Christa, Day 38: Being a Vegetarian Is Hard!

I like to think we eat well. Not well as in delightfully fancy plates of the sort I would eat daily if I had a personal chef, but rather well as in fairly healthy and possibly above average where Americans are concerned. Sorry, America! We eat vegetables every day and steer clear of ready meals. Our main utterly gross vice is boxed macaroni and cheese, to which we add real cheese, and the only reason it has become a fixture is because once P. tasted the box stuff once in Florida, she didn't want to switch back to homemade. And we do buy veggie sausages and our sauce is jarred unless it's pesto in the summertime or we get red sauce as a present.

Is that healthy? I feel like the older I get, the less sure I am. Fresh fruits and veggies, definitely healthy. Bread and pasta, though... healthy? Or going to kill you? Sometimes I long for the days when we ate the flesh of other living beings and dinner could be vegetables and meat, all roasted up nicely. That seemed pretty healthy. And easy, too. Being a vegetarian is hard!

Today's voluntary simplicity idea is as follows:

Eat healthy. It might not be obvious how eating healthy relates to simplicity, but think about the opposite: if you eat fatty, greasy, salty, sugary, fried foods all the time, you are sure to have higher medical needs over the long term. We could be talking years from now, but imagine frequent doctor visits, hospitalization, going to the pharmacist, getting therapy, having surgery, taking insulin shots … you get the idea. Being unhealthy is complicated. Eating healthy simplifies all of that greatly, over the long term. Read about how to simplify your eating habits.

So since I'm so befuddled, let's take a look at what ol' Leo deems unhealthy and talk about that. I've commented on each item.

1. Junk food. Most of the junk food we eat is still on the healthy or has-some-redeeming-value side. Our diet isn't perfect but we're not chowing down on chips and so on. It's also not raw macro-biotic vegan and all organic/local.
2. Processed food. This is one I'm confused on... granola is processed, but the good stuff isn't terrible for you. Bread is processed, but it also serves as a peanut butter delivery system. Pasta sauce is processed... We eat raw, whole foods aplenty, but I guess we do eat plenty of processed foods.
3. Fast food. Every now and then we'll lose our minds and grab veggie burgers and fries from Burger King, but fast food for us is usually veggie subs from Subway. Could be worse, right? Hello, vegetables.
4. Red meat. We're vegetarians, so no red meat in our houses or in our bodies!
5. Fried food. I love fried food. Can't help it. Fried is yummy. And we'll even fry at home because we're gross like that. But it's not like we're sucking down fries every night, and that's why I exercise daily. Cholesterol levels are a-ok. Bring on the fried!

Overall, though, like I said we're doing pretty okay on the eating healthy front, and I just had a checkup confirming that all my levels are within mid average range for a healthy adult. And we eat lots of olive oil, so there's that, too. Heh. I guess the whole process of expanding my cooking repertoire, as per yesterday's idea, will help with our little family eating even better. I'll let you know how it goes.