Stage 1: I CAN DO THIS STAGE! At this stage, I felt like anything was possible. I spent the first day dusting off my vegetarian cookbooks, browsing the internet for amazingly easy veggie recipes and scoping out Pinterest for dinner ideas. There are tons and tons of recipes for vegetarians! While my newly dust free cookbooks ended up full of multi-colored post-it notes, my grocery list began to grow. Grocery shopping and pantry cleaning was the most difficult part of this stage! I despise grocery shopping and pantry cleaning with a passion. More about that in a later blog! Unfortunately, this stage only lasted 5 days...I couldn't even make it one full week with the gung-ho attitude!
This is a great beginner book! It contains more than 150 recipes that provides healthy ways to give up meat while keeping the wonderful flavors your mouth so rightly deserve!
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The $5 A Meal Cookbook is a wonderful resource for those that love the challenge of saving money. Get the entire family involved with grocery shopping at Dollar Tree. I have done this in the past when my boys were younger. Letting children participate in the choosing of the meals helps them understand prices, cost and healthy eating habits. Stage 2: EVERYTHING LOOKS AND SMELLS LIKE CHICKEN STAGE! This stage is a combination of drooling at the TV during Popeye commercials, smelling your children as soon as they come home from school, or playing Farmville and thinking about how yummy it would be to just pick one of those little cows or chickens right out of the phone. I would almost salivate during any fast food commercial, especially Popeye's. It got to the point that I thought I could smell the commercials... anything food related, of course. My boys would laugh at me because I would hug them and tell exactly what type of meat they had at school that day. I would ask them to describe how it tasted or what it looked like. Of course, they would laugh and not give me an answer to my question. Farmville was a delicious game to play; however, Cooking Fever really had me wanting to lick my phone screen. The variety of foods, the graphics, and the fact that I can't cook half the Cooking Fever dishes had me so hungry. Did I quit playing the game...No, I'm a level 115! Why quit?! This stage lasted about 9 days.
Stage 3: I SEE CHANGES! THIS MIGHT ACTUALLY WORK STAGE! Seriously, being a vegetarian becomes easier if you can make it to this stage. After 2 weeks, I began to see physical, mental and financial changes. Physically, I lost 6.2 pounds in two weeks and my jeans fit better! Ok, I know most, if not all, was water weight. However, it was exactly what I needed to stay onboard with my meat free diet. After consuming my meatless meals, I didn't have a weighed down feeling but I felt full. Another physical change involved my monthly cycle. Menstrual cramps became the thing of previous months. In the past I had horrible cramps that required me to pop pain medication like candy for the first 36 hours of my cycle. However, during my October cycle, I only popped pills for the first 12 hours. Another interesting thing about my cycle was...there was literally no period odor. Not to get too graphic or gross, but normally there is a period smell. It was never a vomitus smell that caused the gag reflex to be in overdrive, it was just the smell of blood. After 3 weeks of practicing vegetarianism, my cycle had no smell. Enough about that!
Mentally, I felt better. As someone who struggles with depression, I noticed that I was calmer, and not so stressed or depressed. Only time will tell for long term results. Financially, there was a huge decrease in my grocery bill! I would normally spend more than $150 per week on groceries (I live with 2 teenage boys). When grocery shopping, I tend to purchase 80% from the produce section of the store. Fruits, vegetables, pastas, rice, beans, and fish (only tuna, sardines, salmon, and whiting) can cost less than $80, especially if you shop at Aldi's (or somewhere similar). You will be amazed at the amount of groceries you can purchase for less than $100...truly amazed!
Overall, the journey hasn't been so bad. I'm still learning and trying to figure it all out. If you are interested in a meatless diet, do your research and take baby steps. Personally, I find it harder to plan meals without meat. But, I have learned that with a little hunting around via various sources (print, internet, or TV) you can find hundreds of recipes for great meatless meals. Remember to take baby steps. Try reducing your meat intake to 3 times a week or make certain days "meat days" or "cheat days". Have fun with it and good luck!
A. 😉
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