It's 10:36 p.m. on August 16th, which means in less than an hour and a half, I will be able to eat meat again. You see, for the last 30 days I have been living like a vegetarian. If any of you knew how much meat I usually eat, you'd know this has been a pretty large task.
On July 17th, I was at home on the computer watching TEDtalks videos online. I clicked on a video where a a guy by the name of Matt Cutts suggested to try something new for 30 days. You can either take something away for 30 days or add something new, but the point is to stick to it and see what you learn in those 30 days. If you want to watch the video, go to www.ted.com and search for Matt Cutts (there's an abundance of great videos on there so try not to get addicted like I did when I first discovered this awesome site). I had just finished watching another video about our food system in America, agribusiness and the way it is affecting the health of us as a nation. So after I watched the inspirational video by Matt Cutts, I decided cutting out meat was what I was going to do for the next 30 days. So with no plan at all, the following day, I didn't eat meat and won't again for atleast another hour.
You see, I don't think consuming meat is bad at all and in no way am I a vegetarian. We have eaten meat for thousands of years and our bodies are made to eat meat. I just have problems the way most of us Americans eat meat, and it's extremely difficult for us to control. If you want to know more about this, I suggest watching Food, Inc. You can either purchase it on itunes or watch it section by section on youtube. It will definitely change the way you view food forever. If you do watch it, you will either love me or hate me after it is over, because it is inevitable that you will learn things and your eyes will be opened. Some will wish they hadn't watched though. Just a warning.
People have asked me throughout the last 30 days why I am not eating meat, so here it goes.
1) I love challenges. I love to challenge myself and set short-term goals to see how long it takes me to accomplish them and if I am disciplined enough to do so. Last summer, I tried the velocity diet. I failed miserably. The diet is to not eat for 28 days. You figure out how many calories your body needs in a day, then consume all those calories from protein shakes made primarily made of casein protein and flax. You also take fish oil and I added almond butter to them, but the point is to not eat food. It was definitely the toughest challege I've done. I only made it to day 7 because I lost roughly 10 lbs the first 7 days and decided I did not want to lose anymore so I quit doing it. Those 7 days were extremely difficult and who knows, maybe one day I will give the velocity diet a try again.
2) The types of meat we eat in the year 2011 is not the same meat humans ate pre World War II. Paul McCartney said that if slaughter houses had glass walls, then everyone would be vegetarian. The food industry has changed drastically in the last few decades which has made a huge impact on our health. McDonalds is the biggest purchaser of ground beef and because they want their hamburgers everywhere to taste the exact same, they change the way the beef is produced. In the 1970's, the top 5 beef packers controlled around 25% of the market. Today, the top 4 beef packers control over 80%. This means the majority of the meat we eat comes from the same factories. This is corporate farming, or agribusiness.
In the past 30 days of me being a vegetarian, there's been two huge meat recalls. From March 1st - August 1st, 77 people from 26 states had reported being infected with Salmonella found in ground turkey. This turkey came from only 4 separate farms. More recently, 60,000 lbs of ground beef here in the southeast has been recalled because of the bacteria E. coli. When meat is produced in mass quantities, animals eat a diet that is primarily based on corn, which their stomachs have trouble digesting. Much of the animals we consume were created to eat grass, so when they eat something their stomachs can't handle, they get sick. Just like humans. These animals are also injected with hormones and steroids so they will grow larger, faster. This way the farms can produce more animals, grow them, kill them, then sell them to make money. The faster the farm sells animals, the more money they make and the more food we get to eat. It's a win/win situation, right?
Here are just a few interesting facts about America and meat.
I) Americans alone kill 10,000,000,000 (yes, that's billion) animals a year for food. That's a lot considering we only have a little over 300 million people in our country. If we were to connect each of these animals, they'd go to the moon and back 5 times.
II) After energy production, livestock is the second highest contributor to atmosphere altering gases. If you like to recycle and save the planet, maybe you should consider your food choices as well.
III) More than 1/2 the antibiotics in America are admitted to animals, not humans. When animals are raised in the conditions they are, they are given a ridiculous amount of antibiotics to keep them from dying.
3) I wanted to try new food. When cutting out meat, which was a major portion of my dietary intake, I had to find other stuff to eat. I tried several new vegetables, pretty much doubled my fruit intake, and also tried tofu (I will be completely ok if I never have to eat it again).
So those are a few reasons why I decided to not eat meat for 30 days.
Something great I find through these challenges set for time are that I break out of the box and try new things. We often get trapped doing the same routine over and over. When we do this, I believe there's a lot of life that is missed. Even something so simple as cutting out meat caused me to try different foods over the past 30 days, which I may not have ever done had it not been for this challenge.
I challenge each of you to try something for 30 days. You can either add something to your life or take something away. Whether it be walking a mile every day, losing 5 or 10 lbs, writing a book, taking away Facebook, or simply smiling and saying "hi" to someone for 30 days. I think you'll be surprised at what you learn and what habits you pick up along the way.
Set a goal, be strong, achieve it!
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