My Challenges as a Vegetarian

Having been a pescatarian for over three years now, I have noticed that despite feeling generally healthy, it is hard to stick to a balanced diet that would include all of the food groups that should be represented in a healthy diet. When I was working full time in Vancouver, I tended to be quite healthy during the week, however, my weekend diet was awful, consisting mainly of coffee and pastries. Now that I have a less demanding agenda and more time to focus on my health and body, I have decided to challenge myself to a healthy vegetarian diet that consists of less carbohydrates but more fibre and proteins.

Originating from Estonia, I was not brought up as a vegetarian. In fact, I used to love meet as a child and as a teen ager because it was quite normal in my home country to eat some variety of animal products with almost every meal. Even in my early 20s, it did not occur to me to analyse my diet or even less to change it. Apart from two rapid weight gains and losses that occurred due to living abroad for extended periods of time and failing to adjust to the local diet, I was a healthy looking and fairly slim young woman.

While joggling between a part time job and my Masters studies four years ago, I noticed that I was constantly out of energy. Not surprising, ha? Even though I had a lot going on in my life, I felt that I could definitely do a bit more in terms of looking after my health. My boyfriend at the time was a typical British bloke who loved his turkey with Sunday dinner and other meat based meals. We ate meat with every meal but I never wondered if my diet should have been any different. Well, never, until the day I read an article about the health benefits of being a vegetarian. This was my moment of truth!

By that time, I had already done some backpacking and had met various different people while travelling and living abroad. In New Zealand, I had made good friends with people who were vegetarians, however, it had always seemed to me that vegetarians (and especially vegans) were a bunch of animal lovers who just did it for the ethical reasons rather than anything else. Although I do care about the animals, it cannot be denied that some animals are only being bred to feed us. For example, I cannot think of any other reason for having a cow than to drink its milk and eat its meat. I think lots of vegetarians do actually realise that so it makes more sense to protest against the ways meat and dairy industry treats the animals and of course there is always the question of whether we actually need ALL that meat and dairy products that goes into waste due to the mass production that our consumer society has created.

As an educated person, I had an understanding of these issues but rather than giving up eating meat, I had tried to opt for cruelty free and organic options (although being on a low income, I probably had not been able to entirely follow this principle). Therefore, when reading about vegetarianism from the health perspective, it opened a whole new angle for me. Could reducing my meat intake make difference to my health and boost my energy levels? It was worth trying and so I did. I started off by having a couple of meat free days per week. At the beginning it was extremely challenging because of my habits and social stigma more than anything else. Over the course of the first six months, I managed to give up eating red meat altogether while still eating chicken and turkey. My motivations were pretty selfish but the more you get into good things the more addicted you get!

2012 was the year of the London Olympics. Although lots of people tend to be inspired by global sports events, I can honestly say that these games changed my life. I started going jogging and exercising a lot more than I had done before. Since then jogging has been my sport and I have recently even started considering training for a run of some sort. At that point I really started realising that I did not want to just put anything into my body.

As I finished my Masters thesis in fall 2012 and only started looking for a full time job, I had a lot of time in my hands research various different diets. At one point I was experimenting with gluten free diet because it sounded like it could bring further wellbeing benefits, for example, reduce the feeling of being bloated. Next moment I heard of a theory that fasting for a few days every month can help reduce the risk of cancer so I tried that as well. Although it was interesting to learn more about the various approaches and find out which foods suit my body the best, I soon realised that doing more exercise and being more selective about the various food groups could end up making me very slim. As I was more than happy with my looks, I did not want to lose weight because dieting for that aim had never been my goal. Another issue was that these experiments also started taking over my life, I spent way too much time researching the nutritional value and benefits of almost everything that I ate. I realised that I should just try to eat as healthy as possible but still enjoy the foods that I liked.

At the beginning of 2013, I started working full time and was an active person who ate a lot of vegetarian meals but occasionally still had some white meat. One of my colleagues in the office was a pescatarian and as she seemed really healthy to me (she was an amazing person as well so I guess that helped too). At that point I tried to think of any reasons why I had carried on eating chicken or turkey and realised that it was probably mostly because my boyfriend at the time enjoyed meals that included these meats. I cannot remember him being particularly sad or upset when I broke the news about changing my diet and cutting out meat altogether but it definitely made food shopping and meal planning more challenging.

Having been a pescatarian for over three years now, I have not had many hesitations about my decision. In England and Canada, vegetarianism is a fairly popular life choice although there are also some people who think of it as a trend and call themselves vegetarians only because most of their meals are meat free but they still occasionally eat burgers or bacon. Over the course of this year, I have had some moments during which I have really felt that I was not getting enough proteins. Despite making myself eat loads of salmon and other seafood, I could not get this satisfied feeling and kept thinking I was hungry. I even debated of trying some meat again but whenever I saw or smelt dead animal flesh on someone else’s plate, it really put me off. I could not grab a fork and put bits of meat into my mouth. So I left it, hoping that my cravings for proteins would eventually go away.

In September, I left Vancouver and went to Korea for three weeks. I loved that country to bits but food there was very different from what I was used to. Koreans eat a lot of rice like all Asians and their vegetable intake is very different from a typical healthy Western diet. Usually everything gets mixed in or stewed with meat. Fruits are expensive and certain vegetables are not available in supermarkets. Luckily seafood is really good there so during my time in Korea, I ended up eating a lot more fish than I normally would just to be able to feel full. Despite that, it was challenging every day! Not understanding the labels in local cafes and shops made me order meals that I could not eat or that were not particularly healthy. I ate a lot of pastries and bread, just because it was the only food group that was affordable and that I could fully trust in terms of the ingredients.

Since my arrival in Australia three weeks ago, I have started realising that I could be a lot healthier vegetarian. For the past two weeks, I stayed with a close friend who does not eat fish or meat. She cooked our meals at home most of the time and they were very healthy and tasty. While I normally feel the need to snack between meals because I do not seem to get enough nutrition, I have not felt that way since I got to Melbourne. I learned from my friend that I need to eat a lot more legumes and foods full of fibre to feel full and get the full nutrition out of my calories. I feel a lot more energised and able to enjoy myself.

Now that I have moved out of my friend’s house, I feel determined to carry on with my new heathier eating plan. I am going to focus on being a healthy vegetarian by cooking more meals that include beans, lentils and green vegetables. I will still allow myself the occasional fish meal but try not to get to the point of feeling like I need it to get more nutrition. I have started taking pictures of my meals so I can keep a close eye on what I am eating and see where I struggle. I do not want to lose weight but I would like to be able to do more exercise and potentially train for a run at some point.