Why?

I know what everyone's thinking...why are you doing this??

For us, this is being brought about mainly due to the nutrition classes I've been taking. While the books give many reasons to try to eat less meat (and therefore more vegetarian), the main reasons for us are:

1. it could be fun,
2. we're interested to see what, if any, physical changes may occur (weight loss, better digestion, more energy, etc),
3. we're interested to see what all the hype is about,
4. we're interested to see how, if at all, this diet will change our workouts,
5. we're hoping it may save us a little money on groceries,

oh, and last but not least,

6. for a school project, and
7. what scientist can resist a fully-controlled experiment??


Brent has said for a few years now that he'd be fine if he didn't eat meat. He just loves salads. Spinach and strawberries with berry vinaigrette, romaine with Caesar dressing and croutons, baby spring mix with nuts and raisins, a last-minute-dinner salad with avocado, red onions, carrots, and whatever else he can find in the fridge...he loves them all. It's more me we're worried about. When we go out to eat and the server tries to put the salad in front of me and the steak & potato in front of Brent, we both pipe up to make sure the server knows to switch them. Not that I eat meat at every meal, but I certainly do love a medium rare steak, any type of potatoes, and maybe a salad (if I still have room at the end).

So! This will definitely be an interesting time. As the blog title suggests, we'll be going vegan. That means no meat, no meat products/flavorings (like eggs), and no dairy. Yup, no dairy. No eggs, no yogurt, no cheese, no milk.

Our initial goal is to go vegan for one month. At the end of one month, we'll evaluate how we're doing and hopefully extend it to two months. Brent's optimistic that this may become a lifelong thing, but I'm just taking it one step - I mean, month - at a time.

Along the way we'll be sharing our findings. Our plan is to weigh ourselves once a week & keep working out 5-6 times a week. We'll then post here how we're doing....how much weight we lose (if any), how we're feeling, how our workouts are going, etc. Our plan is also to report on any withdrawal symptoms we have (like headaches...okay, so that's mostly my plan), cravings (and how we handled them, & if we cave in to them), how we handle eating out/at friend's houses, and digestive issues.

Speaking of that, we'll be treating this blog as a sort of journal for us, so we're pulling out all the stops. If you're not comfortable reading about digestive issues or the like, then you may want to stick to a different blog (like my other blog - innermusingsoflorigail.blogspot.com, which I haven't posted to in months, but am going to try to get better...really).

Our hopeful start date for this adventure is Monday, October 10, 2011.

So wish us luck & say a little prayer for us!