No Meat for 50 Days

Today marks day 50 of this no meat phase. In my family, if an immediate family member passes away, we stop eating meat (red and white) for 4 weeks but fish and seafood is allowed. Not everyone follows this. Even though my auntie wasn’t an immediate member, she had treated me like her own daughter ever since I was born, therefore I’ve adopted this and decided to change it to 50 days instead. We’re not religious, nor is this a Chinese tradition (I don’t think).

I had started this at the beginning of last month and today is my last day. If I mention that I was turning vegetarian, I know I’m going to get a lot of hate and rage for calling a sea eater a vegetarian. Instead, I had turned pescatarian. I’m not a massive meat eater in the first place so it wasn’t difficult to adjust my diet to this.

So How Did I Find It?

Initially, I had thought “ALL THE SUSHI” but then realised it’s not good to constantly eat sushi all the time. I was tempted though. Moderation guys, moderation. There were days where I had eaten vegetarian meals and they were delish. This change had helped me explore what is out there, find new ingredients to cook with, try new flavours and to be more adventurous. Enhance my palette despite being a picky eater. I think the biggest challenge is protein intake and trying to find an alternative to chicken and protein shakes especially after a workout. Quorn came straight to mind.

My first week was easy. The second week, my energy levels had started to feel low and my workouts were affected. This could be a number of things from a change in diet, to my anaemia, to the lack of food and sleep to overworking myself. It’s hard to pin point the exact cause. But it did get a lot better after that week, I felt stronger in my workouts. On the 30th May, I did have a big craving for KFC, like I was ready to demolish a whole bucket. That was the only craving I had throughout the 50 days.

I didn’t have an issue with eating out as most places did have vegetarian options. Some didn’t tickle my fancy so I was able to pass and save some money too.

Any Results?

Less bloated for sure but that would be counteracted by whenever I eat out. All the white carbs! I do feel lighter and have lost some weight, nothing drastic. Physically, I haven’t seen much changes to my body as I haven’t really kept in check and my daily routine has changed midway through. Do I have more energy? No. My energy levels have been the same as when I ate meat. Apart from that one KFC craving, I don’t crave it as much as I had initially thought. Whenever I see chicken wings, chorizo etc on the menu or any dishes on Instagram, my body doesn’t yearn for it now. The way I perceive food has changed. I fancy meals that are vegetable heavy now. It’s strange how a change in diet can affect the way you look at food.

What’s Next?

I thought I would miss eating meat a lot but am surprised I only miss it a little bit. I would slowly incorporate it back into my diet yet tone down the quantity. Maybe have it as a post workout treat only, there might be some days where I don’t eat any but who knows ey. Meat free Mondays will become a thing for me now and this is for certain. There’s a lot of vegetarian recipes I would love to try and make. For now, I’m going with the flow and listening to my body. Now pass me the spinach!

Have you given up anything for a certain length of time or possibly forever?