a vegetarian who eats fish?

to those of you in the know, i've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian since i was 12 years old. it is with great shyness that i inform you of my decision to expand my options and go pesco-vegetarian. the term refers to a "vegetarian who eats fish", which seems somewhat contradictory but alas, it is what it is.

i'm doing this mainly for health reasons. it's taken me a long time to understand that a healthy meal should be built on the basis of protein. for years i thought a plate of whole wheat pasta with a side of broccoli was good for me. now i see that this meal is completely void of protein, the most important part of an athlete's diet.

since i've been trying to lose fat, i've been reading up on some basic nutrition and trying to get a feel for what my diet should consist of. i came to the conclusion that, when i'm making a meal, i must first pick a source of protein, then design the rest of the meal around it. instead of 2 cups of pasta and veggies, i should eat tofu with 1/2 cup of pasta and veggies or a salad. tofu smoothies, seitan, protein shakes, yogurt... this has been my diet for the past few weeks. since i started eating high protein, the biggest change is that i don't "crash" like i used to after a long workout. this is huge; those crashes cost me heaps of productivity time. so i'm convinced to keep with it.

but let's face it, tofu and protein shakes can only go so far. aside from getting boring, soy protein doesn't live up to its meaty counterparts. fish presents me with an opportunity to get some good stuff in my diet like complete protein and omega-3 fatty acids. It's been shown that the incorporation of fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids into an energy-restricted, fat-reduced diet has significant beneficial effects on glucose, insulin, and lipid metabolism:

[Researchers] discovered that these [essential fatty acid's], particularly those of the omega-3 family, play essential roles in the maintenance of energy balance and glucose metabolism. In particular, they observed a phenomenon known as ‘fuel partitioning’, whereby dietary EFAs were able to direct glucose (from digested carbohydrates) towards glycogen storage while at the same time directing other fatty acids in the body away from triglyceride synthesis (ie fat storage) and towards fatty acid oxidation! In addition, these studies suggested that omega-3 fatty acids have the unique ability to enhance thermogenesis (the burning of excess fat to produce heat), thereby reducing the efficiency of body fat deposition(2-7). In simple terms, this fuel partitioning phenomenon appears to conserve carbohydrate while simultaneously shedding fat – exactly what most athletes would give their right arm for!
[from Peak Peformance]

the first fish-steak i ate was pesto grilled salmon. it was actually good and i was relieved to not be grossed out by the experience. i must have taken to fish quite well, because i massively pigged out last night at Kenichi, a sushi restaurant here in Austin (the outing had little to do with health and fitness, as the empty sake bomb glasses can attest to). the goal for this week is to learn how to cook fish in my own kitchen.