Week 1: Prepping!

The greatest store on earth (besides Costco)...

 

Well, I officially made it though day 1 of my pescatarian mission!  The main events of my preparation have included a massive trip to Winco (pictured above) to stock up on lots of produce and essentials for my no-meat meals as well as making my boyfriend eat all of the remaining meats still in the house. He is eventually going to join me on cutting out meat, but he has a couple of chicken taquitos and pepperoni pizzas in the freezer to finish up first.  In the past, I have struggled with low iron levels, so I want to make sure I am still getting a good amount of protein as I eliminate traditional proteins from my diet.  Black beans, eggs, and beans/lentils are what I am starting to incorporate, but I would love any suggestions if you guys know of any good alternative protein sources. 
 
Honestly, I am not 100% sure where I land on the self vs. society continuum in this situation, but I do know that I have been leaning a lot on societal resources like Pinterest and Instagram for ideas and inspiration already.  Although, I do have some recipes up my sleeve as my sister has been vegetarian since I was a kid and I've watched her make her own versions of lots of dishes along the way, like some crazy vegetarian meatballs that might just fool some of you! With all this in mind I would say that I am somewhere in the middle of the continuum, perhaps leaning towards the socially-defined side.
 
As for calculative versus meditative thinking, I think this journey entails both equally.  Calculative thinking is required to plan meals, seek out new recipes, and survive the cooking process, whereas meditative thinking side comes out when we get to enjoy meals and feel pride and joy about the experience.  

My Pinterest board is chock full of ideas and I am excited to really get going and commit to this!
 

Comments

  1. Devin MeldrumSeptember 7, 2021 at 5:14 PM

    Hey Libby!

    It's great to read about you starting your journey with your new diet. My wife and I tried a vegan diet a couple of years back (for about 5 months or so), and we always talk about trying something like that again. I think pescartarian would be a better fit for me as vegan was rather difficult (we ended up ordering a cheese pizza almost every other week). As someone who doesn't eat a lot of seafood, I'm curious why you chose pescatarian over other diets. Are you a regular fisher, or was there some research you found when you were considering changing your diet that inspired you, or is there a favorite seafood you just couldn't go without?

    Greek yogurt is one protein that my wife and I try to include in a lot of our meals (Fage is our favorite brand by far). We use it instead of sour cream or if a recipe calls for cream or milk we will do half greek yogurt. One of our favorites is white chili. We make it regularly every fall and winter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Libby DeySeptember 7, 2021 at 7:20 PM

      Devin,

      I definitely need to incorporate more greek yogurt into my diet, thanks for the recommendation! Plus, it's super beneficial for gut health! I have always been a huge fan of any kind of seafood so I wanted to keep that as an option, not only as a protein source, but also just so I could have more options to eat without meat now. It feels less dramatic to cut out meat when I can still have shrimp tacos and salmon.

      P.S. That white chili sounds amazing-- I am so excited for soup season!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 12: Fats & The Future

     I have learned a lot about my body this semester through my new occupation, mainly that my digestive system is a lot happier without meat.  This makes sense since I don't have a gallbladder holding bile to break down fats and most meats are fairly fatty or fried and super greasy.  With all this information, I have decided to continue my pescatarian lifestyle moving forward.  I will obviously have occasional cravings and will definitely not ever deny myself any meat that sounds good on a certain day, but I really think that this a good and easy choice to keep my health balanced, especially through grad school.  For example, I ate a little ham on Thanksgiving (sorry, but we aren't a turkey family) because I had been craving it and it wasn't too much for my system to handle.        It has been a while since we read it, but I was reminded this week how much I learned from Hasselkus' text.  Specifically, the space vs. place chapter taught me a lot about the creation and
Read more

Week 10: Nachos & Nibbles

Image
      Well the weeks are flying by which makes this new occupation of cutting out meat feel more like my identity the more I continue.  I had done really well sticking to my goal, and I truly have seen an improvement in my health; I used to have horrible vomiting episodes when I ate something too heavy or not right, but I haven't had any big flare ups in a while and it feels good.  I did have a small indulgence when my boyfriend and I made the nachos pictured above this week. He made steak to go on top of his half (which looks a lot better than the beans on my half) and it looked so good I had to try a bite. It was a delicious reminder that small treats or deviations don't have to derail an entire journey.     The 2008 article by Deci & Ryan was a great dive into motivation and I felt a lot of draw to my personal adoption of a new occupation.  I feel as though I have held autonomous motivation throughout my experience-- I have allowed myself to make mistakes and grow from t
Read more

Week 2: Getting into the groove

Image
  This week turned out to be a good one! There were no accidental slip-ups or half-eaten chicken salads and I’ve started expanding my usual cooking expertise.   Included in this post is a super unappealing picture of the vegetable quiche I made this weekend, and I promise it was better than it looks since I ate 75% of it before I took a picture—whoops!   Although, it was a bit of a cheat since it was a crustless quiche, but I know my limits at making pie crusts.   I am definitely feeling more on track and encouraged now that we are starting to get a couple weeks in to forming a new routine.   The one obstacle I faced this week was when Hailey and I ventured to the fair on Saturday night and we realized how tough it would be to not eat meat at the fair, but luckily carbs and cheese held me over (as usual).     From page 22 of our Hassekkus (2011) text, Yerxa’s expanded definition of occupation seemed to fit my chosen occupation of a new type of diet/health lifesty
Read more