Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

We have this process thing at my company where we study a process and decide how to make it better. When we determine the cost/labor saving outcome, we do a “report out” to summarize what we discovered and hopefully implement the changes.

A few weeks ago now, I decided to go a week eating NO MEAT. This is a big deal. I have always been highly skewed to the carnivore, and not uncommon to eat meat at EVERY meal. Now, I don’t subscribe to any falsehoods. I know that many animals are inhumanely raised. etc. This makes me not desire veal or Foie Gras (Yuck, liver?) and I feel incredible guilt when I eat lamb. I still eat chicken, pork, beef, etc. Over the last few years I have made this gradually move to free range, vegetarian fed meats. They really do taste better, and cost more. This move wasn’t about being kind to animals or the environment, I am sad to say however. This was about my health, if you get what I am saying. I decided I would eat no meat for a week and see if I felt better.

I won’t say I was absolutely successful in my endeavor. On day one I cooked sausages and had eaten half of one before I remembered. Then there was that stop at Country Barrel where I scarfed down two pieces of bacon before I recalled. Then there was a dinner at McCormick and Schmicks where I ordered a terrible shrimp pasta. Overall, I think I did quite well considering I was just a tourist. The best thing was I got to eat SO MUCH guacamole (yum) with no guilt since I wasn’t eating meat. I didn’t have to give up chocolate or coffee - There was really no downside, of course I did slip up from time to time (see above) but overall, like I said, good effort.

I liked it so much in fact, I really like veggie Chipotle over meat Chipotle and I like veggie Quizno’s over meat Quizno’s. Two options I had never really explored before.

I did feel much better also. I can’t say I had more energy than usual or I lost any weight. I did feel better inside though and I did eat more veggies which can only be a good thing. I have kept up with eating lots more veggies and eating less meat overall. The kiddies have always been big veggie fans, so it is nicer for them as well.

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