My 30 Day Experiment of Being a Vegetarian

To Whom It May Concern:

Over two months ago I contemplated becoming a vegetarian after attending a book signing with Alicia Silverstone (Star of "Clueless) back in November 2009. It was during her Q & A at Book Soup that I began to legitimately question whether or not I could successfully become a vegetarian, albeit temporarily. When I started to mull over the possibility of undergoing this challenge I asked some of my closest friends what they would think IF I were to become a VEGETARIAN for a month or so. The responses were overwhelming and shocking to say the least and usually went along the lines of "There is no f*****g way you could do it." That motivated me even more that I wanted to undertake this challenge, thus I did it.

I am going to be honest, I love meat, especially red meat and poultry. Chicken is probably one of my favorite things to eat besides steak. In a typical day it is pretty common for me to eat only meat and very, very few fruits and vegetables. So doing this was going to be a big challenge. After testing the waters with my friends' responses I decided to go for it starting New Year's Day and began to prepare myself in December 2009. As soon as I got done with my last final on December 14th, I really went all out eating as many different types of meat as I could including having two filet mignons the day before New Year's Eve. Crawfish, shellfish, chicken, beef, steak, shrimp, sushi, etc. I pretty much ate it all. But on New Year's Eve I was ready to go when the clock struck 12:01 a.m.

Only my closest friends knew I was doing this before New Year's Eve, but on that day I publicly admitted online (here and on Facebook) what my New Year's Resolution was going to be. Once it became 2010, it was a whole new world for me. The day started off horrible for me as one of my friends accidentally woke me up at 8:30 a.m. when he decided to leave the couch and go home. It was bad enough I had gone to bed maybe four or five hours ago when I crashed at my friend's New Year's Party, but to be woken up on a loveseat with a hangover wasn't exactly how I imagined 2010 would start. As soon as I sobered up and got home my dad offered to make me bacon and I just felt sick to my stomach, but I am pretty sure it was the tequilla still in my system. Nauseated and tired I soon began to question whether or not becoming a vegetarian for the next 30 days would be a wise decision. As the ensuing days would prove, being a vegetarian is no easy task at all.

On the second day, my friend Kent and I decided to eat at Quizno's, which proved to be a huge challenge. As I learned that day, Quizno's no longer has the soup bread bowls and I was forced with literally two options, soup or salad- that's it (A few weeks later I discovered at another Quizno's located in Simi Valley that they do in fact have a vegetarian sandwhich). I decided to order a small side salad and bowl of soup since they had a special of 2 for $5. Completely forgetting to ask for no chicken or bacon on my salad I was pleased to spend an extra fifteen minutes picking through my salad to remove every single piece of chicken and bacon. For whatever reason, they decided to make them the tiniest pieces so that "customers could have chicken in every bite."

Kent soon commented, "Dude, I don't know how you're doing that. I would just give up and eat the whole thing rather than pick at it like you. I won't tell anyone if you do."

"Kent, if I am going to cheat and ruin this whole thing I am going all out. I will go to Wood Ranch, The Palm, Morton's Steakhouse or someplace like Saddle Ranch ordering a nice juicy steak or two. Not a stupid chicken salad with bacon at Quizno's. Besides I couldn't and will not cheat on this experience because that completely defeats this whole experience."

And I didn't. This entire time I stayed restrained and never really felt tempted until around day 17 or so. I wrote daily blogs of what I ate and sometimes gave some insight on my activities to stay motivated and keep with it.

In the beginning I was extremely frustrated with people thinking I was a vegan instead of a vegetarian. I will admit I have mocked both lifestyles and would confuse them on purpose just to piss off someone. In some cases... who am I kidding, in almost every case, I would call them hippies. God gave us the earth and the earth gave us animals. Animals give us meat, so therefore God gave us meat. So why question God? In addition to ridiculing and mocking these lifestyles I was always genuinely intrigued what would make someone give up meat and in some cases, anything and everything produced by animals. I remember one day when I was having dinner with my friends Amber and Casey at California Vegan and asked them when two overweight girls came in, "Hey I have a quick question, Casey. Why are there so many fat 'vegetarians' out there? Isn't that counterproductive?"

First off, both Amber and Casey laughed before replying. Casey answered, "What happens is that most people pig out on dairy products and carbohydrates to get full. They over consume and overindulge in dairy products, which are high in fat and don't do anything about it. In most cases, they are eating three or four times what they should be eating and actually eat less fruits and vegetables."

So when I decided to take this challenge, I seriously tried to avoid eating too much dairy products and eat a balanced meal as possible. Since I could not eat meat I used Muscle Milk and nuts to supplement my diet to get the protein I needed. It was during the last two weeks where that became a challenge avoiding dairy products with easy to make/accessible items like grilled cheese sandwiches, nachos, quesadillas, enchiladas, etc. In the beginning I lost a good amount of weight by eating "rabbit food," but that was countered with eating stuff like quesadillas and "midnight snacks."

The problem with converting to vegetarianism was most food that you can have doesn't really fill you up. This was a problem because I was naturally up all hours of the night going out and coming home. I actually found myself eating a lot more late at night when I didn't have a "full" dinner. Other than that I really didn't change my lifestyle too much besides not eating any meat. I cut out alcohol for the most part with the exception of one party and two "birthday" celebrations (Jan 22 and Jan 23), but even then it was nothing more than a couple of drinks. Over the past month I maybe have had a total of 10 drinks, not counting New Year's Day. I probably should have planned out my meals more and gone to the gym more regularly, but I wanted to keep it as balanced as possible. Every Friday or at least once a week I did do open gym volleyball, which was one of the few constants.

As the month long challenge came to and end, I got anxious when I could consume meat once again. Yesterday I even got some extra Chicken from Hawaii BBQ when I got my parents their dinner just so I could have something at 12:01a.m. this morning. It was bad, but I believe I totally deserved it. Despite having a guilty pleasure really early, I really enjoyed the whole vegetarian experience.

For the past couple of paragraphs I summed up some of the things I have experienced, but there are a few things I would like to discuss:

1) I had a lot more energy than I normally do from eating so many fruits and vegetables. On some days I was getting anywhere from 2 to 5 times the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. I was bursting with energy everyday.

2) There is a huge difference between vegetarianism, veganism and not eating red meat. So often people would ask me, are you eating any chicken or fish? No, that defeats the purpose of saying you are a vegetarian. You are just someone who doesn't eat red meat so stop lying!

3) Hello, I am a vegetarian. If you go out to eat, be honest that you have peculiar eating habits and don't surprise people with it. Back when I was a freshman in college this happened to me several times (when I dated four vegetarians and one vegan in a row) and is one of the reasons why I underwent this task. I vividly remember one date where I took a girl out to a Chinese restaurant and there was literally only two things she could eat. We had hung out before and she "allegedly" said something about being a vegetarian when she ordered a cheese quesadilla, but none of my friends or I remembered that when I asked about the situation. Still I experienced this a couple of times and a few of my friends accomadated me when they wanted to eat at "Meat Only" places, where nothing else was really available, and instead we went to "vegetarian friendly" places.

4) Most restaurants and fast food places DO NOT HAVE vegetarian/vegan friendly menus at all. Like Quizno's and the "Date from Vegetarian hell," I was forced to have limited options in most cases where I could literally only eat only three or four things on the entire menu. It's tough and now I have literally been in other people's shoes having ordered from the other side. So try and be considerate. It's not as easy as you think.

5) I tried a lot of new and interesting food. I ate tofu (twice!), eggplant, and a bunch of other interesting food that I came across when I visited various restaurants. Whole Foods and Fresh N Easy were two awesome places I NOW LIKE. The whole experience totally opened my eyes to try new foods that don't look and/sound appealing and to not be afraid to ask for food recommendations. The worst was a GREEN TEA FRAPPUCINO at Starbucks- NEVER, EVER GET THAT!!!!!!!!!!! So bad!

6) Trying old things in a new way made a difference and made it easier. Vegetarian pizza is like normal pizza, but without the meat and is perfect if you like pizza with everything. Get a cheese/vegetable quesadilla and it will be a LOT better than just a plain old cheese quesadilla especially at Baja Fresh.

7) ASK BEFORE ORDERING. A few times I ordered salads and was shocked, both in restaurants and in fast food, when meat was included on something you never thought of. In one case I ordered Caesar Salads from Wendy's to discover that it "comes with bacon" something THAT HAD NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE when I ordered them. I didn't realize that until I came home, but it taught me a valuable lesson to double check before confirming my order.

8) Don't be embarassed. I will admit I never felt shame or embarassed with some of the things I have eaten during these past 30 days. One of the days I had lunch with my friend Chelsea in Northridge and ordered a salad while she ordered a burger at Islands. In the past I have had that happen before with the server giving my salad to the girl and placing her burger in front of me (That has happened SIX TIMES BEFORE). That didn't happen this time, but I was prepared for the worst. Most of the time I felt proud ordering and sticking with my "new hippie lifestyle." It was pretty cool.

9) Why didn't anyone really tempt me? I was really disappointed most people buckled like a belt and didn't challenge me. The only exception was when I hung out with Christian and Jonathan one night and they tried to tempt me by offering to take me to Morton's for a free steak. They offered to buy me a steak if we went "right now," but I just waved them off saying if we went I WILL ORDER A SALAD so be my guest. They tried tempting me by making loaded sandwiches filled with meat and ate them around me while I just had salsa and chips. It didn't intimidate me at all, but I felt bad because it looked like they weren't enjoying their food due to the fact that it didn't bother me one bit.

10) It's better to plan your meals than winging it. You never know what could happen. Most of the time I actually bought my own groceries specifically for me, but sometimes when I felt lazy I made due with what was at home. I must say it was a LOT MORE EXPENSIVE eating healthy.

Overall it was a fun experience and I might do it again. It wasn't too bad at all and I think that was due to the fact I actually like salads to begin with, which made the transition a lot easier. I think I will now visit the grocery store more often and buy my own fruits and vegetables. Everyone should take a challenge seriously at least once in their lifetime to sacrifice something they really like for an extended period of time. That was another reason why I took this challenge just to prove that it can be done. Someone who consumes as much meat as I do and can successfully do it, then there should be no reason why you can't do your own challenge. One of my pet peeves is when people don't take things seriously when they "want to" or "should" in challenges and only do them "half ass." I am going to be the first to say I love to goof off all the time and in some cases, at really inappropriate situations, but I can pull it off naturally where it doesn't offend too many people and actually accomplish things as though I am a giant slacker. But when people make half-ass "Resolutions" or "Giving up things for Lent" then I am like, why did you even bother? Some of the best ones I heard was:

"I am giving up chocolate"- You're a diabetic.
"I am giving up reading"- You don't even own a book.

There are so many others, but they are too inappropriate to actually post. You get the idea anyhow. They were all lame ass excuses to begin with and were not taken seriously. Again you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it. It's all mind over body. Just have faith and believe in yourself. Anything is possible if you just put your mind to it.

Feel free to ask me questions. I will gladly answer them all.

Sincerely,
John