Going Back to the Dark Side

Happy Monday! Bear with me today, this post is probably going to come off as much more dramatic than it should be.  I'm a female, shoot me.  Anyways, I had to make a kind of difficult decision this weekend after making a really dumb one last week. 

If you remember correctly, I busted out a half marathon a few months back. 

And I know you remember, because I still like to brag about it.  Also, I'm one of those obnoxious people with a 13.1 sticker on the back of their car.  Get over it.  Anyways, after a few months of mulling it over, I decided on Friday to put myself through that again....times two.

That's right.  I've tricked myself into thinking I can run 26.2 miles.  Even worse, I paid for it.  I have eight months to train, so no panicking quite yet, but I'll get there. 

Back to the point of this post.  I've spent the past five years being a vegetarian/pescatarian.  A year of that I spent avoiding all things animal related as a vegan.  I gave up being a vegan after I got pretty heavy into running and was getting easily injured.  I just couldn't find the right balance of food that gave me everything I needed with my level of activity.  I'm well aware that plenty of people are able to find this balance, but I just couldn't make it work for me.  I didn't have the time or money to put into my diet that was necessary.  Switching to being a vegetarian did the trick, and I was running with zero problems.  A few years later, I found myself in the same situation, so I added fish every once and a while, and again, problem solved.  So, we are again.  I find myself needing to change my diet.  I don't like to eat fish enough to get what I need in my diet.  Being a vegetarian and being a picky eater don't usually go hand and hand. It wasn't a big deal until now.  Now, I am going to put my body through hell.  I will do the hardest thing I will probably ever physically do.  So, it's time to throw in my vegetarian hat.  I feel ashamed.  (Like I said, dramatic.)  Don't get me wrong, I'm not gnawing on steaks over here.  Pork and beef will still be off limits.  Finding free range chicken is much easier than finding a place that gets their bacon from a place that doesn't torture its animals.

I feel like I've given up.  Like I'm losing at something.  But, running a marathon is important to me, and being healthy is important to doing that.  Again, I'm aware that lots of people lay off animal products and are extremely athletic, but I've done my research, and I don't think it's doable for me. 

My intention is to go back to being a vegetarian after/if I get through this, but we'll see. 

On the plus side, I'm going to be much less of a pain in the ass on Thanksgiving this year.

Birds, forgive me.