Lately, I’ve felt like I’ve been tipping the scale a bit more than I’d like to. There are times when I stop paying  attention and before I know it, I’m at a weight that I’m not okay with. Sometimes I feel like the Internet is reading my mind. While scrolling through my Facebook feed, an interesting article caught my eye. Now normally I take these with a grain of salt but I do always like to look.

The title was “Obesity: It’s Not About the Carbs” and it led to the Forks Over Knives site. I had watched this documentary not too long ago and definitely see some of it to be true. If you haven’t watched it, it’s on Netflix and is worth checking it. The documentary talks about the vast benefits of eating a heavily plant based diet. While I’m not sure about all the documentary touted, I can certainly agree that eating a heavy plant based diet is one of the best things you can do for your body. Now, do I do that? Not really, it’s easy said than done. However, I’d like that to be my goal one day. So when I saw this article and skimmed over it, I decided to do something about it.

As if I needed a little more encouragement, I saw another article that caught my attention. It showed photos of a week’s worth of food in different countries. The photo of the American family showed plenty of junk food like chips, cookies, etc. Mixed in was loads of meat. As I continued to scroll down, I saw countries like Mali and Ecuador that featured photos of families surrounded mainly by grains and vegetables. That really caught my attention and further pushed me towards trying something new.

USA

Ecuador

Let me start by stating this pure and simple, I love meat. There’s nothing like a mouthful of juicy Texas brisket or a big plump burger to sink my teeth into. But when I really take a step back and assess what I’m eating, I realize meat is in every single meal. I don’t know where it started but somewhere down the line I began believing that if I didn’t have meat in a meal, it didn’t count. Crazy, right? For the past couple of weeks I’ve worked at changing my thinking. I don’t cut out meat all together. Heck, I don’t have that kind of will power, but I have cut it down to once a day in most cases. On Saturdays I don’t mind letting this slip. It’s fun to cheat sometimes.

While I didn’t initially start this to lose weight, I have lost a little– probably about three or four pounds. Not bad. The reason why I really wanted to focus on eating this way was because my past habits were unnecessary. The fact is, I need more fruits and veggies in my diet. Since cutting the meat, I’ll admit I’ve been going a little crazy on the carbs. But I’m aware of it and hoping to reign it in. I don’t adjust to change very well. At first I thought this change was going to be extremely difficult, but it hasn’t been bad. I often have a smoothie or acai bowl from breakfast. Eggs are another good source of protein. For lunch, I’ll have salad or cheese and crackers, things that are filling but don’t contain meat. I have noticed I need to snack a little more often. I don’t mind this since nutritionists recommend you eat more frequently to keep your metabolism up.

So, there it is. I’ve found something beneficial for my body that I can actually accomplish. I want to pose this question to you. How many of your meals contain meat in them?