I know to many Americans the thought of living without meat seems practically impossible. But there's an entire group of people in the country who do it and love it. Vegetarianism has many forms, from the super flexible flexitarian, who eats meat on occasion, to the extremely strict vegan, who doesn't buy any product that was tested on animals or contains any animal products.

The North American Vegetarian Society dubbed October as Vegetarian Awareness Month to teach people some of the benefits of not eating meat. Don't worry, the group isn't trying to convert you. It just wants to show you that it's possible to go a day, a week or even a month without eating meat and still have plenty of yummy and healthy options.

Personally, I consider myself a flexitarian. I only eat meat if it's served to me or if I'm at a restaurant and the vegetarian options aren't that great. Or on that rare occasion when I just want a turkey sandwich. For me it wasn't a big moment when I realized eating meat was wrong, or anything like that. Touching raw meat in the kitchen just kind of grosses me out.

So in honor of Vegetarian Awareness Month, I present you with a challenge. Check out some of the great vegetarian resources from USA.gov and explore some vegetarian recipes and lifecycle information available. Pick a recipe and try it. You might be surprised to find that a diet based in fruits, vegetables and healthy grains tastes better than you expected.

Do you consider yourself a vegetarian? 

Lately I've been wondering if I could fashion my own homemade liposuction device by duct taping my curling iron to my hand-held vacuum... a sort of melting and fat sucking mechanism that would deposit my unwanted blubber into a disposable bag that I could toss in Wednesday's garbage pickup.* My husband even caught me eyeballing my curling iron speculatively the other day. *Note to the humor impaired... I am kidding, do not try this at home!

This crazy fantasy thinking has been brought on due to the fact that I have gained a lot of weight in the last year. Could it be all of the bags of potato chips and the fact that my activity level has dropped to zero? Hmm... nah! Okay, maybe a little.

I have struggled most of my life to adopt a different way of eating and living. I was able to significantly alter my diet to reduce my carbohydrates. I increased the amount of veggies, fruits, fish, and beans in my diet and I got on a regular exercise routine. I was really doing well and feeling pretty good! I thought I had finally gotten my act together, but then a personal loss just completely discombobulated me. Most of my good habits fell by the wayside. I know what I need to do to get myself back on track, but I can't seem to get motivated to do it.

This evening I did something that gave me a glimmer of hope. My mother-in-law took me to the Randolph Air Force Base gym to check out the facility. I felt a stirring of interest in getting my life back on a healthy path. This evening I started typing this blog about weight loss. As usual, I prepared for my blog by doing research and I started reading the weight loss information I was finding:

• FDA has a section on Food Labeling and Nutrition for Consumers.
• MedlinePlus has great Diets and Exercising and Physical Fitness
  content.
• USA.gov's page on Food, Nutrition, and Fitness has lots of great resources. The page on and Health and Nutrition: Online Services includes links to a BMI calculator, an online weight assessment tool, and an online meal planner.

I am feeling the tendrils of confidence beginning to take root. I can do this. I can take back control. I know it won't be easy. There is no magical curling iron that will melt my fat away and turn my life around. The only “magic” required is the “magic” of my own perseverance and determination. It will take work to get back to a healthy life. For those of you who may have gotten a little lost like me... I believe you can do it too. Let's make the commitment together to live healthier lives, one step at a time!

As people age, sometimes they become more forgetful. A name that was easy to recall no longer is or specific details from events become fuzzy. At its worst, people can develop Alzheimer's Disease.

Lots of research is being done to find a way to slow the development of Alzheimer's and while currently no method exists, a new study was recently released with some interesting findings.

The study looked at whether Omega-3 fatty acids did anything to slow the progression of the disease. Sadly the study found that people already diagnosed with Alzheimer's who took an Omega-3 supplement showed no real improvement. However the study found that taking the supplement helped those who were just starting to become forgetful.

Researchers said more work needs to be done before they make a recommendation that people should take the supplement, but it seems to be a good stepping stone.

Until a true treatment is found, you can use some of these resources to help a loved one who may be suffering:

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Medline Plus
 

Our Monday blogger, Jake, has work duties that will take him away from Gov Gab until September. In his absence, we’re alternating between “Your Turn” weeks, where we’ll ask a question to spotlight your knowledge about government resources, and posts from guest bloggers across the government.

Today’s question: Thrifty meal ideas, favorite recipes, sources for good quality and inexpensive ingredients—I’d love to hear all your suggestions!

When I was thrust into the real world after college, it was my first real opportunity to cook my own meals. As a health nerd, I had a couple recipes that I knew were nutritious, but after making grilled chicken with vegetables or salmon with broccoli hundreds of times, the recipes started to get boring and I was craving something different.

Often that meant I would hit the salad bar at my grocery store or order a veggie hoagie from a sandwich shop. While still nutritious, these on-the-go meals started to make a dent in my budget.

In honor of National Nutrition Month, I'm challenging myself to try at least one new recipe a week. This week I made a vegetarian stir fry that I found on a friend's blog. Next week I might try some of the heart-healthy recipes from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. In my quest to put lots of color on my plate, I'll definitely explore recipe options from the the Centers for Disease Control that focus on creating meals around fruits and veggies. And of course, I'll check out meal options from the United States Department of Agriculture as I try to put as much variety in my menus as possible.

If this sounds like a challenge you are up for, I'd love to have you join me. If you're worried that healthy cooking is going to be too expensive, you can check out tips for cooking thrifty meals that are still healthy. Nutrition.gov is another place you can turn for healthy eating guidelines.

If you know of any other great nutritious recipe sources please feel free to share in the comments!

When it comes to dealing with medicine, things can get tricky. Can you take one type of med with another? Does name brand vs. generic make a difference? What if you mix an over-the-counter drug with a prescription?

And to top it off, when you see an ad in a magazine or newspaper, it's accompanied by a full page of fine-print information about the medicine. Who has the time, or the vision, to read all that?

After a study conducted by Dartmouth was released this week, you might find it easier to get the information you need about the medicines you see advertised.

"User-friendly boxes" would replace the direct-to-consumer drug ads you currently see. These concise "drug facts boxes" are quite similar to the nutrition facts found on food items. These boxes will include facts not found in the current summaries like:

• The year the drug got approval from the Food and Drug Administration
• How common the side effects were in clinical trials
• The advantages of the drug over older drugs

Would these new boxes be advantageous to you? Would it influence you to ask your doctor for a specific medicine?

The government released a study with its first estimate of the amount of child vegetarians in the U.S. About 1 in 200 minors actively avoid eating meat.

When asked why they choose not to eat meat, the overwhelming response was out of respect for the welfare of animals.

This seems like a very noble reason for choosing one's dietary lifestyle, but some worry that a vegetarian diet could actually be detrimental to a child's developing body. Often, people associate being a vegetarian with a low-calorie, healthy, lifestyle. With children, a lot of times they are swapping out meat for other foods that are unhealthy like potato chips or candy. Another concern is that without meat, kids don't properly substitute foods to get the proper amount of protein that the body needs. Some vegetarians get protein by continuing to eat fish (I've never understood this realm of thinking, could someone please explain to me why fish don't count as "real" animals?).

I have lots of adult vegetarian friends. They're all committed to their cause against cruelty to animals but are still aware of the body's need for the benefits that meat provides. They stock up on beans and lentils as a means of getting plenty of protein in their diet. Dietary supplements are used with doctor's approval to be sure the body is getting vital vitamins and minerals.

Is your child a vegetarian? How do you make sure they're educated about getting a well-balanced diet?

The news these days is chock full of tips for saving money. We even have 66 simple ways for you to do that. But an alert Pueblo.gsa.gov visitor recently touched on an idea so obvious that most of us take it for granted. Simply, do you know how much you can save each month by bringing your lunch to work?

Like I said—it's obvious. You save more money making your own sandwich than you do paying Tony at the local sub shop, but have you ever sat down and quantified it? This alert reader sent us a lunch savings calculator from Bankrate.com which lets you calculate your savings from bagging your lunch over a long period of time.

To grab lunch in D.C. it costs me an average of $10 depending on what I get. The average cost for me to bring lunch is about $4. If I bring my lunch for a whole month, which is very doable, the calculator says I'll save $120. If I bring for a year, which is unlikely, I'll save $1,440. Bagging it for four years (impossible), will save me over $5000.

I don't know about you, but I'm able to really stick to something if there's a clear benefit to it. I won't be saving $1500 on lunch this year, but I know I can save at least $1000. While I'm bagging it, I can also focus more on my nutrition.

Our Kids.gov manager Arlene shared her fantastic apple pie recipe with us in the comments section of my birthday post last week. And that got me to thinking: The apple pie's all gone and now I'm craving pumpkin. So for fun I did a search on USA.gov for pumpkin recipes and was not disappointed by what I found among federal, state and local government and nonprofit websites. So for your culinary pleasure, here are some of my favorite discoveries:

Think pumpkin and you probably think "pie." You can get the standard recipe on any can of pureed pumpkin. But here are two new ones to try:

• Pineapple pumpkin pie, a diabetic-friendly recipe from South Dakota's Department of Health. With just two tablespoons of sugar in the crust and two more in the filling, the pineapple and juice make up for the rest of the sweetness.
• Crunchy pumpkin pie from the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. It's made with skim milk and just a bit of oil in the crust. The crunch is right there in the crust, full of oats and almonds.

If you have celiac disease and can't tolerate—or don't want to use—regular flour, Ohio State University's extension department suggests harvest pumpkin bars, using soy flour for the crust.

Pumpkin cheesecake from South Carolina? That sounds good about now, as do pumpkin orange cookies from Alabama's Tallapoosa County Extension Office.

Kids get such a kick out of cooking. How about saving the seeds from their jack-o-lanterns and toasting them up with one of the creative mix-ins suggested by the kids in Michigan's Saranac Community School District?

Pumpkin's good for more than just desserts. The Vegetarian Resource Group offers recipes for pumpkin and lentils, stuffed pumpkins and more. I've hollowed out pumpkins but never filled them!

In the mood for something light, like soup? King County, Washington has a spiced pumpkin soup recipe and my home base, the state of New Jersey has pumpkin bread and pumpkin-mushroom soup recipes for you to try.

Aiming to eat not so light? Take a peek at the Pentagon Channel's pumpkin and sweet Italian sausage fettuccine. Yes sir, that's good eating!

Which of these recipes are you tempted to try?

Last week I visited a dietitian for nutrition counseling to help me with some health problems. I was shocked when she told me that she thinks that I’m experiencing an allergic reaction to gluten and set me on a path to a gluten-free diet. I was encouraged when she told me that I’ll experience a dramatic increase in energy after the first week, and that we’ll really know if it’s working after just 3 months. I figure I have a lot to gain and very little to lose so I’m going to give it a try.

I’m lucky because my symptoms are mild—there are people who suffer terribly from gluten intolerance like celiac disease. Luckily, there are things that we can do to change our eating habits and restore our health.

My first trip to the grocery store took forever! I had to read labels carefully to be sure that gluten isn’t an ingredient in the food I was buying. I tried to keep the gluten-free guidelines in mind and looked for gluten-free foods. This will be quite a change for me because I always have loved all sorts of healthy grains and I never expected to hear that some of my favorite things like bread and beer are causing me problems. Sigh.

I know that I’m in the company of millions of Americans who have some form of gluten intolerance, so any tips you can offer will be appreciated. I’m especially looking for a great gluten-free pancake recipe.