On February 1, I became a vegetarian.

Okay, so it’s not a permanent change. I’m only doing it for this month. So, why? you might ask. There are a few reasons.

The first is that I just wanted to see how it would be. I like pretty much all vegetables and grains, so I didn’t think that I would run out of things that I’d enjoy eating. There have been times where I haven’t eaten meat in a couple of days. I just thought it might be interesting to extend it to a month and see what would happen.

The second is the potential health benefits it would give me. In general, people who are vegetarian tend to be healthier and weigh closer to “ideal” body weight. I have not exactly let myself go over the years, but I have a little fat that I wouldn’t mind losing. If, as a part of this process, I can drop a few pounds, so much the better. I’m also interested in seeing if processing less “heavy” things like meat would allow my body to function better as a whole. Sometimes I’m just sluggish in the afternoon, and caffeine doesn’t really do a lot for me. I’m interested in seeing if a change in diet will help.

Finally, this represents a bit of a culinary quest. My cooking skills aren’t really anything to write home about, but it’s easy to just make a cold cut sandwich at lunch, or get burgers or fried chicken fingers. Kelly’s not doing the vegetarian-only thing with me, but she’s being very supportive, and as a result we’re going to try new recipes.

I am following a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, which means that I can eat milk, cheese, and eggs. I’m not interested in doing anything more strict. I like cheese way too much for that to happen!

So it’s been four days into the experiment, and I have actually really enjoyed it so far. I’ve only duplicated a meal once (I had salad for lunch two times). We’ve made rotini with sauce and mixed vegetables, bean and cheese baked nachos, and tonight we had eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Yum.

I’ll try to tweet about my experience as I go through this month.