Vegetarian / pescetarian

I've been 99.9% meat free since Christmas Day and it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. My intention was to be vegetarian but I have found, so far, that I am more comfortable being pescetarian. For me this means I have fresh fish perhaps once a week and have tuna in my lunch once or twice a week. I'm happy to continue like this for now but am sure I will phase out the fish in the future. It's also my intention to cut out dairy and cut back on other fats and oils (as per Dr Esselstyn's book.

So what does this change in eating mean for my meals generally? Well, breakfast is either home-made muesli (yum) with rice or soy milk and yoghurt or Vogel's toast with Vegemite. Most of the time I have freshly made juice - the favourite mix currently is carrot, apple, beetroot, pineapple and spinach - delicious! At some stage I will revert back to porridge - probably once the weather gets cooler again.

Lunch during the week is most often a salad or a wrap but is sometimes leftovers (my favourite would have to be leftovers!). Lunch on the weekend varies considerably depending on what I am doing. Today I had a mushroom, spring onion and spinach omelette (with fresh eggs from my chooks).

I guess dinners are the more interesting area these days (for me anyway). I have tried a recipe out of Esselstyn's book called Kitchari - it's a sort of soupy / casserole sort of thing with rice, yellow split peas, chilli, veges, fresh coriander and cumin seeds. I'm not convinced they are all the ingredients but I've lent the book to a friend and can't double-check. The other night I sort of felt like tacos but when it came down to it I cooked all the things I would have had with the tacos and just ate the fillings - so I had brown rice, lettuce, sweetcorn, mushrooms, zucchinis and spring onions - so tacoless tacos. Yum! Vege curries are fairly high on the agenda as are stir fries - all simple to prepare without meat.

I have to admit I feel a little better and more energetic at the moment but I can't be sure that is entirely due to my change in diet.

The other recent change is an increase in exercise. With my finger slowly healing I knew it was time to get back into more activity to regain my fitness and strength. I rejoined the gym so am back to spin classes twice a week and at least one Thai Fit class. On top of that I went for a run the other day - first one for about three months. And on weekends inevitably there is at least one walk up a hill if not more. Next weekend I am off for my first tramping trip since my accident in November and I can't wait! It is also my first trip with the tramping club that I joined late last year so will be interesting to meet some new people.

Life continues to be good - now, if my house would sell it would be even better!