What's up guys! I have created this part of the website, the blog, essentially to share with you what is on my mind, the thread of my thoughts or, to discuss my passions. While browsing it, you will of course find articles on photography, but I will also share the progress of my other projects and in particular the one including a vehicle and a road trip.
Today, I want to talk about a subject that has never been discussed on this blog — I have only published five articles at the moment, I am going to use this catchphrase a lot, it makes an exclusive impact — the topic of nutrition and more particularly, my desire to turn to a meat-free diet. For a lot of reasons, I want, at first, to eliminate almost completely meat out of my plates. This urge has tickled me several times before, but the frequency of this desire is becoming more important theses past months.
It manifests itself, most often the day after a night of drinking, when come the first meal of the day. Rather than wish, it would be more accurate to use the word disgust. The distaste of all kinds of meat, chicken, ground beef or even my long-time favorite: chicken cordon bleu. On those days, everything seems tasteless, but I force myself to chew, to swallow animal parts. I am not even enjoying it, but I know that once my stomach is full, the recovery will be faster. As for the smell, well, I cannot even bear it.
Usually, my sense of smell is not really sharp. To be honest, I'm one of those people who live with a lazy nostril. But strangely after a hangover, this sense recovers all its abilities. A smell a little too strong gives me nausea. Taking public transportation gives me anxiety and then become a torture...
Besides, it's after one of those hangovers after which you swear to yourself that you will never ever drink again, that I have decided several times to quit smoking as the smell of cigarette smoke was unbearable. For a period of time ranging from a few days to a few months, after I had got drunk, I lived without nicotine. Those cigarette free sessions gave me enough confidence and allowed me to easily quit smoking.
It would have been terrific if for animal proteins it was the same story. But it is not. You will notice that I use "animal protein" instead of "meat". This is because of my lifestyle. When I look at a piece of meat, I only see the amount of protein it contains and eat it to have my daily ration. I am a fitness enthusiast, who slightly monitors his diet to maximize muscle gain. I am far from being strict about my nutrition. I eat more chicken cordon bleu or spaghetti bolognese than chicken breast or fish. My little love handles are solid proofs of my non-strict-diet. For example, during at least 6 months, my breakfast was 200 grams of sausage with Mayonnaise on a bed of bread. Now I have stopped, it was too much of a meat early in the morning. Furthermore, it does not help for the love handles situation.
For activities such as bodybuilding, a relatively high intake of protein is necessary. Indeed, protein is one of the three macro-nutrient, which are essential for the proper functioning of the body. This particular macro-nutrient is used in particular to build and maintain muscle tissue.
I have spent years transforming my flabby and weak body into a fantastic war machine. No, I'm just kidding, just into a little less flaccid, a little less weak body. But the biggest change was psychological. A long time ago, I learned to accept my body. Recently, I have learned to love my body. But not in an unhealthy and narcissistic way, whatever people might think. Gym goers do return a negative and superficial image in this current period which advocates body positivism. In short, my psychological improvements are largely due to physical changes that have brought me more and more confidence.
Now that my body is a machine with little love handles. This dietary transition anguishes me, because physical changes will most likely occur, at least for the time my body get used to and adapt to my new diet. I am afraid that my physique, my training and my performances will be negatively impacted. Thus, afraid of falling back to the stage "body acceptance"... I have done a lot of research on the topic and the more I read what I have just written, the more stupid I feel. This fear is totally unjustified; there are plenty of protein sources in the vegetable world. Despite that, I keep pushing the transition deadline.
Hard to go against habits. As far as I can remember, my meals were always built around a piece of meat and a portion of white rice. When I picture my plates without meat, it makes me really sad. Because I know that changing my dietary habits will be painful. At the beginning, I will spend hours trying and learning new recipes found on the Internet... Chicken breast and ground beef are my easy ways to get protein. Besides, their uses are so versatile that I can vary my recipes easily.
I must confess something, with bodybuilding and sports in general, I have lost my food curiosity, this appetite that had made me an obese child, a teenager full of complexes and an individual who has spent the vast majority of his life going up and down on the scale. During this period, I was "slave" of my body, mainly because of a lack of nutrition knowledge. This is only these past 3/4 year, with fitness, that I have taken control of my body and weight.
The saddest thing in this story? Although I can enjoy frequent cheat meals, I mainly eat to feed myself. That's why, it does not bother me to eat the same dish day after day, week after week... But it's time to open my culinary horizons by stimulating this lost curiosity.
Furthermore, I keep in mind that this diet transition is just another step in an anti-aging process that I started by quitting cigarette and having a more active and healthy lifestyle.
That's what's been happening to me lately. I feel the need to write it down, so I won't forget, and to make it "real", and perhaps also to find support in this process.
If you read me so far, congrats! A long article announcing that I'm going to stop eating meat... Well yes, it cannot be interesting every week. Well, I'll meet you next week, until then, take care.
KITOFOTO