Liver On Thursdays

Today's Eat-Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook guest blogger is Michelle Wrubleski. She went from training for gymnastics to nothing at all to preparing for her first fitness competition all while learning the ins and outs of a vegetarian diet. Thank you for sharing your story with us Michelle. 

This was Thursday’s dinner choice at a summer gymnastics camp. Liver. Besides a very rigorous training and conditioning regime, all the athletes were given a very strict diet. No junk, a lot of meat, a lot of water, and liver on Thursday.  I remember thinking that if I just could think of a reason to skip Thursday’s menu I could survive the rest of the week throughout the duration of the camp. I considered suggesting an allergy to organs but I wasn’t really sure that would be believable.  I recalled meeting a coach who did not eat any meat and used it as my way out.  As I entered into my teens I struggled with trying to be a vegetarian but not knowing enough about it to make it work.  When I was a kid, being a vegetarian just meant the absence of meat on your plate. Not a lot of menu planning ideas existed. So, I ate a lot of raw vegetables, grilled cheese sandwiches, and perogies—carbs and more carbs!

When I retired from competitive gymnastics, my struggle was not only with wanting to be vegetarian but eating differently than an athlete who was in constant high gear and could eat anything, anytime, and all day.  In my late teens and early twenties I battled with an eating disorder. Food became my enemy.  I experimented with cleanses, diets, pills, and shakes. I could go days just nibbling enough to satisfy hunger pains but then…the binge. I eventually found a solution to binge days as well. Marathon style exercising, Ipecac, and laxatives. Wow! I was a mess!

I eventually attended college and  studied to be a fitness instructor and personal trainer which educated me on how exercise can be pleasant and helpful, and not destructive.  The food thing still plagued me. It followed me everywhere. It haunted me during pregnancy when I knew I had to eat but I didn’t want to put anything in my body.  I was in food jail!

I read about Tosca’s Eat-Clean Diet in Oxygen magazine.  It got my attention! I had equated Eating Clean with not eating much at all. I went through Tosca’s book and knew that I had found exactly what my body, and my brain, needed to be healthy again! Over the last 3 years I have not only made a complete change to Eating Clean, but, I suggest these ideas during the Boot Camp classes I teach and with the clients I train.

I am training right now for my first Fitness Competition and finding the balance of getting enough protein for the training I need to do being vegetarian has been a learning experience - that's where Tosca’s Eat-Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy vegetarianism. I am doing the transition from being an ovo-vegetarian to a vegan and am looking forward to ideas from the other guest bloggers.

Thank you Tosca for all of your hard work and determination to help us eat, train, and live in a positive and healthful way!