Day 2: hubby's reaction

Hubby had mixed feelings about my decision to go semi-veg/ethitarian. He seemed pretty skeptical of my intentions. I’ll confess I do have a tendency to dive into things and then end up changing my mind. But this is a very different situation then say deciding to sell painted mailboxes on ebay or learning to sew. He knows that my love for animals resonates within my heart and soul and shapes who I am. And I just can’t continue to contribute to unnecessary cruelty when there are other options.
He understands and supports that, but he also expressed concern over me having a diet that might be heavy on carbs and lacking in protein and the increased expense of buying vegetarian food/free-range/organic. I told him I wasn’t going vegan – I’m still eating fish and pastured dairy and poultry, so that seemed to alleviate some of his concern. And I reiterated that I wasn’t going to force him to do the same – that I hoped he would eventually agree – but I wasn’t going to make him follow suit. I did tell him that I wasn’t going to be buying nor cooking so the next time we go to the store should be interesting.

So we’ll see what happens – but I’m very serious about this and he seems to know it. His concern about me having a diet with too many carbs, too little protein was definitely valid and something I’m also worried about. So I’m going to try to really make sure I eat enough protein and maybe I’ll even end of measuring/tallying the grams. I found some sites that had good info on high protein foods – most which I already knew and already eat - so now my focus will just have to be on making sure I'm getting enough protein daily.

Protein power foods:
Eggs and Dairy
Egg, large - 6 grams protein
Milk, 1 cup - 8 grams
Cottage cheese, ½ cup - 15 grams
Yogurt, 1 cup – usually 8-12 grams, check label
Soft cheeses (Mozzarella, Brie, Camembert) – 6 grams per oz
Medium cheeses (Cheddar, Swiss) – 7 or 8 grams per oz
Hard cheeses (Parmesan) – 10 grams per oz
Beans (including soy)
Tofu, ½ cup 20 grams protein
Tofu, 1 oz, 2.3 grams
Soy milk, 1 cup - 6 -10 grams
Most beans (black, pinto, lentils, etc) about 7-10 grams protein per half cup of cooked beans
Soy beans, ½ cup cooked – 14 grams protein
Split peas, ½ cup cooked – 8 grams
Nuts and Seeds
Peanut butter, 2 Tablespoons - 8 grams protein
Almonds, ¼ cup – 8 grams
Peanuts, ¼ cup – 9 grams
Cashews, ¼ cup – 5 grams
Pecans, ¼ cup – 2.5 grams
Sunflower seeds, ¼ cup – 6 grams
Pumpkin seeds, ¼ cup – 19 grams
Flax seeds – ¼ cup – 8

http://vegetarian.about.com/

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/vegetarian/Vegetarian_Low_Carb_Resources.htm

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Food Diary - Day 2:
Bkfst: Fruit & nut granola bar

Lunch: salad, balsamic vinegar and I tried to up sources of protein by increasing the amount of garbanzo & kidney beans and then I added some sunflower seeds and tofu to the mix. (Not too sure about how much I liked the tofu…..hopefully it’ll grow on me)
Don’t know what I’ll do for dinner…..?


PS – Darling husband definitely wasn’t thrilled with the idea of getting chickens. So now I’ve got to show him all the benefits of chickens and convince him that having 3 or 4 wouldn’t be that stinky and that they would be nice, not-mean pets and we could build a nice coop. Luckily I found some great chicken coop ideas that are pleasing to the eye and too difficult to build. Pretty cool, huh?!