One of the things on my 23 for 2023 list was “Meatless February” which I am close to completing successfully. During this month I have had eggs and dairy (I don’t drink cow’s milk because I lost my taste for it some time ago, but I do eat cheese and yogurt) but no animal flesh of any kind.
I’ve flirted with vegetarianism and veganism several times over the last few years, but I never went an entire month without meat. This month I went to the library several times to check out vegetarian cookbooks and spent hours on Pinterest and other websites researching recipes. My goal was to find food that I absolutely loved – not to gag down endless salads and lentil casseroles.
I’ve enjoyed this month so much! I don’t eat soy products, so I couldn’t use tofu as a source of protein, but thankfully I absolutely love beans (not a huge lentil fan, though). Cold salads don’t really appeal to me when the weather is cold, but I found several warm salads that were fabulous. I feel great and I’m excited to continue eating this way for the foreseeable future. Chris and I both love roasted vegetables of all kinds, and we’ve discussed how most of the recipes I’ve made can simply have a piece of salmon or chicken added if he wants that. Will I ever have bacon, a beef burger, steak, or chicken again? Probably. Or maybe. Who knows? But right now I love eating this way, so I’ll continue and see how it goes.
As you can see from the photos, I’ve been out birding several times since my last blog post — both weekend days and some evenings after work. I’ve discovered wildlife photography FOMO is a thing – “The herons have started building their nests! I need to get over there TODAY!” And I love having something I look forward to every single day.
Going out onto the trails, or even sitting in my own kitchen with my camera watching for birds in my back yard, is so meditative for me. When I’m on the trails, I move slowly, constantly scanning, stopping often. This is not a work out. I do my workout walking five mornings a week – on the weekends I might walk a total of 5 or more miles each day, but they are slow miles. I’ve read before about something called a state of “flow” – when you are so immersed in an activity that you don’t even notice time passing. When I’m out looking for birds I’m definitely in a state of flow.
I won’t be putting up a new blog post for about three weeks. I’m going to be busy with something that I will tell you all about when I return to this space!
Love,
Michelle xoxo