Night the Wind

I have succeeded with a vegetarian diet for several years now. Without trying to convince you that you should follow my lead, I would just like to share with you what has worked for me, in case you should ever try to modify your diet again.

Because grains may be a little difficult to digest, I eat them at midday. If I have a very physically active day, I eat more grains than if I am going to have a slower day. But, this gives my body plenty of time (and energy burning activity) to digest this stuff. I eat whole grains because they are the most nutritious. Eating grain products at breakfast just does not work for me, they are too much and too heavy for my body to deal with.

Instead, my breakfast is made up of several raw organic carrots and scrambled tofu (raw if I’m really in a hurry). And on the days that I commute to my part time job, because it is a 5-mile bicycle ride, I also eat a banana. The natural sweetness of the carrots really gets me energized without the “sugar-high” (and subsequent crash) that one gets from sugar sweeteners. And I don’t get that heavy bloated feeling, weighing me down all morning.

On the mornings that I ride my bike hard and fast to work, I might arrive totally depleted of breakfast energy. So if I start to get that “blurry feeling”, I make myself a quick and easy protein shake, made with powered soy protein and apple juice. Or, maybe just even have a few sips of apple juice to tide me over till lunch.

At lunchtime, in addition to the whole grain sandwiches, I eat plenty of fruit. The fruit gives the body some quickly available calories so it does not just depend upon the more slowly digesting grains for its energy. I also try to eat most of my fat based foods (like nuts) at lunch because this gives me most of the day to burn this heavy stuff off.

The other thing that is critical is to be aware of is my energy level late in the afternoon. I always carry plenty of energy bars. These are the ones that athletes and hikers pack, to munch on when they need the energy. My two favorites are Odwalla bars and Cliff bars. Both use excellent ingredients and taste great! I completely avoid the types of bars that are formulated from junk, probably they’re little more than expensive candy bars. And depending on what I am going to be doing for the rest of the afternoon, I might nibble (or more) on a bar to keep my physical energy level up. I frequently eat half a bar before my 5-mile bicycle ride home. But, even if I am out shopping (and I find that particular activity burns up a lot of energy), an energy bar really brings me back from the brink of exhaustion.

I think that this is really an important thing to recognize in yourself. That when you are getting that exhausted feeling and it’s not yet a mealtime, it means your body needs energy right away. And you have to be ready with some high-energy, quickly digesting food to keep it going. Just because you’re not an athlete doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using these products. Just use in moderation that is appropriate for your situation. At these times, eating some grain products is definitely not the way to go. Even a couple of handfuls of raisins would be ok, although one can get bored with raisins after a while. And, you’re description of the lack of energy that you continually felt when you tried to be a vegetarian sounded like a classic example of a simple need of immediate calories going unrecognized and unsated.

A vegetarian diet really is different that a meat based one: Meat stays in your body a long time, digesting away (gives you that oh so full feeling). While vegetarian based diets are lighter, they might also require more attention to know when to eat, how much to eat, and what to eat. Because vegetarian foods, with the exception of grains and beans, tend to digest more quickly than meat products, you have to be ready to put more energy in the system when its running low. And if you have an active lifestyle, then you could suddenly find at any time of the day that your body needs some more calories in the system really fast.

If you’ve been running around a bit, you could quickly find your self exhausted, and this means you need to eat some fruit or something like that (thank goodness we now have energy bars, which we didn’t have 20 years ago) to bring your energy level back up. It’s amazing, but it really does work that fast, both running low and getting your energy back. And unfortunately, grain and bean based foods take so much longer to digest that they aren’t suited to resupplying one’s depleted energy level when its immediately needed.

By the way, I usually enjoy a dinner that is made up of lots of vegetables, tofu, and just a little bit of grain products (a slice of sour dough bread, or some hand-made corn tortillas, and a little bit or rice or noodles with the vegetables). I like to eat all sorts of vegetables at dinner, potatoes, celery, broccoli, mushrooms, squashes, and leafy vegetables. Yum! But it is important to remember to eat raw vegetables as well as cooked ones. When chewing raw vegetables, enzymes are created in the mouth and swallowed with the food that are helpful to the digestive process. I prefer to eat slightly bitter greens, as they seem to be very effective at this.

In our lives of practice, we realize how imperfect we are: That we will never be the ideal persons that we would like to be. This is the Koan that we all must face. In the realization that we live and die with our imperfect lives, we strive to access that which transcend these useless travails, and know that which already we are.