30 Before 30 Update - Vegetarian for a Month

Happy Monday Noobs! I hope you all had a great weekend.  My crazy work schedule strikes again, having me work Saturday but as a result I have today off so you won't hear me complaining!  I wanted to devote some time to give a few thoughts on my last 30 Before 30 task completed, where I was a vegetarian [pescatarian, really] for the month of June.

As I had mentioned in my last post on the subject, I am a huge meat eater.  My goal through the entire process was to incorporate more vegetables into my diet, and I did - but boy did I suffer during the process, especially the first and last week.  I find that when you eliminate an entire food category from your diet, it becomes more of a mind game then anything because all of a sudden that category is the only thing you want to eat.  Thankfully I stayed strong and didn't cheat once during the entire month, which is saying something - you're talking to the girl who made her husband get them fast food during a three day juice cleanse!

As far as my ultimate goal of incorporating more vegetables into my diet, I do feel as though it has been achieved.  I am now consistently eating breakfast, which includes two servings of fruits (previously this would have been Nutella on toast.) My lunches are more likely to be pre-packed salads and wraps full of vegetables and falafel (previously chicken fingers.)  Dinners is where I do eat the majority of my meat, but I have picked up some fantastic meat-free recipes during my challenge which I am still incorporating into the dinner line up.  I may still be a meat eater, but at least now I'm much more conscious of my vegetables intake, and that's all that I really wanted in the end.

There were a few tools that helped me along the way.  Amuse Your Bouche was, and still is, an invaluable resource for easy and delicious vegetarian meals. In fact, their avocado and chickpea salad is a part of my weekly rotation and makes a fantastic lunch for work (you can see the salad in pita bread in the above photo.)  Seriously guys, if you're looking for some amazingly simple and healthy recipes to change up your routine, give the website a try.  Pinterest was also a huge resource, but I really had to force myself to actually execute my vegetarian pins rather then just admire my beautiful Pinterest board.

I also want to say a huge thank you for your sweet comments and advice, especially those who have given me their green juice recipe!

Hope you have a great start to the week.

xo Joëlle