Having a kid 6 months ago, lit a fire under Shannon and me to start getting healthy. Being 33 when Jonas was born, we had to start preparing to be 'older' parents (though that seems to be the norm these days). When he is at the height of running around and being crazy, we'll be entering our 40's, and while 40 is the new 30, the shape I'm in makes 40 the new 50 or 60. Definitely wanted/needed to change that. So we gave the 'Game On' diet another go, which you cut out processed food and eat small portions. That lasted 3 or 4 weeks before we conveniently forgot about it.
My problem is portion control - whether its bacon or brussel sprouts or french bread, when I like something, I like to eat a lot of it. So I knew I needed to try something else...
Over the past year I've had a lot of friends go to full or nearly full plant based diets. Being a hardcore fan of meat, I respected their decisions and didn't mind the few vegan/vegetarian meals I shared with them, but there was no way I was giving up the joy of smoking a pork shoulder for 7 hours and then digging into a plateful of pulled pork... until now.
After reading a lot and talking to some friends Shannon and I decided to go pescatarian, basically cutting out all meat except fish. Given that I'm also lactose intolerant, and have been putting up with indigestion for years, I'm also going to work my way to dairy free. Soon, I hope that the only animal/animal products I'll be eating are fish, honey and occasionally eggs. I do plan on eating the occasional piece (yes, just one piece) of bacon just to keep me sane.
Now cutting out chicken, beef & pork isn't instantaneously going to make me a lean, mean, healthy machine, so we've also purchased a juicer and plan to have at least one meal be juice (or a smoothie) everyday, while filling the other meals with plenty of vegetables. Within the next month or so I plan on doing a 10 day juice fast, where the only thing I consume is juice (the only thing that scares me is no caffeine & no alcohol!)
I'm going to use this blog for a few things:
- Keep me accountable - I'll be weighing in every Sunday and Wednesday and the last thing I'd want to do is post a weight that is greater than the previous post.
- Share recipes - two of my passions are cooking and creating cocktails... well with juicing its kind of like making cocktails without the alcohol (and sometimes with!). So be looking for many vegan/veggie recipes, fish recipes and juice recipes.
- Talk about this crazy thing - look for reviews on food based documentaries, restaurants, and anything else that seems interesting to me regarding food/health..
- Give me something to do - considering that for the time being I'm a stay at home dad, much of my time is spent watching Jonas play - this will keep me from hogging all his toys.
I hope you'll enjoy reading about this journey - and if you decide you want to give it a try - let me know - Strength in numbers!
