Vegetarianism as a way to loose weight

I was inspired to write this after reading my friend Kathleen’s blog about the changes in her lifestyle she has made in the last year  and has lost about 45lbs. since May 2007… so really, there even hasn’t been a full year yet.

Part of her changes was not becoming vegetarian… she has been a vegetarian actually longer then me, for about 11 years now.  But she did made changes in how she looked at food and how she ate everyday and that alone made a difference.   Some of the things I noticed:

• She eats 3 full meals– breakfast, lunch and dinner, accompanied by healthy snacks throughout the day
• She eats healthy sweets – with fruits, whole grains and without any refined sugars
• She drinks mainly water and tea – no calorie-free sodas here!!!!
• She cooks her own meals – this way she’s completely sure what goes into her body, in terms of ingredients, quality, quantity, etc.
• She always eats fresh food – she cooks dinner daily and only eats leftovers less than 24 hours after being cooked originally.  This practice I believe helps retain food’s nutrition as much as possible.  Eating food that’s been cooked for over 24 hours is mostly roughage, with little energy there.

Similarly, when I decided to make changes in my diet to become healthier, not even vegetarian yet, I noticed I dropped a few pant sizes.  These were my changes:

• Eradicated sodas from my diet – now my friends know never to ask me for a soda when they come over
• Moved to an almost 100% whole grain diet – I started buying only brown rice, 100% whole wheat bread, whole grain pastas and cereals, etc.
• Avoided canned goods – if something I bought in can now comes in a glass jar or any other type of packaging I prefer it.  It’ll be recyclable and without the preservatives and sodium canned goods tend to have.
• If I did not understand at least 1 ingredient in the list of ingredients, I would not buy it.
• Stopped buying food with any artificial colorings – somehow, Red #40 doesn’t sound too appealing
• When I decided little by little to eat less animal products that’s when I saw the real changes – I slept better at night, I never felt overly full after I ate, I had more energy, I could indulge in a treat every so often and my weight is stable.

Now that the New Year started, maybe these experiences and small changes my friend Kathleen and I implemented might help you incorporate some of them into your lifestyle.  As you can see… from the cartoon above, vegetarians are not known for being overweight… so start small, start easy and little by little you’ll see how these small changes can have a big impact in the way you look and the way you feel. 

Just ask Kathleen…