My Vegetarian Week

Hello Clean Eaters! This post will outline my previous week as a vegetarian so keep reading to find out if I survived or not!
Diet:

• Breakfast: Breakfast each day consisted of eggs as a base. I like my eggs scrambled with a sprinkle of black pepper and avocado slices. Mondays and Tuesdays eggs were accompanied with oatmeal while Wednesdays eggs had a fruit salad. On Thursday, I make a protein shake in the morning because I was preparing for the leg day ahead of me. Friday morning, I enjoyed a hot cup of oatmeal with my...you guessed it SCRAMBLED EGGS! What can I say? I actually really enjoy eating eggs so I didn't mind having them every single morning.

Here is an example meal with brown rice, beans, veggies, and a fruit salad

• Snacks: Here is where I got kind of creative. On some days, I ate cottage cheese while on others I had a Lara bar. In between the two were almonds, a fruit salad, protein shakes, BeKind bars, and veggies and hummus, and spoonfuls of peanut butter. Throughout this week, I found myself snacking more than I usually would. I don't know if it was because I was afraid of not consuming enough calories but I could not stop eating. Of course, my snacks were all portioned out and clean so there was no junk going into my body. Oh and I upped my daily intake of milk to a glass a day. Although I strive to get my 8 ounces, I made it a priority during this week.

• Lunch/Dinner: Here is where things got mundane. The base of  my meals were brown rice or sweet potatoes with a green vegetable on the side. This was also the first time I cooked tofu and that was quite an experience. First, you have to soak out all the moisture from the tofu. All the online articles I read said to apply pressure for at least 30 but I didn't have enough time so the three minutes I did use seemed to suffice. Lastly, no vegetarian meal is complete without beans...and I mean lots of it!

Workouts:
Did I stop weight lifting because I was not eating meat? NO. In fact, it was the weight lifting portion that kept my going. I wanted to see if I could still lift on a vegetarian diet and I could. Although I was paranoid nearly every hour of the day, I ended up meeting my caloric goal. However, the one thing I did not like was the lack of muscle tone in my legs. After that week, I realized that my legs looked like twigs and while I still had the strength, I did not have the definition that I am used to.

So my final verdict? Being a vegetarian wasn't all that bad but being a weight lifting vegetarian is hard work. From my short experience, I saw a negative change in my overall muscle definition and size. I will go back to eating meat now but I really did love trying something new! I applaud all of my vegetarian/vegan friends who have made this a lifestyle but it certainly was hard work for me!

-Eating Clean in College