Junk Food Vegetarian

So recently I met another Mom who told me she was a vegetarian. SWEET!  And then when I told her we were semi- vegetarians, she was NOT impressed.

Eh- I get it.

She doesn't really know what my family is doing and how we have been eating.  She's not at our dinner table and doesn't see our fridge and pantry.  So I completely understand that she might be confused about this "semi vegetarian" business.  I got it but I still felt like she was silently standing in judgement.  Bummer....

But then we talked a bit more about what we eat and she mentioned Cheetos and Boca Burgers and I talked about Lentils and Kale Chips.

Hmmm......

So here's the thing- when we make the choice to stop eating meat, we need to be even more vigilant with our bodies to make sure we are getting the proper nutrition.  In my opinion, junk food- while lots of it is vegetarian, is NOT healthy.  You might as well just eat the darn cheeseburger mmkay....which is a lesson that I personally learned a long time ago.  Being a vegetarian does NOT mean you'll be healthy. 

You see, years ago when I was in college, I gave up meat completely for about a year.  But the problem was that I didn't replace it with healthy proteins and vitamins.  I just didn't.  Instead, I ate my weight in chips, drank SoBee's like they were going out of style and hadn't touched anything green all year unless it was incognito under a layer of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.

Not good.

Simple rule to follow!

In my defense, I was in college.  And I lived on campus, which meant I didn't have full access to all the foods my body needed.  Goodness but why did I ever choose this time in my life to become a vegetarian I will never understand!  But that's just how I roll....however, even with all this unhealthy yet vegetarian food, I still managed to loose about 15 pounds.  In a time when everyone was gaining the "Freshman 15", I was losing it.

At no point during this time was I healthy.

I may have lost some weight but my body felt GROSS.  I was always tired, my skin was a greasy mess, my hair was blah, I constantly felt bloated and I was seriously addicted to salt and sugar.  While I did eventually start adding meat back in to my diet, my body still felt yucky and all sorts of messed up.  I knew I wasn't healthy and I'm pretty sure if they were to cut me open at that moment, I would smell like french fries and cheese.

Eww....

It wasn't until I had the kiddo and started him on solid foods that I had a wake up call.  I was the MEAN MOMMY who was extremely vigilant with what my baby was eating.  Not only did I follow the doctors recommendations of no peanut butter, no honey, no popcorn etc, but I also didn't allow my child to eat chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and sweets.  For years, I packed his food whenever we went out to eat- no joke, my child would eat a jelly sandwich and fruit while the husband and I sat in the Jack in the Box and ate double cheeseburgers and extra large fries.

Say what?!?

In fact, just the other day- my Facebook memories reminded me of the very first time the kiddo ate a cheeseburger.  He was 5.  And it was made with organic, grass fed, local ground beef and cooked at home on the backyard BBQ.  Five years old you guys.  Five.  Let's just think on that one a moment....

Clearly my subconscious knew what to do for my child but why wasn't I making the changes for the husband and myself?  Gah!  I just don't know.  Stubbornness maybe?  Making changes in your diet is HARD and it just seemed like too much work.  And then the kiddo started wanting to eat the same foods that Mommy and Daddy were eating and I knew we had no more options left.  Our entire family needed to eat HEALTHIER foods and thus began our food journey.

I knew that I wanted to reduce our meat consumption but I also knew that I couldn't afford to feed my family organic meats.  So I made the choice to move us to a vegetarian diet during the week.  I learned a valuable lesson during my college years and that was that I didn't want to be a junk food vegetarian- I wanted to be a healthy vegetarian.

So what exactly does this mean?

Fruits.  Vegetables.  Grains.  Legumes.  Oh My!

When I started my family on this journey, my idea of cooking vegetables was poking a few holes in the baggie of frozen veg and sticking it in the microwave for a few minutes.  I only ever bought fruit for the kiddo and had NO idea what kinds of fruits the husband actually liked to eat.  And you guys- I had never cooked any grains and legumes other than Rosarita refried beans and white rice.  Clearly I was going to have to learn to cook completely different and I was going to have to get rid of the junk in my house.  Big changes, but I was determined to get my family on the path towards health and I knew eating less meat was the way to do it.

In all honesty, we struggled a bit.  I used a few crutches like Morningstar Farms "ckicken nuggets" and processed fake meat products until I learned to make these things myself.  But in the years since we began our food journey, I have learned some VERY valuable lessons.

#1- Homemade is where it's at!  It is unbelievably easy to whip up a batch of Black Bean Burgers and much cheaper than buying a processed version at the store.  And because you are making them yourself at home, these burgers are legit- GOOD FOR YOU.  Like, you can eat burgers and they are HEALTHY FOR YOUR BODY.  Now this is just crazy!

#2- If you don't buy it, they won't eat it.  Probably the easiest thing when making changes in your diet is to simply stop buying the junk.  There's whole isles of the grocery store that I no longer go down!  See ya soda, chips and packaged cookies. Adios deli and meat counter.  Buh-bye!

#3- Put as many fruits and vegetables on your plate as you possibly can.  My goal when making a meal now is how many healthy foods can I cram into this dish or on this plate.  Seriously.  I put carrots in everything, love to add a big handful of spinach to a dish or pile in the bell peppers.  When in doubt, just serve a meal with a big salad or a bowl full of fresh fruit.

#4- Learn to convert your family's favorite foods to a healthy vegetarian meal.  Changing the way you cook is a big deal but learning to turn your family's unhealthy favorites into a healthier, vegetarian meal- PRICELESS!!  Your people will actually eat foods they somewhat recognize and it's actually much easier than you think.  Substitute the meat for things like beans, lentils or quinoa or simply leave it out and add in more veggies.

#5- Have a backup plan.  Always Mama's- trust me on this one!  Sometimes a meal doesn't turn out the way you would have hoped or perhaps you're running late getting dinner started or simply don't want to cook AGAIN.  I get it.  So have a backup plan in place for these nights.  Keep some homemade frozen vegetarian meals on hand (ones that you've made, NOT store bought) or even have a couple "cheats" in your freezer or pantry. I recently discovered Hilary's vegetarian burgers and I can't say enough good things about them!  Serve with a side of fresh fruit or veg and you're good to go!

#6- Master a 20 minute dish.  Every single Mama should have a 20 minute meal up her sleeve regardless of your choice to eat a meat free diet.  Mine is Broccoli Garlic Pasta-  it's a complete meal and done in under 20 minutes.  And bonus- there's very minimal clean up required.  Love that!


Alright- so I hope this little story has helped you as well as the six tips above.  There's a good way to be vegetarian and a not so good way.  For me, this is a lesson that I seem to keep coming back to time and time again.  Being a vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean you'll be healthy.  You have to work at giving your body the proper nutrients that it needs and when you eliminate one food (like meat) this means you need to take extra care to maintain your health.

And regarding this Mama at the very beginning of this post- well.....I personally felt a bit judged when I told her we weren't full on vegetarians.  I'm assuming this wasn't her intent as she's really a very nice woman, but the feeling was there nonetheless.  I can only hope that I don't do this to others when I talk about our diet.  I would never want to make anyone feel judged or guilty- I simply want to share our story and offer hope for a healthier life.

The truth is that my family is very healthy.  We eat a plant based vegetarian diet (no junk food here!) at least five days per week and several of those days, we are eating vegan meals.  No animal products at all.  But you guys- we also really LOVE cheeseburgers.  This is the choice that is right for my family at this point in our lives.  And I'm not going to apologize for it and made to feel bad or guilty.

This is my message to you all and what I hope you'll take away from this blog post.

Please make the right healthy choices for your family.   The key word here being- healthy.