So we’ve all heard about vegetables being good for your body — those miracle stories about losing 20 pounds in a week after becoming a vegetarian seem quite tempting. And then there are all those studies that have proven that consumption of greens over an extended period of time produces all sorts of benefits — from better eyesight to better strength and increased intellect. Because I thought that some of these benefits were desirable, I decided to become a vegetarian for two weeks: no meat, veggies only.
It was an interesting experience, by the end of which I really craved some meat, preferably stir-fried in soy sauce; however, I won’t deny that I might have felt marginally healthier.
On the first day, I had margarine on toast for breakfast. Honestly, I preferred the margarine and ended up continually eating it with toast for the entirety of those two weeks running. In fact, I still do have it for breakfast.
During those two weeks, I endeavored to try a different type of salad each day for lunch. Ranch, vinegar, olive oil, sesame sauce, Caesar-style — I tried them all and hated most of them.
Perhaps I should have stopped trying new salads after the first week, but since I’m rather stubborn, I continued to try new salad dressings each day. Eventually, on the last day, I found a combination of chili oil, sesame sauce and vinegar, which is now the only type of salad dressing I really enjoy.
Dinner became my favorite meal of the day; I had vegetables prepared many different ways. It turns out that there are infinite combinations to be tried if you have any vegetables at all, some salt and a bottle of soy sauce.
For dinner, I often had stir-fried vegetables with rice, which wasn’t disagreeable at all. One of my favorite dishes, which I would reccomend to anyone who wants to try a vegetarian meal, was a mix of baby corn, spinach and bok choy with liberal dashes of any savory sauce.
As for snacking in between meals, I had celery with peanut butter rather often — practically every day. It was good, and definitely healthy.
After those two weeks of vegetarianism, I felt better about myself, but that good feeling of accomplishment didn’t stop me from indulging in a hamburger from In-N-Out the day after my experiment ended.