March is Marching out. You better believe that I'm making a nice French press coffee with cream as soon as I wake my ass up in the morning. Hello APRIL!!!! I am planning on ringing you in as caffeinated as possible. Just because I can.
Honestly, I'm going to just go ahead and give myself big ups for March. 31 days caffeine free. The withdrawal was horrible, but since then, it's been a breeze. I realize that I can manage just fine. Decaf tea and coffee exist, decaf soda exists if i have to have it. I like water. Seems totally manageable. But I don't have to, so I don't plan to. :)
Biggest lightbulb of the Challenge: I have noticed that there are many places one goes to eat where there are no uncaffeinated options, besides Sprite. And outside of cola, I am not a fan of soda. I don't like Sprite, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper, Crush, etc. I drink a nice Coke Zero or Pepsi Max when I'm craving it, but otherwise, I stay away. I don't drink juice or lemonade usually either. I couldn't have tea or sweet tea most places because it was made from black tea. So, most of the time it was me and water. And not that I mind water, I drink a lot of it, in fact. But I found it quite interesting that soda and caffeinated drinks were it in restaurants most of the time. DULY NOTED.
There really isn't much else to it. But, in an attempt to not go straight to caffeine overhaul again, I think when I do hit one of those spots, I'll be starting with half-caf drinks.
So, March Challenge Grade: A
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So, now it's on to April. I'm cringing just at the writing of this, but my April Challenge:
I'm goingVEGETARIAN
In preparation I ate meat with every meal today. I even opted out of a non-meat sandwich that I really wanted because I knew that would be on the menu multiple times in the next month. It was not as good or satisfying as my usual meat-less sandwich from this particular place. I was just afraid that I'd be craving the pastrami in 3 days and be sorry I didn't have it when I could.
Mistake #1.
I don't know why going vegetarian sounds so insurmountable to me - the precise reason I chose it. I grew up with a pescatarian father and a no-red-meat mother. I ate lots of vegetarian meals, usually only indulging on seafood or poultry. But I love a juicy steak, a thick burger, and pig. Pig is probably going to be the hardest thing for me - hot links, bacon, pulled pork. AGH!!!
I'm very curious to see what impact it has on my energy, my weight, my bowels, my mood. Meat, for the most part, isn't a better protein for my body than peanut butter, tofu, eggs or cheese. In fact, in many forms, meat is wayWAYway worse. And I really like cheese, eggs, tofu and peanut butter. I'm actually excited in some ways for April because I know this will be hard for me and a true test of my will. And also because I know that it will force me to be creative about meals and to eat intentionally, much like in January when I cut out carbs. I was much more in tune with my intake that month and that was buch better for me.
So, I'm going to start researching yummy vegetarian meals. I've already asked the Finance Director at work for some since he is a vegetarian. I've requested homemade peanut butter from my ex. And I've warned the kids. I know they won't likely give up meat totally, but they don't do much of the cooking, so unless they plan to cook meats to add to the meals, they will be going vegetarian for 30 days too.
I'm guessing our household will be eating meals from other cultures quite often in April as many of the other countries eat significantly more creative and tasty vegetarian meals. CousCous, hummus, falafel, curry. I even saw a recipe for vegetarian paella - I might make that just for the challenge of it because I love paella and most of what I love about it is the mounds and mounds of meats.
One of the recipes I need to dig out quickly - or get again - is my mom's tofu burgers. That is one of my favorite meals of all time, whether I'm eating meat or not. She cut tofu into square steaks about an inch thick and marinated them in a 5-mushroom marinade, if I'm correct. Grilled on a whole wheat bun with all the fixins you'd slap on a beef burger? AMAZING.
Blog-readers - please feel free to email me great recipes, post them in the comments here, send me links.
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