Skipping Meat Challenge: Week 2

It took me a while to get to this post because of my birthday celebrations. The new house hasn’t been fully unpacked either and I owed my husband a fully functional master closet and pantry. (More on that on future DIY posts.) Add to all this the need to validate a few of my observations before posting and you can see why it was a hard piece to put together.

When I started the challenge two weeks ago my expectations were to lose some weight and to figure out if a pseudo plant based diet would be better for me. I didn’t stop consuming eggs, dairy products, honey or seafood (no fish though) and I did have a few cheat meals between the weeks (total of 3 due to celebrations). The local restaurants and work cafeteria have many vegetarian offerings so the cheats weren’t necessary, just convinient. Although some weight did come off, it wasn’t too noticeable. I checked if this was normal, and many resources’ position was that it is possible to be a fat vegetarian or vegan especially if you don’t watch the calories and dietary percentages in the dressings and prepared meals you consume. Some retailers bathe their lettuce in salts, their veggies in fatty dressings and the meat substitutes in sugary rubs. Salt, fat and sugar are mostly added to anything off the frozen aisle so it is cheap, tasty and easy to cook. Be aware before you embark on this journey. Potato chips aren’t low cal. 😉

To my surprise, I was able to narrow down the foods that give me allergic or intolerance reactions: veggies! There are a few high cellulose foods that I couldn’t process, and many others that I haven’t pinpointed. Meat isn’t the only culprit in my diet and it looks like beer may be contributing to some of my intolerances as well. (Unfiltered beers hit me hard and cause itchy skin and rash.) My system could just be acting up as it cleans the toxins. Need to step up my game to figure out if the type of veggies (organic or gmo) and the ingredients in the salad dressings or condiments (garlic, onion, salts) are the ones causing the symptoms. I jumped the gun and started week three reincorporating meat into my routine but I kept it down to once a day. Seriously considering extending the challenge two more weeks to scientifically measure progress and benefits. We’ll see how it goes. Detox ain’t easy…

Bon Appetit!