During quarantine, a lot of people stepped back from their weight loss journeys and took advantage of quarantine snacking. Me, however, all I worried about was my weight loss journey. I struggled with deciding what direction I wanted to go in but I knew taking this time at home to my advantage would be worth it. As someone who loves seafood and never cared for meat or pork, I decided I’d work on gradually becoming a pescatarian. Hear about my trials and tribulations and see how my road to becoming a pescatarian is going.
Naturally, I was a victim of college weight gain the past 3 years of my life. I worked multiple jobs while taking classes full-time, had a terrible sleep schedule, and ate whatever was convenient at the time. The last thing on my mind was focusing on my food choices. I had a serious reality check when I went from 114lbs to 175lbs within 3 years. I could no longer get away with neglecting my health and knew I had to make some serious adjustments, the problem was I never gave myself the time.
As the month of March came around and the pandemic forced us all into quarantine, I made it a priority to use this time to make the adjustments necessary for my weight loss journey. With a full kitchen, park around the corner, and a whole lot of time; I had no excuse as to why I couldn’t start eating healthy and being active.
Step 1: Starting a Diet
I was never the type of person who cared for eating healthy, as I was a size 0 until I got to college. So figuring out the correct diet for me was a serious challenge. I looked at keto-diets, Mediterranean diets, vegetarian diets, vegan, you name it! None of them seemed like something I could fully commit myself to. After multiple attempts to figure out the ideal diet for me, I realized I wasn’t willing to get on a diet, instead, I wanted to create a routine. Being as though I LOVE seafood, it seemed only right to look into becoming a pescatarian. I was never big on meat or pork to begin with… to be honest, I hated most of it so this was easy.
Step 2: Researching Meal Options
Luckily, I’m a great cook so I have experience cooking seafood and vegetarian meals. However, I still wanted to keep an open mind and look into meal options and even vegan alternatives. That’s where YouTube comes into play. After hours of watching multiple “What I eat in a day” videos, I was able to find my top 3 YouTubers to help find meal options ideal for me.
- TheChicNatural: Fashion, beauty, and lifestyle channel. Offers great vegan meal options!
- Tabitha Brown: Health, lifestyle, and discussion-based channel. Offers great vegan recipes and reviews on vegan products!
- justCHANEL: Lifestyle, health/fitness, and travel channel. Offers great pescatarian meal options!
Step 3: Remaining Consistent
With all of the resources set in place and goals in order, the journey is not complete unless I remain consistent. Now that we are no longer in quarantine and I don’t have all the time in the world to focus on my weight loss journey, it’s up to me how I’ll remain dedicated to this new lifestyle while handing my multiple jobs and full-time classes. I’m not perfect, so this road to becoming a full-on pescatarian will be a long one and I’m sure I’ll make mistakes along the way. I just know when I reach my weight goal, the journey will be well worth it in the end.