Yes, I know, this is going to be a really strange series of posts, but I thought it might be a good way to document a recent decision I've made in my life.
Very recently, I made the decision to stop eating meat with an eye of completely changing my whole diet to be plant-based.
Why Dom, why?
This decision, as I suspected, has been met with a chorus of groans and 'smart' comments from a lot of my friends, which I knew would be the case.
I made this decision after spending 2 weeks away on my NLP Practitioner course. Whilst away, my diet was completely different to how it might have been at home and I realised that whilst the stuff I was putting into my body was different, my body was reacting differently too.
Where before I'd have felt lethargic, or bogged down, I now felt lighter and had more natural energy. I also noticed that (without going into too much detail) the symptoms of IBS that I have experienced were also no longer there.
Also, with this different diet keeping my insides happy, that meant my body was happy and because the body and the mind are a linked system, my mind was also feeling a lot lighter, things felt a lot clearer and I felt a lot better overall.
I haven't made the choice because of my feelings towards the treatment of animals, although I do agree with a lot of the arguments that you may hear from a lot of vegetarians / vegans. But this wasn't my driving factor.
I will say this now. I will not be 'preaching' to you all and telling you all to do it too. I genuinely feel that this is my decision for me. I made this choice consciously and I'm not going to be one of those people who try to force it upon others.
All the cool kids are doing it
(I know that header is probably not the best one to use)
In my mind, I have a clear goal of where I want to be and what I want to be doing with my life. So what I've done is look at people who are doing the things that I want to do and broken down what they are doing, what they have done with their own lives and looking for anything that is different to what I'm doing. Then I'm looking at modelling these differences to see what difference makes the difference.
One huge similarity that I see across all the people that I look up to is around what they are putting into their bodies. They are all on a "plant-based" diet. After spending 2 weeks on a (majorly) plant-based diet and feeling the effects and benefits of it, I can totally see why.
What is this series all about?
This series of posts is basically going to be around sharing my experiences and findings as I go from being a meat-eater to fully-fledged plant-based, the conscious decisions I make about what foods to eat, different recipes I try or different menu choices if we're out and about in the world.
My plan?
So, this jump from meat to plant-based, I can anticipate is going to be an interesting one to go 'cold turkey' on (if you'll pardon the pun).
I'm anticipating the following, if I'm going to do this right:-
- try lots of meat and dairy 'substitutes' and find the ones that make the transition easier
- get bored with the substitutes and replace those with natural ingredients instead
What I hope to learn
I want to become more aware of what I'm putting into my body and what my body needs.
After only doing this for 2 weeks already, I have already noticed that I'm becoming a lot more conscious and aware of what ingredients there are in everything!
For example (a weird example): crisps. Did you know that there are a lot of crisps out there that contain dairy products?! I know. Crisps! They're just baked slices of potato, right? Nope! Let's just look at Walker's Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli Crisps. They contain the ingredient buttermilk powder which contains milk.
I know that's a really specific example, but even just looking at ingredients generally opens your eyes a lot to what you're putting into your body.
What you can expect from this series
Well, as I said above, I'll be sampling different meat-alternatives, and different recipes and foods, so I want to share those experiences and my opinions on them with you all.
I'm really looking forward to trying lots of different foods and combinations and I can't wait to share them with you.