Thursday, October 25, 2012

Stumbling Towards Vegetarian (-ism?)

So, yes, it has been forever again. And, yes, I promised that I was going to work harder on keeping this blog up to date. I think this counts as a FAIL.

But also, where the heck as my sister diappeared to in the blog world? Step it up, BB!

Anyway, a lot has changed in my nutrition and fitness perspective since we started this blog. I think that I mentioned in my first entry how I have struggled with IBS.  I had some slight issues with it during high school and college, but nothing major.  After college graduation, I was anorexic for a year until undergoing intense in-patient therapy.  That was 8 1/2 years ago, and though my body image issues have greatly improved, anorexia left me with severe IBS that has only worsened over the years.  It became so bad in the spring that I was sent for an emergency MRI (luckily the issue did not require emergency treatment).  I was put on a medication which helped, but I still had severe bloating...when you get asked three times in one week if you're pregnant, I'd say that falls under "bloating".  I gave up gluten which helped tremendously, and just started paying more attention to my body.  About a month ago, I happened upon two great blogs, powercakes and fortheloveofkale, who started a "plantPOWER" challenge for their readers with a different plant-based challenge each day of October.  I decided to see if I could do the vegetarian thing and happily jumped on board.

Guess what?? I CAN do the vegetarian thing! And not only that, but my body LOVES the vegetarian thing!! No more bloating, no more IBS issues, and I even stopped taking my medicine over the weekend without a problem!  It turns out that my body did not respond well to the Paleo Diet because that was the exact opposite of what it needed. This just goes to show that not every nutritional plan works for every person. You absolutely MUST listen to your own body.

I've also decreased the length of my workouts and increased the intensity.  I'm doing more HIIT training (which I absolutely love), more Tabata workouts (these are amazing to incorporate into your lifting), even some at-home sessions. I feel wonderful inside and out; I'm finally listening to my own body more.

I'm still working on building up my vegetarian/gluten free recipe repetoire, so if you have any you want to share, please do so! I am OBSESSED wth nutritional yeast right now. Its a great, easy way to get protein and lots of other nutrients, and I love the taste it adds to everything. I also roast tons of vegetables on the weekends to eat throughout the week, and I'm especially loving squash. It's so stinkin' good, why has nobody told me this before? Especially roasted with some coconut oil...heaven.
My bounty from this past week (minus a kabocha squash)

Now, I'm not calling myself a vegetarian, at least not yet. I figure that if I want some chicken some time, I'll have some. But right now, I have no desire for it. And I'm okay with that too :).

Please let me know if you have any questions or advice for me. Another wonderful blog, besides the ones I mentioned above, is purelytwins. The cyberworld has been a great source for all of my recipes!!  Also, please follow me on Instagram for slightly more frequent updates ;). I'll include what I'm eating and also some of my workouts! My instagram tag is brookeeking.  And I'll work on the blog thing a little more...I hope!!

No comments:

Post a Comment