4 things I learned from going vegetarian

Contents · 6 sections

1. 4 things I learned from going vegetarian
2. Everything is a habit
3. Adjusting to a new lifestyle is hard
4. I lost weight
5. I had a surge of energy
6. The bottom line

4 things I learned from going vegetarian

Let me start with a confession. I love meat. I always have, and I can barely remember a day when I didn’t eat something with meat in it. I never pictured myself as a vegetarian, let alone a vegan, even though both are very trendy right now. I love animals, but eating meat has never made me feel guilty.

About a month ago, I had a full set of blood tests done. My doctor told me what might be the second scariest thing I could hear after “you have a few months to live”: “you need to cut back on meat.” So I decided to try something I had never done before: give up meat completely for 14 days.

Everything is a habit

Habit is what keeps us living a certain way and doing only the things we’re used to. Dropping meat from my daily menu felt completely unnatural, but the body can get used to almost anything once you make it a goal and work at it. I used to think of anything without meat as a side dish. Now, even with the two-week experiment behind me, I could easily keep eating vegetarian. Research says it takes 30 days to build a new habit or break an old one. In my experience, that’s exactly right. It all comes down to us. Any habit can be dropped or picked up until it becomes part of your life.

Adjusting to a new lifestyle is hard

When you’re used to restaurants where meat dominates the menu, you don’t notice how few options you have once you stop eating it. The places you used to go, even your favorites, suddenly don’t work for your diet. At some point it hits you: if you want to be a vegetarian, you have to change your whole lifestyle. To be honest, these two weeks did not make me want to join the trend or convert the people around me. I had a different reason. But even if my health hadn’t required it, I would still have taken on a challenge like this. I believe the only way to grow is to challenge yourself. That’s the only way to understand something new and then reject it or embrace it.

I lost weight

In those two weeks, I lost 3 kilograms (about 6.5 pounds). I didn’t have much of an appetite, even though I didn’t restrict myself in any way, and I’ve always tried to eat healthy anyway. A vegetarian diet would certainly help you lose weight. Just keep in mind that you lose muscle too. Without meat, you can easily fall short on protein and essential amino acids, so one of the biggest challenges is finding good substitutes, such as dairy.

I had a surge of energy

Strange as it sounds, I had a ton of energy and felt in great shape. I wasn’t eating much and wasn’t especially hungry, yet I felt full of life. It showed at work, in my workouts and in my day-to-day life. My only guess is that when we eat more meat, the body spends more energy digesting it.

The bottom line

I’m glad I took this step for myself. Like most seemingly “small things,” it taught me a lot and gave me experience I value. Above all, it taught me that the choice is personal, and that you need to find the right middle ground and not overdo anything. Every extreme, even one that looks positive, can hurt your body. I haven’t given up meat, but I’ll try to find my own balance with it. Because balance really is the key to a full life. The only way to grow is to step out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself and do things you’ve never done before.

P.S. A few days ago I had another full set of tests done, and this time my results were much better than before. 🙂