Meat-free month update: closing thoughts

Image by RAWKU5

Today it's been a month since I pledged not to eat meat for a month on Blog Action Day. To debrief, I've asked myself some probing questions.

How are you feeling after eating (almost) no meat for a month?

Fine! Avoiding meat has started to feel more natural. The feeling that I'm missing out by not eating meat has become less common. I had a weird episode at the gym last week when I went my regular 'Abs, Butts and Thighs' class, and found my strength had mysteriously evaporated. My first thought was, "Have my muscles wasted away because I haven't been eating meat?"But, it turned out I was actually getting a nasty cold, which must have sapped my strength. Overall, I haven't been able to discern any significant change in my physical wellbeing.

In your mid-month update, you revealed you had cheated by eating meat a couple of times. Have you cheated again in the second half of the month?

I confess, I've cheated one more time. Hayden and I were out at a restaurant with friends for dinner and wanted to share a gourmet pizza. The vegetarian options on the menu sounded pitiful in comparison to the ones including meat. When paying restaurant price for a pizza, I didn't want to shortchange us by choosing one that sounded inferior, so we had the lamb one. But I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, because I felt guilty the whole time I was eating it!

Are you glad you you undertook a meat-free month?

Definitely. It's good to know that greatly decreasing my meat intake was easier and less restricting than I thought it would be. Now that I've taken the plunge, it would be difficult to switch back to my old eating habits - it just wouldn't feel right. A lot of people were interested in what I was doing, so I was able to spread information about the impact of eating meat on the environment, and show other omnivores that switching to a predominantly vegetarian diet can be simple and enjoyable.

Where to from here?

I don't plan to celebrate the end of the month with a meat feast. My mindset towards meat must have changed, because the idea of gorging myself on animal flesh is not that appealing (unless it came off a BBQ - there's just something about BBQ meat in the summer). I plan to continue eating similarly to how I have this month: vegetarian being my default option, but eating meat when I really feel like it. I hope that will work out to eating meat about once a week or less. I doubt I'll eat vegetarian sausages again though. Even if you coat them in tomato sauce, they still taste like sawdust!