Fat, I Ate Fat

I’m twenty four days into my vegetarian challenge, a challenge that I hope to make a permanent part of my lifestyle, and a complication has manifested. I couldn’t help notice that within the last two weeks I have lost some muscle mass in my upper body, arms, and shoulders. I had this same issue with my legs late last year and so of course I am a little concerned as to what may or may not be going on.

I figure there could be a couple of things at play. I have completed fifty thousand pushups over the past eight and a half months. Could it be I am not giving my muscles enough recovery time and thus am actually breaking down muscle rather than building it? Or could it be that with the increase in physical activity that comes with challenging the UBBT, my daily caloric intake may not be sufficient? My biggest concern is that maybe I am not taking in enough protein as a vegetarian and thus am not feeding my body what it needs to maintain my increased muscle mass. Or could it be something more sinister and systemic that is still lurking below the surface. With what happened with my legs earlier, a guy has to wonder.

Regardless of what this turns out to be, I have to admit that I feel the best I have in years. Sure my legs are giving me issues but my chronic shoulder problems have all but disappeared. My metabolism is such that I can think of a number and within a week my weight is right there. I have cleared up many bad habits that I didn’t even realize I had. It’s been a great year.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)