It's been two weeks without meat or lights and we're still alive. In fact, I would say this is shaping up to be a pretty awesome month. Before I get into more of an update, I want to answer a few questions people have been asking:
1. For our candlelight experiment, we have not changed anything else except for not using room lights. We still use computers, phones, and electricity.
2. I don't yet have any concrete numbers in terms of money savings or environmental impact of this experiement, but I have started a spreadsheet so I can make an educated guess.
3. We haven't gone vegan, just eliminated meat from our diet. I still drink milk (I don't think I could not drink milk) and eat eggs.
Candlelight
This experiment has been going really well, though there have definitely been times, mainly when I've lost something and can't find it, when I want to turn on the lights. I've been good, though and avoided room lights completely. It's been kind of funny when people come over and having to light the candles to use the bathroom.
The bathroom and the clothes closet are still the biggest problem rooms. There is no outside light in either one and they typically require lighting for their respective purposes. I've missed spots shaving several times and picking out clothes is a bit difficult even under candlelight. Kitzzy yells at me for bringing open candles into the closet (for fear of fire) so I just do it when she's not around.
I've noticed myself trying to put things in consistent locations so I don't have to light a candle to look for them. At the start of the month, I was very quick to light candles for everything, but now I do my best to feel my way around to find what I'm looking for. It's been working well so far.
Another big change I've noticed is trying to get as much done as possible before the sun goes down. While candlelight helps, there's some things, like working on my bike, that I need more light for. The same goes for making dinner. I try to finish dinner as quickly as possible so I'm not trying to make it by candlelight.
Vegetarian
Speaking of making dinner, vegetarian month is going great too! The amount of varied food we've been eating is fantastic. When we were eating meat, we would pretty much make the same meals over and over. Now, maybe because we're new to this, we've made a bunch of unique and tasty meals.
We've been making a lot of chilies. They are incredibly easy to make and you can pretty much just add any combination of beans, vegetables, and spices and you're good to go. Last Monday we made a huge pot full of chili and a tempeh stir fry and these lasted us almost all week.
My two favorite dishes so far have been Sweet Potato Burritos and the Shepherd's Pie. Tonight we made sweet potato raviolis that came out very good, but the amount of work required didn't justify the result.
As far as its effect on my body, I've been on a few very fast bike rides and I've been able to keep up so I think I'm getting enough protein. There was a few days where I felt sluggish when I shouldn't have and I was contemplating my diet being a factor, but overall my body seems to be adjusting well to this.
Overall, April is turning out pretty cool. I think after the month is over, we'll probably start using some lights again, maybe just the closet at first. I think we might stick with vegetarianism for awhile longer. We've found some awesome new meals and I haven't noticed any adverse effects on my training. Veg On!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Vegetarian April
April is proving to be quite the month for new experiences. I posted recently about Kitzzy and I going candlelight-only for a month and this week we decided to go vegetarian for the month as well.
How did this decision get made? Well we've been talking about trying this for sometime now so the idea of doing it wasn't too much of a surprise. Secondly, I recently watched Food, Inc. and I started to wonder how the meat we buy has made its way to our table. I know I've been eating this same meat for a long time, but to see the conditions needed to provide a large country with enough meat to feed everyone, animal factories make meat look much less appetizing.
I'm not opposed to meat, but I've tried to buy meat that's free-range and sustainable and have spent much more than I care to on it. So instead of spending a fortune on meat, this is a great opportunity to learn how to fulfill my dietary needs during a busy training season with no meat.
Somehow this managed to coincide with me being the chef for the month so I'm getting to learn some really good vegetarian recipes. The first one I made was just a tofu stir fry. This was lacking in flavor and in general was just poorly executed. I'm not a big fan of tofu, mostly because of the texture.
The second meal I made was a vegetarian shepherd's pie that replaced the meat with a lentil and pearl barley mixture. This came out fantastic! I was blown away by how tasty this was and encouraged that I could make a protein-rich vegetarian meal without tofu.
My third meal was a vegetarian meatloaf that used lentils and quick oats instead of meat. This was good, but not as good as the shepherd's pie. I think it just needed some extra spices.
Well I'm looking forward to the rest of the month and learning to cook some great new food. This should be a lot of fun and who knows, maybe we'll keep this up for longer than the month.
How did this decision get made? Well we've been talking about trying this for sometime now so the idea of doing it wasn't too much of a surprise. Secondly, I recently watched Food, Inc. and I started to wonder how the meat we buy has made its way to our table. I know I've been eating this same meat for a long time, but to see the conditions needed to provide a large country with enough meat to feed everyone, animal factories make meat look much less appetizing.
I'm not opposed to meat, but I've tried to buy meat that's free-range and sustainable and have spent much more than I care to on it. So instead of spending a fortune on meat, this is a great opportunity to learn how to fulfill my dietary needs during a busy training season with no meat.
Somehow this managed to coincide with me being the chef for the month so I'm getting to learn some really good vegetarian recipes. The first one I made was just a tofu stir fry. This was lacking in flavor and in general was just poorly executed. I'm not a big fan of tofu, mostly because of the texture.
The second meal I made was a vegetarian shepherd's pie that replaced the meat with a lentil and pearl barley mixture. This came out fantastic! I was blown away by how tasty this was and encouraged that I could make a protein-rich vegetarian meal without tofu.
My third meal was a vegetarian meatloaf that used lentils and quick oats instead of meat. This was good, but not as good as the shepherd's pie. I think it just needed some extra spices.
Well I'm looking forward to the rest of the month and learning to cook some great new food. This should be a lot of fun and who knows, maybe we'll keep this up for longer than the month.
Candlelight Update
Last week I posted about our plans to go without artificial light for a month. Well we're a week in and it has been going surprisingly well!
I finally got all of our needed shelves put up in the kitchen and bathroom so we could have more candlelight around. The tape on the light switches is still keeping us honest from time to time, though I've noticed myself reaching for the switch less and less.
The hardest part about this so far has been shaving. It seems no matter how many candles I put around me, it's still kind of difficult to really see where you're shaving.
One of the best parts about this has been that we open the windows much more now since the candles don't put out a lot of light. We need as much supplemental light as possible and it's also nice having sunlight instead of fluorescent light.
I still haven't covered the aquarium light, but I'm shortening the photoperiod (it needed to be shortened anyway) so the lights shut off at 7pm instead of 9pm. This will give us more of the evening without lights to make this more realistic.
I'm very optimistic abut the rest of the month and can see this going on for longer than the month. There have been times, particularly if I've lost something and need to find it, that I've wanted to turn the lights on, but I've managed pretty well without them.
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| Bathroom shelf |
The hardest part about this so far has been shaving. It seems no matter how many candles I put around me, it's still kind of difficult to really see where you're shaving.
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| My candlestick after 1 week |
I still haven't covered the aquarium light, but I'm shortening the photoperiod (it needed to be shortened anyway) so the lights shut off at 7pm instead of 9pm. This will give us more of the evening without lights to make this more realistic.
I'm very optimistic abut the rest of the month and can see this going on for longer than the month. There have been times, particularly if I've lost something and need to find it, that I've wanted to turn the lights on, but I've managed pretty well without them.
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