Reading the title, you are probably thinking ‘what does that even mean?’ Most of the time when someone says they are vegetarian or vegan you imagine them sleeping on a bed a lettuce and eating avocado toast everyday but of course it is more complex then that. There is an unhealthy side to vegetarianism and no it has nothing to do with protein deficiency.
I often reflex over my long, now 8 year journey of being a vegetarian and I can’t help but laugh at some of the ups and downs I have faced. I jumped head first into vegetarianism and though I did I little research before hand, I still had no idea what I was doing. Naturally, I made a lot of mistakes a long the way. So if the unhealthy vegetarian world needed a poster child, I am free on Tuesdays. I felt inspired this morning to write a blog post going over this topic in hopes that it helps someone while they piece together their vegetarian journey or maybe just their journey with gaining a better relationship with food, vegetarian or not.
Full Disclosure: Never forget that life is short and everything I mention are things to CAN do just things you should not do on a regular basis. Eat the cook but also have a salad 🙂
Carb Overload
When I first became a vegetarian I was hungry ALL THE TIME! It felt like no matter what I ate it was not enough and I basically replaced meat with carbs. It was bad you guys, I would eat potato sandwiches (insert shameful faced emoji). As a result, I gained almost 100 lbs in a little under a year. Carbohydrates are not bad, despite what diets try to tell you. In fact, in high school, before our ROTC Physical Training competitions they would tell us to eat a high carb dinner the night before because you body needs the glucose you get from carbs for energy. Just don’t over do it and if you find yourself hungry all the time, load up on protein instead!
Not Actually Eating Vegetables
I am not 100% guilty of this one because I am always loved my vegetables but as crazy as this one sounds I have met vegetarians who don’t eat many vegetables. These vegetarians are the ‘As long as there is no meat it’s vegetarian’ kind of people. Which….yeah, they technically are not wrong, however, it’s not the healthiest way to go about things. If you scan over your week and you had pizza, fries, pizza again, fries, veggie burger with fries and the left over pizza from night one. You might want to reevaluate your eating habits a bit. I will admit, I am a sucker for pizza, so I have to watch myself on that one. Vegetables are amazing, eat them!!!
Veggie Chicken,Veggie Burgers, Veggie Turkey, Veggie Ham……ect…
Yesterday I wrote a blog post talking about my favorite meat alternative brands click here to check it out! In the post I mentioned that though these products are amazing, they are processed foods and I would not recommend making them the primary source of your diet. They are healthier and you could be eating a lot worse but some of these products are high in sodium and you really want to be mindful of how much you eat. It’s easy to pick up a pack of veggie burgers but you can also pick up chickpeas or black beans and make a homemade veggie burger at home. Not processed, not full of salt and other artificial fillers and even healthier. With that being said, I still love meat alternative products, I still eat them, I get excited when something new comes out. It’s all about balance.
Really Only Eating Leaves
Lastly, I want to talk about not eating enough. I am guilty of overthinking about what I should be eating as a vegetarian. I have had more moments than I would like to admit, were I was eating pretty much nothing and starving my body. Not eating or not eating enough is just as bad, if not worse than over eating or eating the wrong things. Don’t eat lettuce, cucumber salads every day all day because you body will break down at some point. The world jokes about vegetarians eating only leaves but of course it is not true. Explore food, there are so many options out there and I encourage you to try them all!
At the end of the day it is all about balance! Finding the right balance for you is hard. I am still trying to find my balance and I have been in this for years now. But every year brings growth and new understanding of myself, my relationship with food and my balance. If you read this post and you realized that you have been guilty or some of these or all of these, it’s okay! There is no time like the present and never too late to make a change!
Do you have any unhealthy eating habits you want to share? Or any healthy practices you would like to share? Let’s get the conversation going, comment below with your thoughts!
Happy eating foodies!
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