Sunday, February 18, 2007

What to eat if no more meat?


I was not really sure what I would be eating when I finally made the decision to give up meat.
As I mentioned in my other posts I gave up meat as part of an overall decision to live healthier.

I moved deeper into the midwest in November and saw my health deteriorating fast thanks to a typical American diet. I came to the decision to make changes and make them fast if I wanted to make peace with living in middle America.

Although I have been reading about vegetarianism over the last ten years or so and I knew that I wanted to take that step someday, I had never quite gotten around to it. I was not prepared with dietary alternatives in order to finally make the leap. In my feeble attempts to give up meat in the past I always went back within a few days or a week due to ravenous hunger.

Knowing what went wrong in the past is probably the reason I was able to go through with it this time. Since I knew very well that I would be starving in a day or two, I ate tons of carbs every time I became hungry rather than wait until I became ravenous. That is probably pretty bad advice but quite honestly it worked and it worked remarkably well.

I gained quite a bit of weight. I have been meatless for about two and a half months now and I just started losing the weight I gained initially. I am losing the weight through the other items from my list.

Whenever I got hungry and I recognized it as my stomach missing meat and I would substitute a bagel or toast. I didnt really substitute anything else because I remember from experience that nothing would really replace the filling feeling of meat. A carrot just doesnt quite cut it when you are craving a steak right?

I would love to hear how other people have dealt with this problem. It was pretty tough going and I dont know if I could have done it without eating three bagels for dinner once in awhile. My butt certainly doesnt look any better for it but my stomach and digestive system are already thanking me. Not to mention all of the happy cows and chickens

2 comments:

Yan said...

Hi Sheryl Lyon,
I think what you wrote about giving up meat and becoming a vegetarian is very interesting to read.
Actually, I am a meat-eater and I want to become a vegetarian. I have always loved meat ever since I was young. My mom always cooked different kinds of meat for us everyday and I never thought about where are all the meat came from. However, what I know about it is “they” tasted good.
However, recently, my bf and I just found GoVeg.com and we keep reading articles about how these animals live, treated and die. Also, we watched some of the video too, It was horrible… some of them, I can’t even watch the whole thing.
Anyhow, so from now on, we are going to completely stop eating any kind of meat and we are even thinking about to stop drinking milk and eating egg too. Surely we will find our way to be healthy at the same time too.
I just want to tell you that, I like your blog and keep it up.
from
yan

A Much Better Way said...

Hi Yan!

Thanks for writing.

Those videos on www.goveg.com are real eye openers arent they? They had quite an impact on me. I feel much better about myself since I gave up meat.

I am looking forward to the day that I go totally vegan.

Good luck to you and your boyfriend! I hope it works out for you (and the animals will thank you as well!)

Sheryl