I spent an entire month without meat, and there less than handful of times i missed it. 3 times to be exact, and I suspect that over time that might disappear all together.

Although I had no major physical “breakthroughs” from not eating meat. By that i mean, i didn’t all of a sudden have more energy, think i could fly or have an incurable disease mysteriously clear up overnight. However I found that within the first week i was starting to think i may not want to go back, I noticed that no matter how “unhealthy ” or fatty the meal was i never really felt completely dead at the end like you do when you over eat with meat. I also made an interesting discovery in that whenever i went to eat something that would normally contain meat, rather than looking for the vegetarian option, i’d just order the same thing with no meat. I was astounded at how often it tasted pretty much the same. It had me asking the question, are we just eating meat for the texture?

Seriously, go order a subway footlong with your normal cheese and your normal salads and whatever sauce you’d normally use, and the only real difference is that you dont feel as full. Admittedly meat from subway isnt exactly real meat, its some seriously over processed shit, but a large proportion of the meat consumed everyday is over processed crap anyway, so its not a completely redundant observation.

Toasted Philly, Capers, w/poached egg and baby roma tomato in basil pesto

The challenge was a great success in my book. No one moment of weakness, it felt almost completely natural and normal, much to my surprise. I never felt like I’d over eaten, even when I had overeaten (not sure if that’s a positive). It got me thinking creatively when eating out and when cooking in the kitchen. I had a couple of awesome food creation moments. see pics. Having rules to eat/cook by has always driven some inspired moments when creating meals.

For the moment though I have committed myself to going back to full time meat eating just to see how my body reacts and adjusts. It hasn’t been very positive to say the least, but I’ll write about that separately.

On an environmental note, I tried to make some time this month to consider the carbon footprint of my diet. I wanted to at least be aware of different foods and their impact on the planet to produce. I read in the New Scientist that “to produce a kilogram of beef (2.2 pounds), farmers also have to feed a cow 15 kg of grain and 30 kg of forage. Grain requires fertiliser, which is energy intensive to produce.” It seems like there is a lot involved in that 350gram Porterhouse than just what you see on the plate.

Now Im not a huge greenie or anything like that, but i think its a good thing to be conscious of what it takes to get the food to the supermarket that only takes you 30 minutes to prepare 10 minutes to eat, and 2 minutes to throw out the leftovers. This whole train of thought doesn’t just apply to meat, but can apply to everything we consume.

A bloke by the name of Matthew Moore, an American farmer, did an awesome series of time lapse videos that i happened to come across early in the month. They show the growth cycles of different vegetables on his farm, and were displayed on large screens in fresh produce sections of supermarkets to give customers a better insight into growth cycles of the food they consume. I tweeted a link to one earlier this month . I still find it amazing that it took 105 days to harvest for his brocolli!

One of my aims this month was to get some conversation going about being a vegetarian and eating less meat in general, and there were some interesting conversations, but funnily enough, not that many positive ones. Obviously when talking to already vegetarians, or friends and family of vegetarians, all good. I work with a “Vegequarian” or “Pescetarian” as they’re sometimes called, and we had some great convo’s. However for the most part, there was quite a bit of resistance to the idea. The common arguments were:

You cant have a balanced diet without meat.

You cant get enough protein if you don’t eat meat.

You cant get enough iron if you don’t eat red meat.

The 300 Spartans ate meat, and being a vego will make you weak.

I don’t really agree with the first two. I don’t think we need anywhere near the amount of protein that everyone thinks, and the idea of a balanced diet in my opinion, is more of a state of mind based on quasi memories of nutri-facts heard on TV and in conversations (ie. I’ve heard this isn’t healthy, so i’ll only eat a little bit). Throw in a liberal dash of persuasion marketing and VOILA! everyone thinks you need to drink milk to maintain healthy bones or that a Mars a day, helps you work rest and play. Bit of Bullshit, yeah?

With regards to the iron, I haven’t got a good answer. I haven’t done the research and if it becomes an issue, i’d likely find a solution one way or another. I’m pretty sure you can get decent amounts of Iron from some veggies, but i’ll look into it further.

As for the spartans thing, I think modern day spartans would be smashing the protein shakes. They probably ate shitloads of meat because a spear and campfire was more readily available than the blender/electricity combo too.

So to Cap it off, i had some goals for this challenge, they were:

- Learn what my dietary crutches are in the absence of meat – These were definitely potato, cheese and bread (not the healthiest of things, but at least i know now)

- Learn some great new vegetarian recipes – I probably conquered the Pasta Al Funghi, with a sauce so incredibly rich, your pants would stop fitting the moment you leaned over the pan to smell it (forgive the ack of modesty, but OMFG it was amazing). Other than that, i found the challenge inspired me to create some weird and new combos that kicked ass. The next time you’re at hungry jacks, replace the meat in your whopper with onion rings and ranch sauce… out of control awesome!

- Experience full time vegeterianism as a lifestyle choice – Nothing of note here, it really was a non event. but accomplished nonetheless.

- Trigger debate and conversation amongst friends, colleagues and family – As I wrote about, definitely big success on this front.

- Give my body a break from meat – Ive only really noticed how much of a break i gave my body when i tried to reintroduce meat back into my diet, this hasnt been a pleasant experience to say the least.

- Notice any health benefits that come from eating a diet much lower in protein and higher in fruits and vegetables – I probably didn’t make enough of an effort to include more vegetables and fruits, but i definitely has less protein than normal and I can say it had almost zero impact on my day at all.

If nothing else, I definitely proved this month that being a vegetarian doesnt mean you have to be particularly healthy.

They are very much separate things.

peace.