I’d like to officially announce (and invite you to) the Vegetarian-For-A-Month Challenge!
This started with fellow author Marion Jensen and I betting who could last longer as vegetarians, but we’ve now been joined by another author, Bruce Eschler. So, I’d like to invite any and all to join the challenge/torture. We’re not doing this for any reason other than curiosity. I’m personally not an activist, nor am I particularly health-conscious. I just have recently eaten some tasty vegetarian fare and wondered if I could handle a whole month of it.
The rules are these:
- It begins Monday the 16th. This will give us the weekends to clean out the fridge/stuff ourselves with bratwurst. It ends on August 12th at midnight.
- We’re being lazy vegetarians: dairy is allowed; eggs are allowed; fish is allowed. Therefore, according to Wikipedia, we aren’t vegetarians; we’re ova-lacto-pescatarians. That sounds way more awesome.
- Things that are not allowed: any mammals or birds.
- Things that we don’t care about: trivial amounts of animal-byproducts in stuff. For example, no one is going to throw a fit if we eat regular refried beans rather than vegetarian refried beans. Because, come on.
- Any quitters—and this is the most important point!—must eat six Big Macs in ten minutes, and they must film it and post it to YouTube, so that they will be humiliated in public. In the event they puke, SO MUCH THE BETTER.
This will all be difficult, because it’s summer barbeque season. But, we’re tough, and we made the rules lenient enough that even a lazy person (like me) ought to be able to handle it.
So, if you’d like to join us, please do! And, if you’d like to drop bacon-wrapped delights at Marion’s house, please do!
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I’m totally NOT doing this, but I’m looking forward to the youtube videos
After listening to Rob call me a hippie over the years every time I ate TVP or tofu, I am looking forward to hearing him whine endlessly about how much he misses meat.
For the rest of you, whose continued existence I value, a bit of advice from a vegetarian in real life (none of this “I’ll do it for a month” stuff for me):
1-Make sure you are taking a daily vitamin containing B-12 and Iron. Vegetarians can easily become deficient in those two nutrients.
2-Track how much protein you are eating and make sure you are getting enough. Just because you aren’t getting it from meat, doesn’t mean you don’t still need it.
When the challenge is over, I think Marion and Rob should be required to do a special reunion episode of The Appendix Podcast in which they acknowledge the difficulty of my existence and how very sorry they are for all the times they mocked me.
Have fun!
Sarah, thanks for the advice. And no, we’ll NEVER apologize for mocking you. You filthy vegetarian.
Okay the rules don’t suck SO bad.
Rob here is my favorite not bird or mammal BBQ dish. It is a grilled salad with shrimp and a lemon dressing. super yummy.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/california-style-chopped-salad-with-shrimp-recipe/index.html
I actually did that diet for the past 2 weeks because of a weird skin reaction I’ve been having! (It didn’t help.) But now I’m avoiding dairy instead… (So I guess I’m not in.)
I’m actually kind of a health nut though and usually I follow the Paleolithic creed (which means tons of meats, mmm).
Here’s a quick summary of my health-nuttiness: http://www.jwashburn.com/2012/07/what-should-i-eat-for-dinner.html
But you should really read a book called Why We Get Fat. It’s well researched and super interesting (controversial).
Also, by the way, I saw your presentation at LDStorymakers with your two buddies and really enjoyed it. Glad to see you blogging again.
— J
I’ll have you know your little veggie challenge nearly destroyed our critique group meeting tonight, with people gushing over the superfoodness of lentils and one female member sternly warned to avoid looking like Arnold Schwarznegger. And you did this all without being there.
I can’t believe I’m seriously considering joining you on this. It might be because I want to quit and eat 6 Big Macs. It might be because I want to hang with the cool guys.
But I seriously cannot picture a month without beef. That just seems like masochistic behavior.
I do believe I’m in! I’m going to try it. And I’m even going to be out of town in the middle of it, so woohoo to me when I succeed!
Wow, turns out I’ve been an ova-lacto-pescatarians about 95% of the time for years now! And I wasn’t even trying to be health conscious, just avoid eating icky meat. I would call myself a vegetarian, except I don’t really like vegetables either. Or fruit. Or anything but carbs, dairy, and sugar.
I’m highly anticipating this youtube video. Eating one Big Mac would be enough to make me puke.
hmm… I can’t believe I am actually kind of considering this. At the same time, I make fun of vegetarians waaaaaaaay too much to go through with it, methinks.
I don’t know…
Either way, good luck to you!
I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 11, without eggs or fish. I’m turning 20 in a month. I love it! Sure I miss simple things like poptarts (gelatin), but going back the only thing I’d change is that I nver would have eaten meat. There are substituyions for those who are seriuos that taste just like meat but aren’t, and it’s very healthy. I’ve been vegan for 2 years and lost over 100 lbs, so if you’e just dieting too it is incredibly helpful. Ttyl guys, keep munchin on veggies