Book Review & My New Lifestyle

So instead of a recipe on this "Tasty Tuesday" I'm going to talk a little bit about a new life decision I made recently regarding my eating habits.

Has everyone heard of this book?

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The book was published in 2005 and written by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  The title will definitely fool you.  From the title and the cover I think that it's about changing the way we eat and the way we view food in general.  I thought it would be similar to Bethenny's Naturally Thin, which I loved.  Wrong!  It is a very sharp, to-the-point, no-nonsense book about veganism and avoiding processed foods. 

I heard about the book a few years ago, but I never read it.  After reading Raven's post I decided to check it out from my local library.  I started and finished the entire book within a 24 hour period.  I was so intrigued by the information in it.

{Just to back up a little... I've always been health-conscious.  I used to be very active so I never watched what I ate.  It wasn't until starting college and a sedentary "desk" job that I realized how important eating right was.  I also used to work at a medical weight loss clinic where I taught a nutrition course.  I was a nutrutional counselor, and our program was calorie counting.  I've been a big advocate for counting calories since then because it works.  And it's scientifically proven.  I know the importance of eating a well balance diet.  I mostly cook from scratch, and we do not eat or buy a lot of processed foods.  About 6 months ago I started buying only free range organic chicken.  Ok so that's where I was before I read the book.} 

Anyway... The book had a lot of eye-opening info in it.  If you are easily offended by the f-word or any curse words this book is definitely not for you.  Considering I sometimes have a bad mouth myself... It didn't bother me! 
There are sections on animal cruelty, factory farming, the processing of meat and other foods.  I was actually in the process of doing the 17 Day Diet  when I first started reading this. One night I had to make a chicken and vegetable soup.  I was sitting on the couch trying to eat the soup when I got totally grossed out by the thought of the chicken.  I threw the soup away and haven't eaten meat since.  That was the 16th of November.  I did have about 3-5 bites of turkey on Thanksgiving.  But that is it. 

I have no plan of going completely vegan.  I just feel like it might be too difficult and a little to expensive for me.  I don't think I could totally cut out cheese and every single animal processed food.  Eggs are also one of my favorite breakfast foods.  Even though it took me until last week to be able to stomach eggs again.

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One of the other big parts that got me was a section on diet cokes.  I've always known the aspartame was really bad.  My mom has always gotten onto me about diet cokes because of it.  But I never paid attention to it.  My husband and I both are huge diet coke drinkers.  It wasn't until seeing it all in writing that it clicked.  I  haven't had more than a few sips of diet coke since reading the book almost a month ago.  I have had a few regular cokes here and there.  But the scariest thing was reading all of the possible side effects of aspartame. 

So far making this transition into vegetarianism has been easy.  I was never a huge meat eater.  I would much rather eat carbs anyway.  The first week I lost about 4 lbs.  But that's not the reason I am doing this.  I managed to sustain the entire time in Vegas without eating meat except for the few bites of turkey on Thanksgiving.  The hardest part is going out to dinner though.  But in Vegas most places had vegetarian options.  I had a vegetarian hot dog with all kinds of good toppings at Pink's.  Johnny Rockettes had a soy burger that you could substitute any burger for.  So some restaurants are jumping on the bandwagon. 

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I have still been eating seafood though.  I've always liked the products by Boca and Morningstar way before this.  So that has made the transition easier.  Here's an example of some things I've been cooking that the husband can eat too.
Red beans with sausage in the crock pot- I just don't eat the sausage
Vegetable stir-fry with quinoa or rice
Spaghetti- husband will put meatballs in his
If he eats a pork chop or chicken I will make a Boca burger or boca chicken patty
veggie wraps
salads

I have not tried to push this lifestyle on anyone, not even husband.  But he's been so supportive of it.  I feel really good about my decision.  And I just feel better in general.  So what do you think?  Is this something you would every consider? Have you read the book or anything like it? 
Sorry this is so long-winded!
XO-Heather