It was the Best of times, it was the Worst of times...

Here's the thing about me : I don't like to be wrong. I will fight and defend my position as long as I have argument to do so. However, if you show me the error of my ways, in a logical and grounded manner, after a fit of righteous indignation, I will generally concede the point. Yes, I was wrong. (you irritating buffoon) Except, of course, when it comes to my food.

I have been some version of vegetarian for over half of my life, and I am stuck in my ways. When I decided to go back to school just one year ago, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare. After much deliberation, I decided to pursue a career in dietetics. While I am still several years away from ever officially giving people advice on their food, people continue to ask me what I think anyway. And this is where my staunchly-held beliefs come in. I recommend what I know. Yet, I do not have the education to be making these recommendations to others.

Then, it dawned on me, after one spirited debate about the merits of Paleo, that I'm a hypocrite. Yes, I believe vegetarianism is better, and I have plenty of reasons for thinking so, but, and this is a big BUT, it is all I have ever experienced. So, one day, during a particularly long shower, I cooked up the idea of trying out some of the various diets out there, living by their tenants, following their, at times ridiculous, rules. It seemed like a good way to educate myself about what each of the diets entails, and the science behind them.

Initially, I planned on spending one week on each diet, pretty much to minimize the harm I was certain I would be inflicting upon my body. However, as one friend so astutely pointed out, then I would be missing all of the purported benefits of these plans.

The plan then began to form, three weeks on each diet, four diets, twelve weeks in total. A trial of the diets, so to speak. Pitting them against one another is the hallowed halls of my kitchen. Then, I thought, I should write about it, and here we are. This blog shall be my record of the highs, lows and in-betweens of my personal diet experiment.


* As a side note, I would like to point out that I am not testing these diets for their weight loss capabilities, as I am currently at a healthy weight. Rather, my aim is to study how I feel on the diet, on both a physical and emotional level.