Hi Tofu

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

~Albert Einstein

Thinking back, I'm not really sure how the transformation happened. I suppose it was a gentle one, as I didn't give up meat "cold turkey." Ha. The last time I remember eating any type of meat would have been Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and before that I was meat free from the beginning of November.

For the better part of my teenage and adult life I've practiced extreme food awareness. I've never drank a caloric drink that wasn't a specialty coffee and I don't think I've ever eaten a french fry, unless of course I stole a few off of Chad-o's plate. I've ran hundreds of thousands of miles, entered countless races and made my cardiovascular health a top priority.

I won't lie. Much of my food awareness stems from vanity. On the other hand, making positive food choices results in my having an overall better attitude and higher self-confidence. While a delicious scoop of french onion dip and a bowl of salty chips may initially taste delicious, I'll feel like a toad for the next four days.

"Why? Why? Why? Why did I put that trash in my body?" I'll beg of myself.

I've been wanting to convert to a vegetarian lifestyle for a long while. I switched over to soy milk last year, and recently I made the change from soy to almond milk. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

For a few years I've eaten veggie burgers and soy patties for lunch, but I never thought making a complete transformation would work with a carnivore husband. I've gotta hand it to him, he's been beyond supportive. When I have a fridge full of tofu and hummus and make tofu tacos for me and meat tacos for him, he just grins. He even ate my vegetarian shepard's pie the other night. I know he didn't love it, but he was nice and said it wasn't too bad.

Recently I read a book that made me perform some serious soul searching. Skinny Bitch, a rather biased view on how to live a healthy lifestyle, had me entirely re-evaluating my eating habbits and making serious changes. It's a tad fanatical, and like I mentioned- biased, but highly informative and ridiculously disturbing. Read it.

Tonight I whipped up a super easy, insanely healthy tofu stir-fry. Delicious.

Also, vegetarianism falls into my "live simply" theme. Simple foods--wholesome, healthy, humane.