When you say you want to stop eating meat for a while, it’s not received very well for the most part. In my experience there are a lot of polite grins, shoulder shrugs, raised eyebrows, and several questions. Not questions like, “What kind of good food will you be trying?” The questions are like, “Why?” in that tone of disapproval. Other questions come from a place of concern, “What about your protein?” “Won’t you starve?” “Won’t you be limited in what you can eat?”
I say those are fair questions. I have done my research, figured out what’s healthy and not healthy about cutting meat out of your diet. The plan isn’t to cut it out completely, but as I have written before, it’s part of a bigger design to help with my overall good health. Not a bad thing at my age.
The first week of December I decided to cut meat out of my daily habits for a while. After several weeks of roasted vegetables, rice, pasta, beans, experimenting with lots of new things, and 1 chicken thigh on Christmas (come on…it was Christmas!!) one doctor visit summed up either my best hopes, or my worst fears.
7 pounds were gone and my blood pressure had dropped considerably. Now, this isn’t scientific. I have no studies or daily journals about exactly what I ate, did, drank, or how much I moved around. All I know is I stopped eating meat everyday, ate a LOT more vegetables, cut my dairy by more than 75%, and the end result seems to be a nudge in the right direction. I don’t really give a crap about the pounds, but the blood pressure is one of those kind of hidden but significant things in my mind.
In the past 2 week I have had some meat, 1/2 a steak, chicken korma, roast beef cooked in the Crockpot. The thing is, it’s good and everything (chicken korma is the closest thing to a taste bud orgasm I could ever hope for so it’s not going to be eliminated from my diet even if chickens learn to talk and drive cars) but I do feel better on the days when I’m eating grains and vegetables. I eat more bulk but it has less calories, less fat, less salt, and I’m not hating it.
I’ll keep cutting meat out of my diet and maybe someday it will be just a rare ocassion to have my beloved korma or a juicy steak. As long as I keep feeling good, having fun with the cooking, enjoying the variety, and enjoying the challenge of answering those questions about protein and bacon, I’ll eat less animal stuff. The truth is I like to rattle the cages of a few people who seem almost offended when you say you want to stop eating meat….a little change will do you good. 
