One of my rituals for each new year is to choose a word to influence me for the year. My word for 2011 is EXPERIMENT. To support my EXPERIMENTAL focus, I commit to post the results of a new experiment each Sunday of this year.
Last week I’d never heard of this word. And this week I was one!
A person who consumes no animal flesh with the exception of fish or seafood. From Italian pesce (“fish”).
I really thought this experiment would be a non-event. I’m not a major meat-eater. And I love seafood. So what’s the big deal?
Well, the big deal is that I may have just changed the whole way I approach mealtime.
I’m not ready to say I’ll never eat another piece of chicken. I AM ready to say that every meal I prepared and ate this week left me feeling nourished. And I’m going to remember that.
I’ve always enjoyed cooking. It was especially fun this week to plan and prepare meals not centered around where’s the beef? Instead, I thought about what my body was wanting; what fresh food I had on hand; what flavors would mesh; and how it would all look together. It’s not that I didn’t think about those things before. I just always began my meal planning with what meat would be the focal point. So this was a fun shift.
Here are the biggest lessons from this week:
- I can live very easily and happily without beef and pork;
- the feeling of being ‘nourished’ is very different from ‘full’. I like nourished MUCH better;
- rules and boxes make me want to rebel. Being honest with myself about what makes me feel more healthy doesn’t;
- I’m not making this shift for anyone but me. So I get to make The Rules anyway;
- if I’m at someone’s home and they cooked their beans with pork or turkey or whatever ~ I’ll eat it ~ and be grateful I live in The South;
- and yes, I still hate okra.
How do you nourish yourself?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
Learning to listen to my body about what it wants and needs has been a great lesson for me. I started doing so when I joined Weight Watchers about seven years ago!
And when I listen to what my body is telling me, instead of what my mind or the dueling voices on shoulders say (Think Tom and Jerry cartoons), I do much better all around.
Glad to hear you had a great week of learning to listen to YOU!!!
http://artfulrabbit.com/?p=1808
I loved your entry so much I had to write an entire blog entry on it. Thanks for making me think and rediscover joy on a regular basis!
Roxanna
Judi and Roxanna, deep and humble bows to you BOTH!
This is something I have been messing around with for years, being semi-vegetarian, on and off. My daughter inspires me–she has been a faithful vegetarian for about three years. I feel better when I eat no meat, but my will is weak. My husband still wants meat, and when I smell it, that carnivore in me so often wants it! Recently, however, I have had to face another challenge–my nurse practitioner told me I had to cut down on starches—I’m borderline Type 2 Diabetic. NO SUGAR?!!! I”m a sugar junkie!!! No pasta? No bread? Aughhh! Well, I’m trying, and have amazingly have lost weight (I’m rediscovering my waistline!!), and I’m just vain enough to be able to use that as an incentive! Having been on the road to visit family in NY and Indiana has been tough, tho’. I’ve succumbed to the temptation of french fries from McDonald’s and scones from Panera’s (sp?) Bread, etc. And you’re right about eating stuff at other people’s houses–my sister rolled her eyes every time I said I couldn’t eat something, and so I finally started popping new white potatoes, coffee cake, and all kinds of other bad things in my mouth, just to make her happy! Now that I’m home, I shall try to be good again.