me interesting and maybe even mysterious. I know it made me feel like a better person. Simply by avoiding meat, I gained a halo of earth-friendly, animal-activist, kind-hearted, without having to actually do that much.
It wasn't all sunshine and cupcakes, though. About a year after becoming a vegetarian (right before my 15th birthday), I started having severe gallstone attacks. I remember them getting so bad and so sudden that, while swimming at a creek near my home town, I got stranded on the opposite side because I couldn't move without getting physically ill. To this day, I can't remember how I got back across the creek, but I do know that it wasn't long afterwards that they removed my gallbladder in an emergency operation.
I my hair started to thin out, and my nails became incredibly thin and brittle. And then, I began to balloon out. By the time I reached my 17th birthday, I carried an outrageous 275 pounds on my 5'7 frame. I was depressed, had little energy, and I had no idea why I was so addicted to eating.
Fast forward ten years. In the summer of 2012, my hubby and I decided, hey, maybe we should try going low-carb. We'd done the research, and it all sounded so logical. I felt better right away, but I'll admit that being a low-carb vegetarian is incredibly hard. I ended up eating tofu or seitan (a meat substitute made from, of all things, wheat gluten) every single day, and part of me knew that it wasn't good for me to be doing that. So even though I had a lot of doubts, I decided to start eating meat again.
That was in August of 2012. I look back at that, and it makes me wonder... how did I ever manage before then? What on earth did I eat before I started eating meat again? This way of eating is so natural and it feels so right. I don't think anyone could ever convince me to go back to being a vegetarian, and especially eating tofu or seitan daily.
It did take a few months, but my body has changed dramatically since becoming a low-carb meat eater. The first thing I really noticed was my mood. I used to be depressed all the time pretty much, and I had a lot of trouble getting up the energy to take care of my responsibilities, but after changing my diet, my mood brightened way up. The next surprising little find was that my fingernails, for the first time I can remember, are strong and long. In the winters when I was a vegetarian, I couldn't keep them very long. I looked like a nail biter because they would break off close to the skin, and even more disturbing, they would PEEL down where they were attached to the finger. My hair is starting to come in thicker, too, and it's getting longer. I used to only be able to grow it to a certain length, but my hair is certainly growing fast and long now.
The most amazing change I've seen, though, has to be my body composition. Since I started eating this way, I've only lost a little bit of weight. I'm still quite round and I would like to lose maybe another 20 pounds. But even though I haven't moved the scale much, my body looks and feels different. People ask me all the time if I've lost weight. My pants aren't as tight as they used to be. I see muscle now that I never used to have, and I haven't been lighting weights or anything! It's just happened because of my diet shift!
There are times when I'm eating a piece of bacon or whatever, and I catch myself thinking, "OMG what am I doing?!", before realizing that, oh yeah, this is how I eat now! I still feel a little weird eating animals, and I have some trouble handling raw meat or eating any piece of animal that looks like an animal. I would like to be eating more organic, free-range, humanely treated meats, but unfortunately my budget can't afford much of that at the moment. I feel that animals are special, sacred creations of God, and they should be treated as such, but I do wholeheartedly believe that humans were meant to eat them, just as other predators were meant to eat prey. It's just the natural cycle of life.
Of course, I'm not trying to bash the vegetarian lifestyle. I know some people eat that way for religious reasons, and it can be done if you're very careful and you know what you're doing. However, I don't feel that it's the natural state for humans, and I certainly know it wasn't healthy for me.
After a while, it started becoming a central part of my identity. Hello, I'm Julie, a Vegetarian. Everyone knew, because I had to be treated differently. I'd ask at parties if there was meat in the dip. I'd have to find out how the soup was prepared. And for God's sake, don't put bacon bits on my salad! I thought that being a vegetarian made me interesting and maybe even mysterious. I know it made me feel like a better person. Simply by avoiding meat, I gained a halo of earth-friendly, animal-activist, kind-hearted, without having to actually do that much.
It wasn't all sunshine and cupcakes, though. About a year after becoming a vegetarian (right before my 15th birthday), I started having severe gallstone attacks. I remember them getting so bad and so sudden that, while swimming at a creek near my home town, I got stranded on the opposite side because I couldn't move without getting physically ill. To this day, I can't remember how I got back across the creek, but I do know that it wasn't long afterwards that they removed my gallbladder in an emergency operation.
I my hair started to thin out, and my nails became incredibly thin and brittle. And then, I began to balloon out. By the time I reached my 17th birthday, I carried an outrageous 275 pounds on my 5'7 frame. I was depressed, had little energy, and I had no idea why I was so addicted to eating.
Fast forward ten years. In the summer of 2012, my hubby and I decided, hey, maybe we should try going low-carb. We'd done the research, and it all sounded so logical. I felt better right away, but I'll admit that being a low-carb vegetarian is incredibly hard. I ended up eating tofu or seitan (a meat substitute made from, of all things, wheat gluten) every single day, and part of me knew that it wasn't good for me to be doing that. So even though I had a lot of doubts, I decided to start eating meat again.
That was in August of 2012. I look back at that, and it makes me wonder... how did I ever manage before then? What on earth did I eat before I started eating meat again? This way of eating is so natural and it feels so right. I don't think anyone could ever convince me to go back to being a vegetarian, and especially eating tofu or seitan daily.
It did take a few months, but my body has changed dramatically since becoming a low-carb meat eater. The first thing I really noticed was my mood. I used to be depressed all the time pretty much, and I had a lot of trouble getting up the energy to take care of my responsibilities, but after changing my diet, my mood brightened way up. The next surprising little find was that my fingernails, for the first time I can remember, are strong and long. In the winters when I was a vegetarian, I couldn't keep them very long. I looked like a nail biter because they would break off close to the skin, and even more disturbing, they would PEEL down where they were attached to the finger. My hair is starting to come in thicker, too, and it's getting longer. I used to only be able to grow it to a certain length, but my hair is certainly growing fast and long now.
The most amazing change I've seen, though, has to be my body composition. Since I started eating this way, I've only lost a little bit of weight. I'm still quite round and I would like to lose maybe another 20 pounds. But even though I haven't moved the scale much, my body looks and feels different. People ask me all the time if I've lost weight. My pants aren't as tight as they used to be. I see muscle now that I never used to have, and I haven't been lighting weights or anything! It's just happened because of my diet shift!
There are times when I'm eating a piece of bacon or whatever, and I catch myself thinking, "OMG what am I doing?!", before realizing that, oh yeah, this is how I eat now! I still feel a little weird eating animals, and I have some trouble handling raw meat or eating any piece of animal that looks like an animal. I would like to be eating more organic, free-range, humanely treated meats, but unfortunately my budget can't afford much of that at the moment. I feel that animals are special, sacred creations of God, and they should be treated as such, but I do wholeheartedly believe that humans were meant to eat them, just as other predators were meant to eat prey. It's just the natural cycle of life.
Of course, I'm not trying to bash the vegetarian lifestyle. I know some people eat that way for religious reasons, and it can be done if you're very careful and you know what you're doing. However, I don't feel that it's the natural state for humans, and I certainly know it wasn't healthy for me.
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