As I mentioned in the March (the late March) edition of my Former Fat Guy Ezine, I've practiced vegetarianism for 10 years as well as Veganism for 2 more. It taught me a great deal about health, nutrition and the ability to be a bodybuilder while consuming only vegetables, nuts and seeds. Even while being vegetarian, I still didn't eat eggs and was able to put on a great deal of f.at burning muscle! Here are some great vegetarian resources. Vegetarian and Vegan recipes from around the world: http://www.ivu.org/recipes/ Chef Beverly Lynn Bennett's Vegan Chef: http://www.veganchef.com/ an online guide to vegetarian restaurants around the world. Searchable. http://www.vegdining.com/home.cfm The most comprehensive website for everything raw, organic and health oriented. David Wolfe is a leading writer and practitioner of "the Power of Raw". All your Raw and living food products: http://www.formerfatguy.com/go/rawfood I drove 8 hours to my home town in Saskatchewan Canada to spend the Easter holiday with my father. My sister flew out to Saskatoon and then her and her husband drove in on Saturday to visit as well. While out for supper with dad, I mentioned to my sister about the sudden increase in interest of vegetarianism. I've noticed over the past few weeks a "renewed" or at least a spike in interest for raw foods, vegetarianism and veganism. I've been receiving emails about my own vegetarian roots and how it affected my w.eight l.oss. My sister agreed and said that she's noticed an increase as well and that it seems to be coming back into fashion. My sister is a dietitian. She follows and teaches the Canadian Food Guide version of nutrition so we agree to disagree on a lot of health and nutrition points. Her and her husband recommend peanut butter for example, while I recommend Almond Butter as a far superior nutritional source. Her and her husband don't really believe that 80% of the population are wheat sensitive, while I recommend doing the "wheat free test" to decide for yourself. anyway, I digress. I do that occasionally. When I first started my health journey, back in 1991 or so, information on raw foods, food combining and vegetarianism came my way. I've always believed in "trying" things and judging for myself the results. What I read about vegetarianism from the Diamonds and from John Robbins led me to try it. As I adopted a more natural diet, a lot of things changed in me and I really began to feel better and drop even more w.eight. I still struggled with cravings and was still addicted to drugs and alcohol. Imagine that. Taking such a healthy turn in my life, but still smoking drugs. It was only after the introduction of a very powerfully concentrated form of Chinese whole foods from a company called Sunrider that my stress levels were reduced and I was able to remove all addictions from my life. In fact, it was at this point that I created a new addiction. The addiction to weight training. I went through months where all I ate was raw foods. My motto was "if I put it on the counter, and if it rots, it's something I'd put in my body". Processed foods were out. It had to be alive to make it into my stomach. I got very very very thin. Got down to 187 but I figure I was still about 30% body fat. I was quite gaunt and had no muscle tone. I kept weight training and relied mostly on oatmeal and brown rice for my protein sources. If you're currently vegetarian and NOT eating oatmeal, I'd advise that you do. Very good for you. I recommend "Bob's Red Mill" steel cut oats or Scottish oatmeal. I know it was the Sunrider foods that allowed me to put on so much muscle and keep my blood sugar levels even and my energy levels up. I'm so thankful I have them in my life. I kept at the vegetarianism until Nov of 2003 where a new girlfriend wanted to cook me some chicken. I had been thinking about having meat come back into my life for about a year prior to this. I had to deal with the moral issues I had about it, but the lessons I teach are all about "trying things" and recording the results. I'd been weight training for years and with my body type, I SHOULD be eating animal protein. I decided that all the factors were in alignment and would give it a go. the final factor involved was a discussion I had with Dannion Brinkly (http://www.dannion.com/) author of "Saved by the light". Dannion has died a number of times and the talk I had with him was way beyond what I could ever describe here. The new girl cooked the chicken and I loved it. I noticed changes in my again over the next few days and the doors once again opened to a whole new realm of nutrition information regarding proteins and how it affects f.at metabolism and f.at burning. I have since kept the animal proteins in my diet choosing to eat fr.e.e range chickens and eggs over the commercial variety. so far, so good. I'm happy where I'm at with this decision. Vegetarianism played a huge role in my understanding of health and nutrition and I'm so very thankful for the experience. There are times when I recommend it for people to get through specific issues that they're going through and would not question a return to it if it felt right to me. I'd love to hear your comments on this, or on vegetarianism. Until next time, Eat Well, Be Well Rob www.formerfatguy.com