From going cold turkey in 2020 to allowing myself to occasionally eat said turkey (and other meats)
So, for some background... About two months into lockdowns, my boyfriend convinced me that there was no better time to try cutting out meat from our diets. I readily agreed – mostly because there isn't much else to do during a global pandemic, but also because of sustainability and health reasons. So, from sometime in May (for someone who is really mindful of dates, I truly have no clue how I didn't track the exact day we started) through almost every day of the rest of 2020, I ate an exclusively meat-free diet.
This endeavor was made much easier by the fact that, because of COVID concerns, we were already doing all of our cooking and eating at home. It wasn't until maybe mid-summer that we started getting takeout again (and we didn't set foot in a single restaurant until we got vaccinated in the spring of 2021), so as long as we didn't buy any meat products from the store, we were set.
While my boyfriend did understandably falter a couple of times during our transition to a plant-based lifestyle and was generally less strict than I was when ordering takeout, I was definitely very stubborn – as I tend to be when it comes to goals. I only ate seafood a few times (mostly sushi, which became a craving of mine and I could write off as "pescatarian"), and I actually preferred not having to cook meat anymore (chicken bones have always grossed me out). Plus, it was fun and mentally stimulating, because it gave me a reason to experiment in the kitchen and try different foods, and it also distracted me a bit from the crazy, weird year the world was going through.
The downside to all this is that any slip-ups I made left me feeling pretty bad. I can count these so-called slip-ups on probably only one hand, but it still somehow felt like a failure anytime I ate even a bite of meat. Whenever I really craved meat or felt limited by the veg choices on a menu, I would either talk myself out of it or end up regretting my decision later (no matter how good it tasted, like this Cuban Bistec Milanesa – breaded steak the size of my head that was covered in ham, sauce, and cheese – that I got while we were visiting my boyfriend's family in Florida in December that I still clearly think about sometimes).
Obviously, that's not an ideal way to live. I'm hoping to go completely vegetarian/vegan one day in the near-ish future, but for 2021 I decided to be more lenient with myself and embrace being a flexitarian:
I decided I would continue to not purchase any meat at the grocery store (with some occasional exceptions for fish/shrimp), and only prepare plant-based meals at home.
However, I would try to no longer feel guilty about eating meat when getting takeout or eating away from home (especially at my parents' or when on vacation).
I would keep track of all the meat, including seafood, I ate over the course of the year to hold myself somewhat accountable and motivated, as well as out of general interest (because for me, tracking things is fun?)
And this turned out pretty well! It allowed me more flexibility because vegetarianism/veganism felt more like a choice, rather than an obligation, and in certain circumstances kept me fed (the months of May/June consisted of a lot of hospital-adjacent meals and not a lot of options; in a less-heavy way, I also wouldn't have been able to enjoy or even probably survive our trip to meat-centric Spain if I had been more strict!); overall, it was the right decision for me this year.
Even with my "indulgences," I ended up having 242 all-veg days! Of the 84 days I did eat some meat, I usually only had one meal with it (with many exceptions later in the year during vacations), so it felt much more balanced. And if I include the 39 days in which I only had "meat from the sea" to my total, I can say I ate mostly-vegetarian 77% of 2021.
I feel I have to acknowledge that the daily tracking did become a bit of a problem at times (because I can be pretty idiosyncratic and also I have a not-so-great history of trying to track my calories in order to try to gain weight), so I probably won't bring this particular level of mindfulness of my eating habits into 2022. Still, I think it helped me keep some things in perspective and provided some peace of mind whenever I worried I was eating "too much" meat, and – maybe most importantly – it gave me another mundane thing to turn into some spreadsheet art (!!) and analyze.
I always find it fascinating how "stuff" – be it books, food, etc. – can tell a unique story of a period of time. 2021 had a really big down (my mom passing away at the beginning of June) as well as many ups (like our new apartment in January, my new job in March, and two really nice trips in October: Charleston/Savannah, hence all the seafood, and Spain in December, where I tried meats I've never had before like venison, pig ear, and tripe – all three of which I can live the rest of my life without having again, but I'm glad I tried them once!), and it's cool to see the things I ate and the experiences I had reflected across the span of the year.
The calendar and charts above were created using Google Sheets. Click here to see how I designed them.
Comentarios