The Pescetarian Transition

Since starting university last year it seems my immune system has gotten weaker and weaker. Over summer I was eating lots of home cooked and healthy foods, but still I seemed to be warn down. In China my health problems continued and somehow I caught pneumonia, it's been a pretty rough month or so trying to get over the infection and recover, but slowly I am getting better.

Something I decided to try just before getting pneumonia was a pescetarian diet. I cut down on eating out at restaurants as I was doing this almost every night. I cook at home every night, usually a vegetarian meal but I'm trying to include more fish in my diet. The only meat I eat now is chicken and it will be something healthy I've prepared myself, but this is only once or twice a month.

I used to always say to myself, "I could never be a vegetarian because of bacon". And it's true, I do LOVE bacon, but it's still pretty easy to find enough other food to eat.

This weekend I was searching for some recipe inspiration and I was overwhelmed by the amount of variety there still is. I'm a good cook and know enough about food but I was still amazed at the variety and variety of vegan foods there are.

Changing my diet from anything and everything to pescetarian and also trying to cut down on unhealthy snacks and sugars makes me feel better. I drink more water, I feel fuller for longer (I eat oats everyday for breakfast) and drink lots of water. This is one of the best tips for keeping hunger at bay, the key really is drinking lots of water!

Not only is water vital for your body to function, but it also helps you to stay hydrated, fill you up and cure hunger. A lot of the times that you think you feel hungry, you're actually just thirsty, so now I've made my first instinct to be reaching for my water bottle before the food.

Another thing I've found quite interesting in this transition is that I don't crave meat. I used to eat meat about 5 or 6 times a week, it was rare to have a completely vegetarian, even if I had a vegetarian dinner, I might have had ham for lunch. And whilst researching new recipes, I do find the sound of meat dishes appealing but I don't feel the want to cook it as much, I find the fish/vegetarian/vegan meals sound much more interesting to me now.

This is a mid-week rant post more than anything, but one message I'd like to get across is that you should eat whatever you want, but try and make it healthy! Yes, you have one life and you should live it to the fullest and however you want, but to make it a long and full (excuse the pun) life, you can make healthy swaps for a lot of foods... dates work really well when making sweet treats like brownies or oat bars instead of refined sugar. Vegetables (marrow, courgette, celeriac, squash, etc) make amazing pasta alternatives!

Sometimes the healthy swaps are actually nicer than the original! Plus, you can get so much more satisfaction from cooking something from scratch instead of a ready-meal/take-away.

For more healthy meal inspiration, keep an eye out for my autumn recipe post! Also check out my Pinterest board for more healthy food inspiration.