Learning to be an 85% vegetarian

Don’t get me wrong, I love meat as much as the next person. Sit me down in front of a cheeseburger from WestportFleaMarket and I am all over it. But, after recently re-reading SkinnyBitch, a book that tells you you are a “fat pig,” I knew I had to change the way I ate. As harsh as the Skinny Bitch authors Rory and Kim were, they were right. I couldn’t go around eating burgers and fried chicken every day and wonder why I was so bloated and overweight.

I have been dabbling in vegetarianism for years; I even was a full-time vegetarian in high school for a  while. It wasn’t necessarily because I cared about the animals, I just didn’t really care about eating meat.  I didn’t crave it. But after reading Skinny Bitch, I came to a realization — not only do I need to change my diet, I do care about the treatment of animals — pigs and cows mostly (sorry chickens, you guys are mean!). However, the book advocates a vegan diet — and I knew that that wouldn’t work for me, especially since my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy that doesn’t even know what flaxseed is or what tofu is made out of. All he knows is that it probably doesn’t taste as good as macaroni and cheese or pizza.

Even so, I decided to make a change in my own diet — first a co-worker and I decided to try MeatlessMondays after I learned that an estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef and not eating meat can lessen your chances for cancer and obesity, among many other things. When I realized that that was fairly easy, I decided to extend it to Meatless Weekdays — definitely not as catchy as “Meatless Mondays” but a promise to myself to not eat meat. I knew that I would crave some meat dishes from time to time and I didn’t want to take it away — after all I love lasagna and pepperoni pizza as much as my husband does. So I came to a compromise — I can eat meat on Saturdays. As much as I want, whatever I want. Hence where the “85%” of this post title comes into play (6 days a week divided by 7).

I am just like the rest of humanity in the fact that when someone says, “Don’t think of a pink elephant”, a pink elephant is the first thing that pops into my head. So if I would have told myself, “You can never eat meat again,” I would have been sneaking out to go through the McDonald’s drive-thru on the 2nd day of my new way of eating.

I have figured out that knowing your weaknesses when it comes to food is the best way to ensure that you will have success when you start to eat healthier. As Karen mentions in a previous post, allow yourself to have “cheat days.” Since I know I can eat meat on Saturdays, any meat cravings I have are put away in my “Save for Saturday” mental folder and the craving passes.

So, how is this diet working for me? It’s actually been fairly easy. Sure I have to make sure I’m getting enough protein, but I’m amazed at how much better I feel. In Skinny Bitch, they mention that because animals are often terrorized during the killing process, you are essentially eating their fear and adrenaline. I never really believed it until I had some orange chicken from Panda Express last Saturday. Once I was done with my meal, my heart started pounding. Was that the poor chicken’s terror going through my veins? Who knows, but that experience was proof enough that this 85% vegetarian diet is going to be sticking around for a long time.

Kelsey Jones currently runs Even My Dog is Cliche and The Social Robot.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Have a Namaste.