Veggies and the Spouse

Being a guest commentator on your wife’s blog regarding Vegetarianism provides a tempting opportunity to poke fun at meatless meat and the entertainment created when you dramatically change the substances and ratio of food being placed in your digestive system over-night. Even for me, the still meat-eating husband of a vegetarian, the amount of meat in my diet has been reduced by at least half if not more due to passive participation.

The first week or so I ate all the veggie food that Tanya put forth but after that we realized that I needed to be eating meat in the freezer to get rid of it, so these days I’m eating some meat and some of her veggie-fare.

Observations so far:

• Meat substitutes are really good these days. I would argue that if you didn’t know Smart Ground was not real beef and someone served it most people would think it was oddly seasoned ground beef. There is an aftertaste of processed vegetables but if you were not looking for it I don’t think most would notice. I could easily eat Smart Ground tacos the rest of my life and not really miss the beef.
• The sudden introduction of large amounts of Soy/Tofu based food and doubling the amount of veggies you are consuming is bound to cause some digestive changes, although I would say that after the first week my system settled right in and was quite happy to play bunny rather than wolf.
• I really like salad, and not the type they serve at the state fair that has been fried and covered in twinkies. Due to this, and that I am not a snacker or have random cravings for cookies (unless Tanya is in a cookie/brownie mode – when they are ever-present), I would lose weight on a vegetarian diet, at least until my food variety started to include lots of starches, etc.. I would need to make an effort to assure I was consuming the amount of calories and nutrients since I’m happy with ice berg lettuce and some dressing.
• As I attempt to clean-out the freezer of excess meat the last week I’m consuming even more than I did before Tanya embarked on her journey. As a positive I’m eating all those Costco bacon-wrapped filets that Tanya hates and I love.
• I’m eating more meat-based lunches – usually I eat a big variety but now that I know most nights won’t involve meat I find myself choosing more burgers and heavy meat lunches. For the last week this increased meat consumption has been unfounded since I’m eating meat each night as I’m working through the freezer but that is psychology for you.
• Tanya doesn’t seem any happier, sadder, upper, downer, lethargic, energy-filled, or anything else. She seems fine. As of this writing she has been meat-free for 19 days and I can say that other than things attributable to non-diet causes, she is looking, feeling, and doing about the same.
• Tanya has stepped-up her anti-meat/animal-killing rhetoric the last few weeks, she always hated to see animals get hurt on movies but now it is more intense and the commentary is more direct. I think this vegetarian experiment might stick, or in the end she might only eat fish or eat meat only occasionally.
• Vegetarian dishes that are made with vegetarians as the audience have been hit and miss as we have prepped them. In some cases there is a learning curve – such as figuring out how to prep Tofu so we enjoy the end result, in other cases it just hasn’t been that good. So far I’m in the camp of cooking regular dishes with meat substitutes rather than trying meals designed by vegetarians for vegetarians. I’m sure there are tons of great veggie-only recipes out there for main courses, we just haven’t found them yet.

That is about it, eventually I’ll be like every other person with a Vegetarian spouse – I’ll probably be a 90% vegetarian at home and eat normally while out and about. Since I don’t have any internal drive to cut out meat completely I don’t think I’ll jump on the wagon unless it starts to cause digestive or other issues. So far I’m happy to eat whatever she eats and other than a couple of dishes they have been mostly winners.