PersDev.com - Neal's Personal Development

Happy Easter everyone!

When I originally began the whole Vegetarian-For-Lent thingy, I intended on becoming vegetarian for 40 days, which was what I thought the time frame for Lent was. However, that’s not the case. Apparently according to this site, the 40 days of fasting doesn’t include Sundays, so Lent is actually 46 days long, to include Sundays. A couple days before I started, I counted out 40 days (including Sundays), and that was last Monday. Since I have no religious ties to Lent, I decided that this week I was going to wean myself off of a straight vegetarian diet back into a meat eating diet.

Surprisingly, my first meat was calamari, which I had never had before. My brother and I went to a fancy restaurant and he ordered it. I was intensely curious, so I stole a couple bites. More »

I’ve had quite a few new experiences since my last post. I’m proud to say that I’ve successfully stayed a strict vegetarian this whole time (no meat, even fish).

Sustainable Vegetarianism
I’ve found that in order to sustain a vegetarianism lifestyle, you have to discover comfort food that meets the vegetarian criteria. If you hate Mexican food, bean burritos are probably not a good food to think you can eat for the rest of your life. Naturally, if you’re only doing the vegetarian experiment for a few weeks (like for Lent), then you don’t have to worry about this as much. You can suffer through a few bean burritos or just avoid them altogether.

I’ve spent the last few weeks implementing this concept. One of the interesting things about this experiment is that my tastes have changed. I remembered HATING cottage cheese as a kid, but the other day I was craving it. I bought some, and now I can’t get enough of it. The same goes for bagels and cream cheese. I honestly can’t think of anything that I enjoy as much in the morning as a cinnamon raison bagel with strawberry cream cheese. (Yes, I know this is weird, but it tastes REALLY good!). More »

Greetings! If the writing style seems funny, that is because I am actually not Neal, but his girlfriend. I have also decided to jump in on that whole Lent thing that he was talking about. Specifically, the vegetarian for 40 days. However, I have added ANOTHER element to mine, which is giving up caffeine (in all of its delicious goodness) as well. More »

Ok, I realize it’s not quite a full week, but I think 6 days is a good start to record my initial thoughts and experiences of Vegetarianism.

It’s been quite an experience so far. Many of my expectations have been shattered, while many have been fulfilled. I’m really enjoying this new experience. More »

Well today is it. Today is the last day that I’m going to allow myself to eat meat, at least for the next 40 days. Lent starts tomorrow, and as I said earlier, I’m going vegetarian. I’ve been gorging myself on all sorts of meat-based meals over the last few days, from a seared steak to penne shrimp. I’m somewhat apprehensive in relation to starting a vegetarian diet, but my dominant feeling is excitement.

Throughout the next 40 days, I plan on blogging about my experiences. I will talk about what I’ve been eating, my cravings, thoughts about vegetarianism, and perhaps even recipes.

Since I’ve never followed a diet outside of the Standard American Diet (SAD), I’m really curious about how a vegetable based diet is going to affect me, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have a feeling that it will make a great impact on me in all three of these areas.

A big insight that I had in relation to my own personal development is that I had the tendency to read about, think about, and imagine what certain lifestyle changes would have upon my life. However, I never implemented those changes. I realized that I wasn’t improving my life at all, because I wasn’t experiencing the things I had in my head, or attempting to make those things a reality. When I realized this concept, I began focusing on action-oriented personal development, specifically, things I could realistically accomplish in a relatively soon. Vegetarianism is one of those goals. I have a strong belief that I will grow more from going vegetarian than I could ever grow through just thinking.

Part of my goal in going vegetarian is to explore new foods. If you have a tasty vegetarian recipe, I’d love to know about it.

Wish me luck!

- Neal

As I said last week, I’m going vegetarian for Lent. Vegetarianism has always been interesting to me, and only recently have I considered the possibility that I could become vegetarian.

When I first decided to participate in Lent, I had absolutely no idea what vegetarianism was all about. I though that it was basically eating salad for every meal. Since then, I’ve come to learn a lot about the vegetarian lifestyle.

There is a lot of faulty information regarding vegetarianism. I’ve heard from friends, family members, and other acquaintances that the vegetarian diet is unhealthy. This usually takes the form of a couple different phrases: “You can’t get enough protein” or “There’s certain things that you need (like nutrients) that can only be found in meat” are the most common. I disagree. I think that if you eat a balanced, healthy vegetarian diet, then you will have everything you need. I think that the sheer number of people who are vegetarian today prove that you can live without meat. More »

When I was talking to my girlfriend recently, she told me that she was planning on going vegetarian for Lent. I’ve heard of Lent before, but I had no experience with it. My prior experience of Lent consisted of me going to Starbucks with one of my friends and them saying that they can’t have caffeine because they gave it up for Lent. At the time, it sounded silly; why would you give up something that’s somewhat innocuous, only to be able to have it for the rest of the year.

Lent is a Catholic practice of giving up a vice, praying, and penitence. This lasts for approximately 40 days, from mid-February to Easter Sunday. Just because Lent is a religious practice doesn’t mean that you can’t also use this time to break from one of your vices. More »