I started this blog a little over two years ago, with a goal in mind: work through my skin and digestive issues, and share the journey, hoping to reach those those who are looking for solutions and answers. Well, after two and a half years, I don’t know if I have figured out the whole problem yet, but I have found some of the triggers that make things worse. Something is better than nothing, right?
About a month ago, I thought I would try another somewhat drastic change in my diet to see if it would make a difference – I have switched to a (mostly) pescatarian diet. I learned a lot about myself in this month+ so far. First – it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. To my surprise, I haven’t had cravings for meat at all! (Aside from one meal in the first week. It wasn’t so much a craving, I didn’t *want* chicken in the meal, but I just expected it to be there – it was a really weird experience actually.) Second – my energy levels have been through the roof when it comes to running, again much to my surprise. But most importantly – this change has made maybe slight improvements in my digestive issues. I still struggle with urgent trips to the bathroom, or extended visits in the bathroom. Maybe they haven’t been as frequent, but there were still days that my plans were disrupted because I was stuck at home.
I will say that the reason I decided to still eat fish and seafood was because I knew it would be easier to eat out. While there are plenty of restaurants that are dedicated to vegetarian diets, and while many of my friends are open to trying new things, I knew there would be times that I would have to go to restaurants that weren’t necessarily friendly to my diet choice. The hardest thing I dealt with was at restaurants that don’t have vegetarian menus/dishes, when you remove meat from a dish, you are left with a really small portion. Seeing as I can’t do pasta at a restaurant, my choices were extremely limited, so I kept fish and seafood as options.
Most important take away – if you want to try switching to a vegetarian/pescatarian/vegan diet – PLAN. You cannot just wing it. You have to make sure you are getting the right amounts of protein and vitamins and all that good stuff. Technically, a diet of orange soda and Oreos would fit a vegetarian diet – but you’ll end up sick. Make sure you do some research and plan out your meals to be sure you’re getting enough to eat.
So will I switch to pescatarian diet fully? Probably not. I’ve had meat twice in the past month+ that I’ve made the switch because I wanted to. I believe you should listen to your body, and if you want to eat meat, eat it. And if my mom invites me over for Sunday dinner of pot roast, you can bet I will eat it. But I will say, that I will probably mostly do vegetarian dishes. I can’t beat the way I feel when I’m running. I am truly amazed at my energy levels – it reminds me of how I felt when I was doing Whole 30, but better. I don’t drag when running in the mornings (because I can still have simple carbs to get started) and I feel great running in the afternoon. Not to mention – meat is expensive! My grocery bills have been lower, and I definitely can’t complain about that!
You can expect to see some of my favorite vegetarian dishes I’ve been making showing up here and on Instagram! Come follow along @journeytolovingme!
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