This Omnivore's Dilemma

Late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, I became very ill from some pelemini (something like ravioli with meat). I had vomiting, diarrhea, and fever sweats to the point I was incoherent. Wednesday morning, the Peace Corps doctors made me go to Almaty, where I received a couple of IV’s and a couple of anti vomiting, anti fever, and seemingly anti everything shots. It took a day, but now I’m back on my feet, although I’m still wavering a bit.

Becoming so ill that I’ve had to be hospitalized isn’t something new. This has happened before. I don’t want it to happen again. But this time was slightly different because after all of the other mental and physical things I’ve gone through here, I just know that my body will not be able to handle another episode of vomiting so hard that I collapse afterwards on the ground, becoming so dehydrated that my kidneys hurt, and passing out in taxies from exhaustion.

Something has to give. In this case, I think meat. I’m going to try cutting meat out of my diet for the remaining time that I am in Kazakhstan and perhaps beyond. There is some research I’m going to have to do, and some vegetarian friends I’ll want to contact first, but I am very sure that as soon I can figure out a way to make sure that I’m getting all of the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that my body needs that meat will be a thing that I won’t be consuming for awhile.

I floated the idea by my organization in passing, and they thought it was blasphemy. There was a great amount of yelling and big Russian words of protest at the Local Community Foundation when I told them I was going to give up meat. They too, do not want me to get ill, but they are concerned about a different issue: my weight. I’m very thin.

It is a trend in Peace Corps that when males come to Kazakhstan they tend to lose weight. I’m not a dietician, but after talking to many others the general belief seems to be that the combination of less preservatives in food, more physical activity, and more carbohydrates tends to make males drop weight. I’ve heard of male volunteers losing anywhere from 10 to 30 pounds while eating 3-5 meals every day and not exercising outside of walking.

On the other side, females tend to gain weight while eating the same food. I don’t know too much about this.

I’m not a big guy. My mom’s side of the family isn’t tall, but are stocky and broad in the chest. My cousin Arnold is built like a tree (and also is a vegetarian). The men on my dad’s side tends to be taller and leaner. I think of my Uncle Lester, who is around 6 feet tall, but is very wiry. More like titanium plated barbed wire, because he’s in the military and really tough, but you get the idea. I’d like to think that I’m a 5 foot 6 inch version of him. J

I have the wiriness of my dad’s side, and the tallness(is this a word?) of my mom’s side. So, I’m short and thin, with not a lot of weight to gain or lose. The most I’ve ever weighted in my life was 135, and that was during high school. Right now, I’m somewhere between 115-120. So I don’t have a lot of weight to lose before I disappear. I’ve stopped working out, running, and even playing soccer, and have drastically increased my caloric intake.

Stress also plays a factor in my weight. I’m cursed (or blessed?) because when I’m under stress, I don’t eat a lot. This helped out a lot during college, where I laughed in the face of the freshman 15, because I actually lost weight.

So I’m going to take this weekend to figure this food thing out. It may take some work, getting inventive with new dishes and trying out new food, but I’m really going to give it a try and see what happens.

I would really like those 15 pounds back right now, though.