I am not, by any means, a strict vegetarian. But every once in a while, I would try to go a day or so without meat. The longest stretch of time I had ever gone without meat was five days, and that was a fast for church.
So you can imagine my initial reaction when, just before the Christmas holidays, someone challenged me to go one full month without eating meat. Yes, you read that correctly ... ONE FULL MONTH without consuming meat. They wanted to push the envelope a little further and said to go vegan for a full month, but I told them I would switch between the two, but I wasn't able to commit to full veganism just yet.
Now, before I go further, do you know what the difference is between the two? A lot of people often think they are one in the same, but they aren't:
* Vegetarians do not eat animals (like chickens, cows, pigs, etc.), but they will consume (at their discretion) animal products (like eggs, honey, milk, etc).
* Vegans do not consume anything that came from an animal (so they won't eat the animal or anything made from any part of an animal, like eggs or milk).
Simple definitions right? The biggest struggle, though, comes from execution.
See, depending how strict you are as a vegetarian or a vegan, you have to be careful with how food is prepared, because you would be surprised how much animal products are used in cooking. For example, because I was mainly vegetarian, I didn't mind my recipes that needed chicken or beef stock to cook in, because to me, I wasn't consuming meat, which was the main goal, but for some people, that is considered meat or animal (by)products and they won't eat it. So it becomes important to define your goals and boundaries.
Once that was clear, came the harder part for me - finding something to eat. I am so used to meat in my diet, that cutting it out was more of a mental struggle than a physical struggle. I now found myself searching for different things to eat, so that I didn't eat the same meal every day, every time. I get bored very easily, so I had to make sure throughout the month, I had some different things to keep me interested.
As the month progressed though, I found tricks to help me stay on track with my eating:
I found some staples to keep in my diet, such as black beans (my major source of protein), sweet potatoes, rice (I prefer jasmine or brown), mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and cauliflower.
I kept a lot of my recipes very simple, so they would be something I could make quickly and easily.
I began going to some restaurants and exploring their menus for vegetarian and vegan options, and was surprised to find that I could still go out to eat and enjoy myself without feeling restricted.
Every week, I would try a new recipe to keep myself engaged and interested, especially since I had a tendency to keep going back to the same ingredients that I liked, in order to trick my mind.
I tried my best to avoid purchasing veggie burgers and such from the grocery store, opting instead to make them myself so I would be sure what I was putting into them (I try not to consume too much processed food in general).
But now, the month is almost over and soon, I can go back to eating meat again. I'm not going to say that I'm staying strictly plant-based, but I will be curious to explore more vegan and vegetarian options. And who knows, I might go back to it again for a period of time. All I do know is that I'm already craving a burger or at least some shrimp when I break this.
We about the love of vegan and vegetarian meals, so pass the carrot sticks please.
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