My Experiment

Oops. I wrote this post a few days ago and just realized that I never hit "publish...." (I'm no longer 3 pounds down....but am hoping to be down again soon...)

I was debating whether or not I'd blog about my current experiment, but the initial indications are that it is having positive results...so....I decided to blog it.


As you know, I'm a vegetarian.


As you also know, I've inexplicably gained at least 20 pounds over the last year (the exact number sort of depends upon when, exactly I started keeping track).


And finally, you might notice that I'm reading Jillian Michael's book, Mastering Your Metabolism because it's rather upsetting to not be able to fit into a bunch of my clothes when I haven't really changed anything about my diet. Ms. Michael's book has really inspired me to try something new. Her theory (or one of them, anyway) is that one should not delete any macronutrient from one's diet. We should eat in moderation, of course, and she's a HUGE believer in only purchasing organic food (which is grist for the mill, as far as I'm concerned since I've always been a big ol' fan of organics), but she points out that if we completely cut out carbs, or fat, or veggies (heaven forbid!) or even meat, then we screw around with our hormones - which, in turn can easily cause us to pack on the pounds.


She also lists many other symptoms of hormone imbalance which sounded suspiciously familiar to me (failure to sleep well being one of the most obvious ones). So....I felt "called" to put meat back into my diet temporarily for two weeks. I'm not really eating very many ounces of it each day (it doesn't take much for my stomach to go...."whoa, dude! I'm majorly full here!!") - but I have to say that the differences I've noticed are stunning.


For one thing, on the days when I try my best not to go more than 4 hours without eating a little something (kind of hard for me to do because if I did all my meals that way, I'd eat them all by myself at work - which is quite depressing...) and I'm eating a little meat, I am not hungry AND my energy level is much better. The "not hungry" thing really blew me away. I didn't realize that I was constantly a little bit hungry and dizzy all the time until the last few days....when I noticed their absence. I still believe there's a "right" way to do vegetarianism and I probably wasn't doing it in the best way. Plus....as my mom pointed out...I'm hypoglycemic. So maybe my body just struggles more with it. Who knows?


Here's the really amazing thing, however...I have no idea if this is a fluke but I don't think it is because I've been stuck at my weight forEVER...I decided to get on the scale today, and I have lost 3 POUNDS since starting to eat meat on Sunday.


I hate to admit it....but this theory of making sure I get all my macronutrients might just be what I need. We'll see....I'm still trying to be pretty scientific about it and withhold judgment. But I have to say that I feel much better, over all.