Announcing...Guiltless & Gourmet!

I know I posted last summer that I would not be continuing with Guiltless & Glamorous due to my schedule, but would of course leave the blog up for anyone wanting access to the information I have posted in the past.

Well, I have decided to branch out and 're-launch' Guiltless & Glamorous as...Guiltless & Gourmet! This will be done under my real name, Anna, and at the address http://guiltlessandgourmet.wordpress.com.

The reason for this is that I do not have time to do the research and writing required for Guiltless & Glamorous, so Guiltless & Gourmet is going to follow a different path...to show how easy it is to follow a vegetarian diet, I'm going to post a photo and description (with recipe if home-cooked) of my dinners each day (well, I don't want to aim for the impossible, so I would say most days :)). That way everyone can see how easy it is to follow a well-balanced and yummy vegetarian diet!

I remember when I first became vegetarian. The first few months felt as though they were about deprivation, rather than embracing a new lifestyle. It was all about what I couldn't have anymore. Of course, as time went on, I realized that rather than just cutting out meat I would have to start to add other items into my diet, and I can safely say that I never realized how amazing the gastronomical world was until I started researching how to eat a balanced and delicious vegetarian diet.

Ethnic food was in many ways my saviour at the beginning. So many countries cook vegetarian food so well - and have done for generations, long before vegetarianism became 'popular'. The Greeks make amazing spinach pies, the Mexicans know how to work with beans and the Middle Easterns find a way to make every pulse - especially chickpeas! - super yummy. However, the Indians really know what to do - which makes sense as some traditional Hindi diets are vegetarian. This really was good news for me as Indian food is one of my favourites - and still, to this day, the only meat item I miss is butter chicken!

Also, while I say that I do sometimes miss butter chicken, on the whole after six-eight months of vegetarianism, my tastes began to completely change and I no longer craved meat. In fact, as my family and friends will attest to, I feel quite ill at the smell of cooking meat and certainly no longer crave it. At times if I accidentally have some meat my body won't digest it as it no longer produces those enzymes (I'm sure if I was to slowly re-introduce meat into my diet my body would cope, but I just mean that having it once after not eating it at all for two years was too much!).

Some vegetarians are more relaxed; my mother is what is known as a pescatarian, so she eats fish but no meat. Also, some like to have a bit of turkey once a year or some other meat if they are staying at a friend's house and it is offered to them. I always say that although I couldn't do vegetarianism that way, every little bit helps. The benefits of vegetarianism are many - it helps the environment, your health and, of course, animals. It is my love of animals that made me go vegetarian though I do get a kick out of the fact that I am helping the environment and I enjoy the health benefits - added energy, clearer skin, less saturated fat - that I reap from following this diet.

As to how to get started...it's up to you. If you are an all-or-nothing person and you are good at setting your mind to something, go cold turkey (forgive the pun!). Give it all up one day and just change. Some people respond best to this method. However, I gradually cut out meat - starting with pig products (pigs are so intelligent and so cute, this one was easy!), then cutting out red meat, followed by chicken and lastly seafood and fish, as I never ate too much of this to begin with. And remember, don't make the same mistake I did - don't just cut out and forget to add back! Every time you cut out one meat group, add in a new vegetarian meal that you hadn't tried before - something with beans or pulses if you're not used to eating those normally.

Hopefully the recipes and photos I post on this blog will help you with adding to your diet rather than taking away. Ultimately, my diet now has so many more options in it than before I was vegetarian, ironically enough. Then dinners were all meat + starch + veg. Now they are so much more interesting and outside-the-box than that! So I hope to inspire others and please, please, please feel free to comment or email me with questions!

Thanks all,

Proving you don't have to be cruel to be kind,
GiGi