Going Flexitarian

My blogger slash yogini friend often talks about how she has gone flexitarian.So, what exactly is a flexitarian? From what I understand (yes, based on the best information source, Google, haha), one who is a flexitarian is somewhat of a meat-eating vegan. Lemme rephrase that: they are those who follow a mostly vegetarian diet but on occasion eat meat.

In my quest to becoming healthier and to lose weight, I have found that giving up a lot of red meat and pork has helped a lot, but I don't think I'm ready or willing for that matter, to switch to a full vegan diet. However, I have seen myself become more health conscious in the way I pick my meals. When I go to the market, for example, I no longer by slabs of beef or steaks, instead, I buy fresh fish and fresh produce more.

I am lucky that fresh seafood and the like is readily available in my local groceries. For example, it might be harder to buy oysters if you were in a far off location that took a lot of time to travel to and was far from the source. Nonetheless, if you really wanted to go healthier, I'm sure you'd find ways to do that.

The common downfall, however, to switching to a more flexitarian or perhaps less meat based diet is the tendency to run out of new ways too cook these items. After all, how many ways can you dress up a fish, right? However, the internet is definitely a vast resource of great recipes to check out, so that should make for lots of experiments to try. I even came across a cocktail recipe with oysters at the ILoveBlueSea blog! 

At the end of the day, however, what I think is most important is not whether you go vegan or not, but it's making sure you make healthier choices and eat in moderation.

Cucumber with Yogurt Dressing

Inspired by the Greek appetizer tzatziki, this cucumber with yogurt salad is an very refreshing and nutritious alternative to a green salad. There are many variations of tzatziki. Some add dill to it or even grated cucumbers but being the lazy cook that I am, I enjoy just making a simple yogurt dressing to throw over fresh cucumbers. It is also a good variation to the typical cucumber salad with vinaigrette that we Filipinos serve. Making the yogurt dressing is the simplest thing: just mix the unsweetened natural yogurt with crushed garlic, season with salt and pepper and viola, instant dressing. I sprinkle it with a little bit of sugar just to give it a sweet-sour taste. It is best to peel and remove the seeds of the cucumber before mixing this together because the seeds and the center of the cucumber kinda water down the dressing a lot. I love serving this with fried fish because the flavors mix so well. It also goes well with pork chops and inihaw na liempo or grilled pork belly. But to be honest: even on it's own, it's wonderful. An added bonus: great for weight watchers!

Taking it Seriously.

Okay...so this time I will try to take my diet a wee bit seriously. Its about time. Haaaaayyyy....I know it's not gonna be an easy journey but like my friend told me, it needs some internalizing. So I am tapping into my inner motivation reservoir and saying I will make this work.

I have decided to take it slow, however, mainly because I can't afford to buy Xenical or Reductil or any of those diet pills in the market. (hint hint to med reps and researchers...need a sample for a study, I'll volunteer!!!). For now, I am committing to doing the following in an attempt to lose at least 10 pounds by the time the first term of classes end:


1. I will not park closest to the entrance anymore. Not a big step, but one towards the right direction, I think. By parking farther from the entrance, I guess I'll be forced to walk.

2. Increase the pace of my typical walk. I think I walk too slow nowadays. I guess it's an offshoot to having a heavier butt harhar!!! Seriously though, when I was very huge years ago, I never realized how heavy it was to lug around my weight. But when I lost a huge chunk of it then gained some back, I realized that it is indeed a heavy load to carry. So now I will try to walk at a quicker pace, after all, they say that exercise can be done in bursts, right? So walking to and from class at a quicker pace should be a good start.

3. No more softdrinks, even diet sodas. This is one thing I really became lax about after losing weight. After a carbonated drink fast for two years, I started having it on occasion then now it's back to almost everyday...and every meal. Enough of that!!! Now iced tea...well....limit will do!

4. One cup of rice a day for now. When I first lost a lot of weight, I completely swore off rice. As in 100%. Pasta too. I'm probably not ready for this at this point, so 1 cup at lunch time and thats it.

5. Stock up on chicken, fish and veggies. I will limit pork and beef intake for now. During my rice-less days, I also went almost 100% vegetarian. Maybe by October I will explore this again, but for now, chicken and fish stay!

6. Walk with Bubba at least once around the village park as much as possible. Given that it's the rainy season, it would be difficult to commit completely to this. In lieu of walking, half an hour of hula-hooping should suffice.

7. Sweets and treats in strict moderation. I've tried to give this up, but everytime I deprive myself I end up indulging. So I will honor the urge when it comes, but only enough to give it a taste. No more pints-of-ice-cream-in-one-sitting or giant slices of cake.

8. Monitor the numbers. Much as I am inspired by iMom and her fitness project, I am not yet comfortable writing those numbers in my blog. It's going on my calendar though :-)

That's it for now, I suppose. Wish me luck!