Going Vegetarian…taking It Slow

When you talk about vegetarianism every other person will say; “Oh I tried it, but…”  and they’ll go from gas, to weak, to sick, to hungry, on and on…all the reasons why they gave up and have no intention of trying again.

The fact is, most people can’t just take meat out of their diet.  Sure, one can babble about this one and that one quitting and…but the fact is the majority of people in the Western world are not Vegan, and of all those who try, the majority fail.

The majority fails because many go ‘cold turkey’.  This is doom.  Firstly, if one’s body depends on meat for certain proteins and vitamins, they are not going to get them.   One can become anemic, have various B vitamin deficiencies which will prevent this person from ever becoming a vegetarian.

By moving very slowly one avoids the sense of ‘lack’.  Avoids any abrupt dietary changes which will effect their lives.  For example, vegetarians have no problem going to the bathroom a number of times a day.  A person who has eatten a very meatful diet may not be comfortable or prepared. 

One should begin every change in diet with a washout and a fast.  This clears the system of toxins, and the fast, in which one drinks unsweetened juice and water helps the cleansing.  The next day begins with very small light meals.  In this way, the first two days of the new diet are heralded by this activity.

The first change is to remove one meat meal a day and replace it with a vegetarian alternative.  Hence one is still eating meat, but less. So that there isn’t the sudden absence, the craving, feeling denied, which very often ends the most well planned venture into vegetariansim.

Those who ‘fail’ do so because it is too abrupt.  When it is slow and one consciously removes that burger from the lunch menu and substitutes a salad,  it is not problematic, for if they really ‘need’ a burger, they will have one for dinner.

After the first month of removing one meat meal a day, one has another washout and juice fast, another day of very light meals, then moves into removing meat from another meal, so that the ‘diet’ is no more than seven meat meals a week.

During this period a lot of substitutions take place.  New recipes are tried. The diet hasn’t substantially changed, there need be no craving for the denied meat. Simply one has gone from 21 meat meals to 14 to 7.

One progresses at their own pace to remove all meat. Often making the change from beef, pork, etc, to fish and occasionally chicken or turkey.  

Yes, it is slow and the fanatics will howl that you should be able to commit and stop eatting meat entirely at the drop of a cucumber.  But that isn’t reality.  Reality is that in the Western World food is plentiful and cheap and people do grow up eating meat 21 times a week.  This is not a society where meat is a luxury or only enjoyed at the dinner table. 

If one has lived their whole life eating meat to move to not eating meat, it will take a long time to get it out of your system until you don’t want it.  The only way this can happen is when you move along at your own pace, giving yourself goals you can reach.

One might stop at the point of having one meat meal a week.  This is better than 21 times a week. 

It is better to take it slow, moving at measured pace then try to race to the finish line and quit a few steps beyond the starting line.