Hello everyone! Can we just take a moment to breathe a sign of relief at it finally being… FEBRUARY! I don’t know about you guys, but my mood already feels elevated, the January Blues are OVER and I’m loving seeing the colours of the sunrise as I drive to work. Spring is on its way, People!
So, as I said in my last post, I made sure to challenge myself last year and I definitely had a better year because of it. With that in mind, I began my first self-inflicted challenge of 2020 – going vegetarian. *dramatic dun dun duuuuurn*
Now, it sounds so easy and so simple to just not eat meat for a month, and I suppose for most normal folks; it is. However, for people that know me well, they are fully aware that I grew up believing veg was the devil. I hated it all. Yes, even peas. It was the bane of my parents’ lives that I wouldn’t eat vegetables, and they really REALLY did try. You name it, they tried it; veggies in mash, hidden veggie sauce, mushrooms chopped up so small that they looked like part of the mince meat. I WASN’T HAVING IT! In fact, it was a huge surprise when I went to university and suddenly started eating all your mainstream vegetables. I know Mom was a bit put out that I’d done it without her after she tried so unbelievably hard during my childhood, but the deep sense of relief she felt that her daughter would finally have ‘normal’ eating habits soon dispelled any of her annoyance.
And that, my friends, is how my journey into the fruit and veg aisles began. I started small, mainly onion and mushrooms, eventually tried carrots, peppers, peas, and cabbage. Now, I eat anything. Even sweetcorn, which was another thing that sent a shockwave of disbelief through the family as I’d always maintained an immovable stance that I’d never eat anything that looked like little, yellow teeth. And yet… Here we are. To be honest, the only vegetable that I truly despise at this point in my life, is the brussels sprout. I just can’t get the taste for those tiny cabbages…
Having a newfound love for all things grown (I say newfound, I graduated in 2014 – so have technically been eating a variety of veg for the last 8 years or so), I’ve been thinking about if I could go ‘veggie’ for quite a while. My co-workers are pescatarian, and I’ve had other friends who have gone veggie in the past and raved about how much energy they had, and quite frankly, after a very busy Christmas and knowing that I had an even busier 2020 on the way, I decided that I could do with a little extra energy!
With this in mind, if anyone is considering it, I just thought I’d do a quick blogpost on how I found going cold-turkey (pun intended) – some tips and also some things that I noticed over the journey. Before we begin, I can’t stress this enough; I will point out now, that I am NOT a medical profession. The thoughts and feelings of this blogpost are my own, based upon my own experiences. Should you require any official information or are unsure, please contact a professional!!!
- It may seem too simple, but I did my research! By becoming veggie, its easy to assume that you’ll just be upping your intake to 8-a-day and you’ll just get all of your vitamins from all the veg you’re consuming. Wrong! I decided to become a lacto-ovo-vegetarian, so I was still able to consume milk, eggs and cheese. I made myself aware of any vitamins and minerals that I could be lacking when giving up meat. You need to get them from somewhere. You need to make sure you’re getting enough iron, calcium and vitamin B12. I made sure to vary my new diet and try new foods. I added pulses and beans to my meals, not only are the great for iron but some also give a meaty texture to dishes. When I ate carbs, I tried to make sure that they were wholegrain, and I fleshed out a lot of meals with lots of dark green, leafy vegetables. I also purchased some fortified granola – which I used for breakfasts or snacks with fruit.
- I tried LOTS of new recipes! This was one thing that I was absolutely determined to do. I don’t like having the same 7 meals every week anyway, I find it really monotonous, and so I was determined to continue in my usual habit and find lots of new, exciting recipes that could keep our mealtimes varied (because we can’t forget, I made everybody do this veggie thing. If I was in the house for dinner, there would be no meat for dinner). It absolutely worked. Looking back over the month, I don’t think we’ve tried a veggie recipe that we didn’t like. Believe me, there were plenty recipes that upon first glance, made me and Kris give each other dubious looks, but every single one was gorgeous. I even used a few meat ones and made those, sans the meat. And some, we just made up as we went along; the mushroom stroganoff and the tortilla lasagne were definitely big hits. I’ll pop a few at the bottom of the page if you’d like to try!
- Personally, I’m not a massive fan of fake ‘meat’. Not only because (for me) very few of them actually have the texture, but mainly because I don’t think it actually lends anything to the dish you’re making AND I was determined to do vegetarian as naturally as possible. I did have a couple of Quorn sausages, and even tried the new Birds Eye ones (both have quite a good taste actually!). We even tried the Powered by Plants ‘meatballs’. Despite the taste and textures of these nifty supplements being okay, I did come away from mealtimes feeling really bloated so I’ve concluded that they are acceptable in small doses but mostly, not for me.
- Bloating – I personally didn’t experience any bloating. To be honest, I’m pretty sure I look bloated most of the time and I’ll tell you right now, its just fat 🙂 I do drink sooo much water though, so that probably helped.
- Energy levels – my goodness, the first two weeks I felt WEAK. I felt tired, I could sleep for hours and hours, my skin was really rubbish too. I don’t know what happened, but around the third week in, my energy levels spiked and have stayed that way ever since! My colleague at work even asked me if I had licked batteries prior to arriving at my desk… My mood has also steadily improved, I sleep just as well if not better, and I get less headaches and tiredness after my evening meal.
- Finally, did I miss meat? The truthful answer is no. I didn’t miss meat at all. I didn’t miss buying it (being a veggie is really nice on your purse strings!), cooking with it, or eating it. I found that I actually missed fish and shellfish a lot more than what I missed beef. I don’t regret giving up chicken at all.
All in all, my experience as a vegetarian has been really quite wonderful and liberating! I’ve enjoyed some positive effects (whether those are real or just placebo effect, who cares?!), have a much more natural diet, I’ve found great new recipes, and most importantly for me, I’ve taken control back over my diet from when I let it roam free over the festive period and officially had a blood-type of ‘B’ (for Bailey’s) as of January 1st.
So… Officially finally. That big question… Am I going to stay veggie? I would have to say, I’m going to remain flexitarian. If someone asks me if I eat meat, I’ll be saying yes because I still do! I will have lamb with my Easter roast at my Mom’s, and I will eat the odd piece of fish if I fancy it. However, I am going to (and have already, during February) maintain a mostly vegetarian diet. I feel better for it AND I really enjoy it, so why not?!
I hope this has helped any of you who have ever thought about going veggie, but aren’t sure if its for them. It’s different for everyone, but if you don’t try it, you’ll never know!
Love,
SSA x
P.S. Recipes are below. DISCLAIMER: some are meat recipes, but I just omitted the meat during cooking and added more veg of my own choice.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-stroganoff
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-mushroom-lentil-hotpot
"Sammy Strikes Again" 