Vegetarian Drew.

'Ello, folks. How's everybody doing?

So. I gave up meat for Lent this year. Not something I normally participate in, but I wanted to give it a shot. Last time I actually gave up anything that I cared about to the point where it was difficult was 2006 when I gave up sweet tea, but in those days I was a little rounder, my teeth were a lil tea-stained, and I drank the stuff all the time. Don't really drink it anymore, but four years ago it was tough! I chugged a Biggie sized sweet tea from Wendy's the night before and suffered through the 40 days, but I made it. Shoot, it's probably part of the reason I rarely drink the delicious syrup anymore. Either that or because I found out that sweet tea REALLY is no better for me than soda. It wasn't as bad as finding out about Santa, or how many spiders we swallow in our sleep in our lifetime, but it was close...

Anyway, this year I'm doing the vegetarian thing with Amanda. We're still allowing fish, but we're a week into it and we haven't jumped in that pond yet (HA, get it?). The longest I've gone before this period was 10 days last month when I did it just to do it. Don't get me wrong, I still love my cheeseburgers and Carolina BBQ and chicken, but I've cut back like crazy.

Only thing I've been worried about in cutting meat for a month and a week is the protein factor and losing weight. I work out a lot, so I'm obviously concerned with wearing my body down from lack of protein consumption. The good thing is that I've got plenty of supplements and I'm compensating through eggs, whey, and other dairy products. I've also discovered fake meat made of soy and whey, which is good too. Looks like the real thing AND tastes (mostly) like the real thing. Rocked some fake ground beef in our spaghetti tonight and it was MONEY.

The first week was easy, but it'll be interesting to see how tough it gets. Shouldn't be too bad because there are plenty of good ways to get around it. I'm also interested to see how I FEEL physically, because meat has been getting such a bad rep in the press recently. Documentaries like "Food, Inc." and other programs have been bashing certain factors of what we eat, and I'll be excited to see if I feel better over all once it's been out of my system for a few weeks.

I'm not saying that I'm going to give it up once the 40 days are up, but I may continue to cut back on meat consumption. I'll still do the BBQ at family reunions and the burgers at Tailgates, but we'll see what I'm feelin' as it comes otherwise.

I'll keep ya posted on how it's coming, and I'm sure the last 33 days will go a lot faster than we think...

Drew.