Trying Pescatarian
I love me a burger.
A steak, pork belly, carbonara. I'm of the solid belief that a bacon and sausage sandwich can cure anything (including an absolutely stinking hangover). Only in November I ate 16 burgers in 52 hours.
So it might seem weird that I decided, pretty spontaneously, to become a pescatarian for a month.
I was inspired in a way by Hannah and Effi, neither of whom eat meat, trying to lose weight and this devastating story my Dad told me about one of the pigs at the monastery he works at.
To be fair, he told me that story in late November, and I didn't give up meat until January. Because, mainly, I am not ready to give up pigs and blankets, but also I knew I wouldn't stick to it through Christmas so was pretty pointless.
ANYWAY
I had my New Years Day meal of beef roast (slightly cheating I know) and that was the last piece of meat I ate until Feb 1st. I accidentally ate a bit of beef gelatin in some sweets on the second but learnt a lesson there. So, what did I learn?
It's a lot easier to be healthy.
OK, bare with me here. I know there's lots of unhealthy vegetarian food, I'm also not going to pretend I didn't go to McDonalds twice and Nandos once. And I probably ate 10 peoples body weight in salted popcorn from the corner shop (I actually ate them out twice) (God, that sounds wrong). But I found it a lot easier to say no to the super unhealthy food. Offers of a takeaway in the flat didn't interest me because I couldn't have chicken, I walked past McDonalds without being tempted every lunch because I hate filet of fish and there's only so many cheese bites you can have. I found it a lot easier to just say no, because none of the food interested me as I couldn't eat meat.
I could NEVER be a vegan
I've always respected Effi, and other vegans ofc. But I've never respected them more. I found it hard checking sweets for gelatin, so I can't imagine how hard it is to check things for dairy, meat and other traces of completely random things. Also, I massively replaced meat with cheese, in particular halloumi, so I don't know how I'd have done it otherwise. I'm pretty sure that Woolwich Tescos has probably got excess amounts of halloumi in stock now I've stopped eating it. Soz Tesco.
I didn't miss meat as much as I thought
Don't get me wrong, when my flatmates cooked a massive fry up after a heavy Saturday night I had to leave the kitchen because I would have started dribbling otherwise. I did get cravings for KFC a lot, and weirdly ham which I don't really like. But I did OK without it. I'm also quite a fussy eater, and everybody says that I don't like anything with flavour... and really, the ain't wrong. No spice, no seasoning and no sauce... nothing apart from garlic (which I'm pretty sure goes with everything).But eliminating such a big part of me realised I actually do like more things. Tomatoes in soup, meditarranean vegetable mix, courgettes, aubergines... and re-realised that mushrooms can improve any meal. And now I can have it, I'm really quite meh about it.
I felt so much better
I felt like someone had spring cleaned my insides. My mum is coeliac and I've been convinced I am slightly for months as I can easily bloat out to look 16 months pregnant with twins in about 0.3 seconds. Let me tell you, when I wasn't shovelling meat into my gob I felt sooooo much better; less bloat and I felt like I'd dropped 10 dress sizes to washboard abs. My skin cleared up, my nails grew, my hair felt great, I actually felt more energetic and with it too... new year, new me. FOR REAL.
So whats the verdict?
After this pretty much glowing review of Vegge-uary (doesn't have the same ring to it does it?), it might feel like I'm heading towards a big of reveal that I no longer eat meat.
But I'm not.
Don't get me wrong, I pretty much only had a positive experience of not eating meat. But I know that restricting my diet isn't the way to go. Tell me that I can never eat an apple, and all I'll wanna do is eat an apple, and my willpower isn't strong. I only really managed this because I was being stubborn. Classic Mel.
But what I have decided to do (after the next week where I'm just enjoying having a sausage roll for brekkie most mornings), is to dramatically cut down on my meat intake. I'm going to stop buying meat regularly to eat at the flat, and mainly save it to eat if I'm going out or for a treat.
And you know what, every little helps.
A steak, pork belly, carbonara. I'm of the solid belief that a bacon and sausage sandwich can cure anything (including an absolutely stinking hangover). Only in November I ate 16 burgers in 52 hours.
So it might seem weird that I decided, pretty spontaneously, to become a pescatarian for a month.
I was inspired in a way by Hannah and Effi, neither of whom eat meat, trying to lose weight and this devastating story my Dad told me about one of the pigs at the monastery he works at.
To be fair, he told me that story in late November, and I didn't give up meat until January. Because, mainly, I am not ready to give up pigs and blankets, but also I knew I wouldn't stick to it through Christmas so was pretty pointless.
ANYWAY
I had my New Years Day meal of beef roast (slightly cheating I know) and that was the last piece of meat I ate until Feb 1st. I accidentally ate a bit of beef gelatin in some sweets on the second but learnt a lesson there. So, what did I learn?
It's a lot easier to be healthy.
OK, bare with me here. I know there's lots of unhealthy vegetarian food, I'm also not going to pretend I didn't go to McDonalds twice and Nandos once. And I probably ate 10 peoples body weight in salted popcorn from the corner shop (I actually ate them out twice) (God, that sounds wrong). But I found it a lot easier to say no to the super unhealthy food. Offers of a takeaway in the flat didn't interest me because I couldn't have chicken, I walked past McDonalds without being tempted every lunch because I hate filet of fish and there's only so many cheese bites you can have. I found it a lot easier to just say no, because none of the food interested me as I couldn't eat meat.
I could NEVER be a vegan
I've always respected Effi, and other vegans ofc. But I've never respected them more. I found it hard checking sweets for gelatin, so I can't imagine how hard it is to check things for dairy, meat and other traces of completely random things. Also, I massively replaced meat with cheese, in particular halloumi, so I don't know how I'd have done it otherwise. I'm pretty sure that Woolwich Tescos has probably got excess amounts of halloumi in stock now I've stopped eating it. Soz Tesco.
I didn't miss meat as much as I thought
Don't get me wrong, when my flatmates cooked a massive fry up after a heavy Saturday night I had to leave the kitchen because I would have started dribbling otherwise. I did get cravings for KFC a lot, and weirdly ham which I don't really like. But I did OK without it. I'm also quite a fussy eater, and everybody says that I don't like anything with flavour... and really, the ain't wrong. No spice, no seasoning and no sauce... nothing apart from garlic (which I'm pretty sure goes with everything).But eliminating such a big part of me realised I actually do like more things. Tomatoes in soup, meditarranean vegetable mix, courgettes, aubergines... and re-realised that mushrooms can improve any meal. And now I can have it, I'm really quite meh about it.
I felt so much better
I felt like someone had spring cleaned my insides. My mum is coeliac and I've been convinced I am slightly for months as I can easily bloat out to look 16 months pregnant with twins in about 0.3 seconds. Let me tell you, when I wasn't shovelling meat into my gob I felt sooooo much better; less bloat and I felt like I'd dropped 10 dress sizes to washboard abs. My skin cleared up, my nails grew, my hair felt great, I actually felt more energetic and with it too... new year, new me. FOR REAL.
So whats the verdict?
After this pretty much glowing review of Vegge-uary (doesn't have the same ring to it does it?), it might feel like I'm heading towards a big of reveal that I no longer eat meat.
But I'm not.
Don't get me wrong, I pretty much only had a positive experience of not eating meat. But I know that restricting my diet isn't the way to go. Tell me that I can never eat an apple, and all I'll wanna do is eat an apple, and my willpower isn't strong. I only really managed this because I was being stubborn. Classic Mel.
But what I have decided to do (after the next week where I'm just enjoying having a sausage roll for brekkie most mornings), is to dramatically cut down on my meat intake. I'm going to stop buying meat regularly to eat at the flat, and mainly save it to eat if I'm going out or for a treat.
And you know what, every little helps.
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