Yes, I was.  But how is that possible?

From the outside looking in, being a vegetarian is just eliminating meat and/or animal products from your diet.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  More than ten years ago, I was vegetarian for 3 years and 2 years before that, I was a dietary vegan.  Although I felt a little better, I was still sick and obese.  Why?  It was because I committed the sin many new vegans and vegetarians (who have not read this post) will commit; they will make bad choices.  The reality is that there are many fat, sick vegetarians out there because they, as I once did, seek to eat vegetarian approximations of unhealthy non-vegetarian foods instead of eating vegetables.

To eat highly processed vegetarian foods in excess, while neglecting proper nutrition, is a waste of time, money, and effort and you will not achieve the results you expect.

While I was a vegetarian, I spent years and a lot of money seeking vegetarian versions of the bad foods I used to eat.  For example, at Thanksgiving dinner instead of eating turkey, I had tofu turkey called Tofurky.  Yes, it is as good as it sounds.  Instead of my old Chinese food favorite, General Tso’s Chicken (which by the way is not a traditional Chinese dish at all), I sought out the best General Tso’s Tofu I could find.  Let’s not forget cookies.  I had to find the best tasting vegan cookies in order to tame my jones for a Ms. Field’s chocolate chip or this vegan thing was off!  I craved and found excellent vegan ice creams, amazing veggie burgers, and incredible tasting vegan milk shakes.  For those concerned about finding a viable substitution for your ‘I can’t live without it foods’ chances are a substitute exists.  But, there is a problem:

Many processed vegetarian foods often contain enormous amounts of salt, sugar, and additives so they can taste like the foods we were used to.

There are a lot a professing vegetarians out there who are hurting the cause of the vegan/vegetarian campaign.  I was one of them!  Long ago when I was first “preaching” vegetarianism, instead of eating chicken, I was eating cheese.  Instead of eating cauliflower, I was eating cookies.  I was overweight and had severe skin problems because,

I wasn’t a vegetarian, I was a Chessetarian, Cookietarian, and a Sugartarian!

Removing dairy and meat from your diet only to substitute them with poor quality vegetarian substitutes is a recipe for disaster.  Unfortunately, stamping vegan on a pack of cookies doesn’t suddenly make them healthy.  General Tso’s Tofu is still batter fried soy protein chunks tossed in a sweet honey glaze. I recently learned that 7 pieces of General Tso’s Tofu from my favorite veggie restaurant was 1325 calories!  So here is the rub.

The issue is no different from people who undergo radical surgeries or crash diets only to come out on the other side and eat the same things they did before.  This is why traditional diets fail.  If a person does not address the underlying issues of their eating and learn what their body really needs, they will fall back to old bad habits.  We must redefine diet as stated by nutrition expert, Daniel Vitalis,

“What we are talking about is a real diet, in the sense of,
what a species eats!”  - Daniel Vitalis

If what you are doing isn’t working, at Off The Grid Health, we believe you have to change, permanently.  Rethink it all.  Consider unplugging from the highly processed, mass-produced, fast food culture that is endangering our nation’s health.  Rethink old traditions and select a few to bring over into your new healthier lifestyle and re-evaluate your choices periodically.

Try an approach recommended by nutrition expert David Wolfe.  Start by replacing a meal a day with a healthy high nutrient density meal.  Increasing your intake of healthier meals over time will crowd out your desire for the bad stuff.

I chose the ‘cold tofurky’ route.  I performed a vegetable juice fast.  The fast reset my mind, changed what I desired to eat and cleansed my body so I can digest food properly again.  On the other side of the fast, I lost an additional 37 pounds through exercise and by making more nutritive food choices.  I will follow-up with some tips from my personal experience on this soon.

In closing,

No matter what eating approach you choose, if it lacks the nutrition you need, you will get or remain sick and you will not obtain the results you expected.

At Off The Grid Health, we pursue nourishment from high nutrient content (plant-based) foods, smoothies, and extracted juices, consume organic produce preferably from local sources, eat wild caught fish, take moderate supplementation, and perform occasional detoxification and cleansing.

Thanks for reading!