Introduction

Hello!

This is the introduction post. Yay.

Short story

I went vegetarian on November 1st 2005, I lost 40 pounds, I want to eat more raw.

Long story

I ate bad as a kid. My dad and I went to McDonald's what seems like once a week. My usual was a large big mack meal with a chicken sandwich on the side. I ate more then my dad! He was always surprised at how much I could eat, everyone was actually. This is what I got from the time I was a kid up into my teens on a regular basis! Forget kids meals, I wanted a big mack. When I became a preteen I started cooking rock cornish hens all the time, I still went to McDonald's, sometime Burger King, with my dad all the time. I pretty much ate whatever I wanted. I make funny songs, one of my first songs is called Big Macks!

In 1996 I became obsessed with "Weird Al" after seeing Amish Paradise on MTV. I found out he was vegetarian and one time when I was 12 or 13 I decided to try it JUST because he was. I didn't have the internet, the internet wasn't that big yet. I could have gone to the library to research it, but I didn't think about it. I didn't last a day. That was the last time I ever thought about thinking about it. I met my fiancé, then girlfriend, Rachel on the first day of high school (August 2000). She didn't like meat very much.

One day in my high school nutrition class (might have been late '02 or early '03) we were studying cholesterol. If I remember correctly, the teacher had a model of 4 arteries. The first one was empty, there was nothing blocking it (a clean artery). The second one was a little full, the 3rd one was almost full and the 4th one was all the way full (a clogged artery). She pointed to the 1st one, the clean one, and said something like "This is what a vegetarian's artery looks like." she was talking and I remember her saying, "Vegetarians are some of the healthiest people in the world." That's when I said, "hmmm". Knowing that "Weird Al" is vegetarian and Rachel didn't like meat, I put all 3 of those things together and decided to research vegetarianism.

I researched it on the Internet, actually I think at first I mainly went to the library and got books. I rented a video called The Healthy Vegetarian, after watching it I pretty much said I want to be vegetarian. If I remember correctly, the 1st time I officially announced to the world that I wanted to go veg was in February 2003, I was 18. I pretty much went about it the wrong way. I told everyone. That was a VERY BAD idea. I thought everyone was going to be happy for me and congratulate me. NOPE! Everyone (except for Rachel - who was then pretty much semi-veg but didn't refer to herself that way) thought I was crazy and thought the whole thing was stupid. All this has changed now, I've come A LONG way with being vegetarian.

I got discouraged by everyone's attitude. I also had killer cravings. So I gave up. Then I tried again and gave up. Then again, then again and again like 20 more times. What would happen is I would try it and then get to a point where my cravings took over. I would go to China Buffet and gorge or I would stop by Kroger and get a precooked rotisserie hen. I confused people because they would say I was vegetarian and I would say well actually I'm not or they would say I wasn't vegetarian then I would say I was.

On Halloween of 2005 after watching some vegetarian videos I decided to give it one last try starting the next day on November 1st (3 weeks after I turned 21). Thank goodness I did because I haven't eaten meat since and I never will again. I was 240 pounds at this time and it was my breaking point. I decided no matter how much I craved meat (usually around the 2 month mark) I would not eat it. 2 months came and I was strong I didn't eat it. It got a lot easier after that. 8 months later Rachel went full fledge veg. Things are A LOT better now! Everyone is used to my vegetarianism. My mom and dad have both tried it and my brother has expressed interest in it!

I became a member on veggieboards, the main vegetarian forum, on 5-1-5 after an attempt at trying to be vegetarian (before I stuck with it on 11-1-5).

Some of my main thread are:
The day I went vegetarian (11-1-5)
The day I stopped drinking pop (8-1-6)
When I started exercising (3-7)
Wanting to eat more raw (5-7)
When I did the Master Cleanse (5-7)

My job had a weight loss contest, I won! I lost 30.4 pounds (13.1%) in 10 weeks! I did it by exercising, toward the end I started to eat more raw and I did the Master Cleanse.

I currently weigh 200 pounds, I want to get down to 160. I want to take my diet further and eat more raw, like 75% raw. That's one reason why I made this blog, to help myself eat more raw and to lose weight. I'm going to post what I eat and my weight loss progression. I'll post pics and videos.

That's pretty much it! I'm 22 years old, I've been vegetarian since 11-1-5, I want to eat more raw and lose 40 more pounds.