Do you guys eat vegetables?

I don't cover a beat. I'm in sports media, but not a newspaper guy (I could never do what most of you do). My hours are pretty normal--well, I work late at times--but it is probably easier for me to live a healthy lifestyle than most of the people here. I have seen the kinds of things a lot of writers hurdiedly eat in press rooms while they go over notes or use their free hand to punch the keys. Sometimes it just ain't pretty. I kind of understand it, but at the same time, it is a choice. If it means enough to you, you can eat healthy, no matter how hectic your schedule is or screwed up your hours are.

I think I am one of the only people on earth who genuinely loves veggies. There isn't a vegetable I don't love. Lima beans? Yum. Brussel Sprouts? I could eat them all day long. I think I have eaten broccoli every day the last two weeks. My favorite thing is to stir fry every vegetable I can find in hot sauce and mix in some rice noodles. And my staple meal from a restaurant near here, when I am working a lot of hours, is brown rice with black beans, with a salad on the side.

I am not sure if I am this way because I have conditioned myself to enjoy eating that way--I haven't eaten any meat in about 14 years--or whether it is just what I naturally like. I rarely even eat any fruit, just veggies. I wasn't always this way. When I was in college, and even well afterward, I ate pretty crappy. It is just that something happened to me at some point, and the change in my eating habits really didn't require a gut-wrenching effort. I just liked it.

About two years ago, I was under a lot of work stress and traveling a ton and working ridiculous hours. I cut back my exercise, which has always been the thing that really levels me. It was bad. And even though I remained a vegetarian, I still managed to eat pretty unhealthy for me. Cheese was my major weakness. I mean, man it is it my weakness-like kyrpontite. I'd eat pizza all the time--and I couldn't moderate it. It wasn't like I could go and have two slices. I'd polish off a whole pie on occasion. I put on weight (not super fat, but overweight for me), and was just feeling crappy physically.

I am really convinced that cheese is like an opiate for me and that I can't regulate it. I crave it when it is getting regularly into my system. But when I feed the craving, it makes me feel worse. Plus, I know logically that it is clogging my arteries. So I cut it, and all dairy, out of my diet. I did it sort of gradually, and now I don't eat any dairy. I really feel so much better for it. At the moment, I actually feel as physically good as I ever have.

I know I am sort of a freak when it comes to this stuff in that I genuinely love foods that most people eat like they are taking medicine, and my choices are extreme--I don't do things in moderation, I just do without. And I'd never expect anyone else to eat the way I do. The way I am kind of leaves veggies and grains as the only things I can eat. But it really isn't all that bad, and if someone was thinking about trying a diet like this, I'd highly recommend it.