Whenever anyone I knew talked about becoming a vegetarian or about a vegetarian they knew, I would always screw up my face, uttering an oh-so-mature “Ewww!” I’ve always been WAAAY too carnivorous to be a vegetarian. I love me some steak, hamburger, bacon, pork chops, swordfish, shrimp, chi…well, you get the picture. I’ve always been all about the animal protein, eating it at all three meals and sometimes even having meals that consisted only of animal protein. But that was Before.

I can’t believe that it’s been three years since I changed my eating habits and lost enough weight to make a ninth-grader.

When I started the whole thing, I purposely ate a lot more fruits and vegetables. I made sure that at least 75% of my plate was made up of non-starchy plants. I ate no animal protein on one day of the week. I ate only fish one day and whatever lean meats I wanted on the other five. But that has slowly changed.

In a typical week, I may eat animal protein only once or twice – not one or two days, but one or two times. Okay, that number goes up if I figure butter in there, but since we’re such good friends and all, let’s not split hairs, shall we? Every now and then, I might eat a couple of meals of scrambled eggs, making my total much higher, but that doesn’t happen frequently. You may be surprised at this – I certainly was. (Or, you may not. You may not know me well enough to feel one way or the other, really. You’re just reading this while you have your morning coffee.) Once I assessed my food intake, I realized that I was becoming a (gasp!) vegan!

Okay, okay. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I’m no vegan. I wear leather shoes, eat honey, shave, wash regularly, and can’t macrame to save my life. (That’s not fair. I shouldn’t perpetuate that stereotype. Vegans don’t all macrame.) Veganism is a philosophical stance. I’m not that philosophical about food, unless it’s banana pudding, then I’m practically Descartes. Vegetarianism is closer; but, they eat dairy which, with the exception of butter and ice cream, I don’t – or I rarely do. Although I didn’t plan the change, I’m beginning to think of myself more as an herbivore.

In line with that, yesterday, I bought Joe Cross’s book Reboot With Joe in anticipation of going on a 30-day juice fast. Actually, I plan to keep the fiber from the fruits and vegetables and drink smoothies; but, the spirit is the same. I have ten pounds I’d like to lose and since I don’t exercise nearly like I did two years ago, it’s a real struggle. I decided to do Joe’s reboot to A) lose those ten pounds, and B) see if the massive doses of macro and micronutrients would alleviate some of the pain in my hands and feet. I started reading the book immediately and plan to start the reboot on Saturday.

For the next month, the blog will be mostly about food again and I’ll give you updates on changes that I feel and see. Get ready! Here we go!