by Last Lent, as rusty non-practicing “Catholics” my husband and I decided to go vegetarian for 40 days and by the end of it, we decided to keep going.
Along the way we had found out we were pregnant, which ended up helping our vegetarian endeavors because the mere sight of meat made me nauseous for the first 4 months.
Here are some things I learned:
- Meat is not as hard as you think to replace and especially outright eliminate.
- I actually do notice a significant difference in the way that I feel. Not so heavy and sluggish after every meal.
- I do still crave meat, but only very specific dishes and normally ones that are able to be easily replaced with at least black beans, mushrooms, jackfruit, or other meaty-type veggies.
- My body operates differently than it has before.
- My bathroom habits have changed significantly.
- I notice less symptoms of depression and anxiety. **But I will say I have made many other lifestyle changes that I think have also affected this aspect.
- I have grown more angry for animals being factory farmed.
- I have begun to notice that meat is advertised to us in the same way drugs are. Drugs like pharmaceuticals, coffee, sugar, and alcohol.
Here is how I’m able to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle:
I’m not a perfect vegetarian.
I have 1-2 restaurants where I will eat meat. We call them our “exceptions” and we eat there, at most, once every few months. Allowing space for an exception gives me grace and a better sense of control over the habits that I want to change about myself. When I know that I have 1-2 places that I can eat meat, I treat the act of eating another living creature in a much more special way and honor it by doing it less often. For me, this has also proven to be a key component in the long term success of my vegetarian lifestyle.
Planning ahead by making sure that you will have a vegetarian option wherever you go is helpful. Sometimes this means eating before an event that you know will be focused around meat and sometimes this means bringing your own dish. We have found so many amazing vegetarian friendly restaurants that we would have never tried otherwise if we were still primarily eating meat.
Thanks to vegan and vegetarian food bloggers, recipes with meat substitutes are easier than ever to find and try. If cooking is your thing, expanding your flavor awareness by cooking meals that still taste like meat but don’t have meat is a really fun place to start. I’ve been able to make a taco soup and black bean sweet potato quesadillas that make us wonder why we didn’t try this sooner.
But the biggest bit of advice I have for anyone interested in starting out on their own meat reduction journey is to start small and stay committed. For us, Lent was a really fun way to challenge ourselves by committing to 40 days straight but you don’t need to be that intense. Many people now participate in “Meatless Monday” much like a family tradition of Taco Tuesday and even one day a week of less meat will have a significant impact on not only your health, but the entire ecosystem of our planet.
