Easy Freezy Four + Pescetarianism

Tuesday morning I finally did something I've been trying to do for WEEKS.  I got up before work to do yoga.  :)  I figured after the insane speed session that was Monday, my body could use some extra stretching.  Since I now have cable (3 cheers, hip hip hooray!), I had dvr'd a couple of yoga episodes off of FitTV.  I did one that used to be my favorite, but realized I didn't really enjoy it as much as the Chaz Michael's podcasts I had been doing when on my yoga kick in August/September.  I'm sure it's just because it has to fit on a certain time schedule to fit as a tv show, but it just felt rushed.  I felt like I wasn't really getting that good deep intense stretch that I was looking for.  

Tuesday after work I had an easy 4 miles to do.  It.  Was.  COLD!  Like 45 degrees with 17 mph winds, making the wind chill 37.  Um, what?  That's horrible.  I busted out my ninja shirt (Yes, my UA long sleeve will henceforth be referred to as ninja shirt, due to its likeness) (and yes, that means it was dirty and being worn twice in a 3 day span, whatever, that's how I roll) some old school running pants, a hoody, and these sweet new gloves.  :)  My college bestie, Megan, is going back to Cambodia to continue saving the world (that's what I tell everyone her job is when they ask what she's DOING on all her crazy adventures) so she gave me some of her old running stuff to utilize.  I'm kind of in love with the gloves.  They even have a sweet little pocket for your housekey, which is cleverly marked WITH A HOUSEKEY SYMBOL.  Preciousness I tell you.

The first two miles of the run were swell, and I was actually hot.  As soon as I turned around to make the trek home, I realized that those 17 mph winds were at my back the first half.  Oh lordy, I was one frozey girl by the time I got home.  I did 4 miles in 38:16 for a pace of 9:34.

1.  9:30

2.  9:33

3.  9:36

4.  9:36

_____________________

Food news

In other interesting/exciting news, I've decided to become a pescetarian.  Since I'm sure most of you, like me, are also obsessed with many food blogs along with the gazillions of running blogs that you daily read, you probably already know what that means.  But if you don't, that's cool too.  I don't think I had heard of it a year ago.  

pes·ce·tar·i·an \ˌpe-skə-ˈter-ē-ən\ Pescetarian, also called pesco-vegetarianism, is the practice of a diet that includes seafood and excludes mammals and birds. In addition to fish or shellfish, a pescetarian diet typically includes some or all of vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs, and dairy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary dates the origin of the term "pescetarian" to 1993 and defines it to mean: "one whose diet includes fish but no meat."^[1]

[taken from Wikipedia]

This isn't something that I've decided to do over night, but since I haven't really talked about food much in this blog (except how much I like to eat it) it very well may seem that way.  Growing up I HATED meat.  I asked my parents time and time again if I could be a vegetarian.  We're talking early grade school days here.  My parents said that I could once I was done growing, and would have to continue to eat meat until then.  I was super involved in sports, and my dad was concerned that without meat I wouldn't get enough protein and would get sick/hurt/etc.  I remember hiding McDonald's burgers down the front seat pocket in the car because they would make me gag.  For years, I would take my meals up to my room to eat, and then feed the meat or whatever I didn't eat to the dog when my family wasn't paying attention.  I don't think this was disordered eating, I was just EXTREMELY picky, and could not handle eating something that didn't sound good.  For most of my at home meals, I would eat cereal, frozen pizza, and ice cream.  Hah, how I managed to be an athlete on that diet is beyond me.  Yikes!

My boyfriend in high school and most of college was a HUGE meat eater.  His mom would always have to make me a special meal whenever I ate over for dinner, which I felt was a huge inconvenience, but also super sweet of her.  When my ex made me a hamburger on the grill for the first time at the age of 20 I was IN LOVE.  It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.  So my sophomore year of college I went CRAZY with meat (and mostly the crappy stuff--fast food, college commons low grade meat [shudders]).  For some reason I felt like I was trying to make up for all the years without meat, especially with burgers.  Nom nom.

I continued to enjoy meat, but still eat less of it than the average person.  I'd say the years spent post college (almost 4 now, whoa!) I'd eat meat for maybe 3 meals a week, and that would primarily be grilled chicken and the occasional hamburger.  However, I would only eat the meat if it was prepared on the grill.  Otherwise it would taste disgusting.  Also, if someone other than Taylor made it for me, I probably wouldn't eat it.  He would be extra EXTRA careful to make sure that there wasn't a spot of pink on any of the meat he made for him.  Very sweet.

Last fall, I read Skinny Bitch and had my eyes opened about a lot of things, especially about the mistreatment of animals in slaughterhouses, etc., information about dairy consumption and why so many of us have issues digesting it (very interesting for those lactose intolerants!), and information about processed foods.  While I think the book is fairly extreme, it did have some valid and strong points.  After reading this book, I committed to trying to eat a cleaner diet.  I finally started paying attention to what was actually IN my food (looking for short ingredient lists), cooking my meals so I knew exactly what was going in them vs. going out to eat, and eating a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables.  

I also stopped eating the meat that I didn't like.  For a good 2 years, I would eat whatever Taylor's mom cooked for our Sunday dinners because I didn't want to offend her.  Finally, I just stopped and would eat more of the other components of the meal and skip the meat if it wasn't something I enjoyed, or if it wasn't charred enough for my liking.  :)

So for the last 9 months, I've been eating a lot healthier, and shockingly enough, have slimmed down considerably.  Granted the miles I put in each week definitely help, but after cutting out a lot of the CRAP (ie:  mostly processed stuff, fast food, crap) I've found that my body looks and feels better, and ultimately performs better at my sport of choice:  running.  

Which brings me back to the meat topic.  Up until recently, I have only been eating meat maybe 1-2 a week.  Mainly only grilled chicken that we would use in wraps or fajitas.  When Taylor and I broke up (um..ya, if you haven't figured that out yet, that happened.  sorry for the not-so-prompt revelation) I realized that I was only including meat in our meal plans because I knew he loved it.  Since I no longer had to prepare meals for him, I wouldn't have to include it anymore.  Also, since eating a much cleaner diet, my tastebuds seem to be much more keen, and 99% of the time when I would eat meat, I would distinctly taste blood, no matter how well done it was.  Talk about an appetite wrecker!

So about two weeks ago, I decided that I would give up meat at the end of September.  I would continue to eat fish, as I do not get the gross bloody taste when I eat fish, and I actually ENJOY eating it.  But still eat it as frequently as I had been eating meat in the past 1-2 per week.  On September 30th, I brought the last food item I had with meat in it to work for lunch--chicken noodle soup.  I refuse to throw out good food, so I was determined to eat what little I had before "the day."  I took one bite of the chicken, and was so grossed out by the taste that I ended up picking out and throwing away the rest of the chicken bits.  For dinner, I racked my brain to think of the ONE restaurant meal that I would truly miss, so I could have it one last time before October 1st.  You know what?  There wasn't one meal I could think of.  I guess that kind of validated my decision huh?

Kind of interesting, after the fact, I learned that October 1st is actually National Vegetarian Day.  Granted, I'm not a complete veg-head, but it does seem a bit clique now to have used that date.  ;)  HA!  Last night was the first grocery shopping trip I've done since I "went off the meat" (I really like to think of as many random ways to refer to this as, hope you're all cool with that!) and found that there wasn't anything I was bummed about not getting.  Ok, one small exception.  Every once in a while Taylor and I would splurge and get a Digiorno pepperoni pizza, and they're probably my favorite pizza ever.  So I was bummed for about 2 1/2 seconds, until I realized I could get cheese pizza and pile it up with a ton of veggies and have it be a thousand times tastier.  

Ok, hope you stuck with me through all of that.  If not, that's cool too, as I know this isn't a food blog, and I've never claimed to be a healthy eater or anything like that.  Feel free to share your thoughts/suggestions/etc. as I embark on this new journey.  :)