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Quote:

Originally Posted by Just_Isabel View Post
Gardenmommy: I think the advice to start with something we used to like before is very good, I'll probably do that.

Has eating meat become easier for you with time? Do you enjoy it, or do you just eat it because of health benefits?

I'm considering trying to eat meat for a month, and then go from there. But I'm not 100% sure about it yet. After your post I'm thinking that maybe I should try it for about 6 weeks to make sure that I give it enough time to see the benefits?

I don't think I'll be able to handle preparing the meat - so if I go ahead with the trial month/6 weeks I'll have to eat somewhere else
(Just a couple weeks ago I totally freaked out because my brother, who's living with me for a couple months, was tenderizing steaks in my kitchen, on my wooden cutting board.

This is going to be hard.

I wanted to reply to this. It's been about 18 months since I started eating meat. It has gotten easier, although occasionally it bothers me a little. I will say that having it prepared excellently in restaurants is probably what helped the most. We have gone to some places where the food was out of this world good! There are definitely some dishes that are meat-based that I really enjoy. A good burger, chicken noodle soup, steak salad (esp. thai steak salad), lamb dishes at our favorite Lebanese restaurant.

I would say you need to try it for at least 6 weeks. For me, the biggest hurdle was the preparation. We have access to really good quality meats, but they still need to be prepared, kwim? I get whole chicken/turkey that needs to be cut up; sometimes that bothers me. I have a mental shpeel that I go through that helps me. Going from a whole roast to roast in the crock pot still requires some cutting and whatnot; that's probably the hardest part for me.

Go slowly, find some restaurants that are really topnotch, do broths and soups, etc. Just because you decide to eat meat doesn't mean that you are going to eat it all day every day, and nothing else. It can be a small part of your diet and you'll still see results.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by firefaery View Post
Funny, I actually do enjoy sausage. I jsut don't eat it much because the general feeling so far as I can tell is that it's not exactly one of the more healthful foods. I would really look forward to sausage over shredded zucchini and fresh tomato sauce. Inevitable though my brain kicks in and I feel really weird about what I'm eating. That's what makes it tough for me.

We have meat from a grass fed cow as well. Dh loves it. Kiddos go through phases. Sometimes they want it, sometimes they don't. IT seems a shame to me to *choke down* something that is so darned expensive. I'm better with lamb than I am with beef though. Chicken and turkey really do nothing for me.
yep


I am thinking for me it just may take about the same length of time that i was a veggie to actually get used to meat


I mean, I get so hung up on the whole preparation of it all, that i rarely sit down and *really* enjoy it. Like steak, sure it can taste yummy, but when I eat it I still feel yucky from preparing it, and kind of weird so that when I eat it I can't say I thoroughly enjoy it.

I mean, I think I enjoy the condiments and the avacado and monterey jack on a burger more than the actual meat, USUALLY.

So how can we get over this? Seriously, anybody have ideas? I would love some help in this area. Is it purely psychological? Is it that my body is taking years to really reprogram and recover?
I just don't want to transfer issues with meat to my kids. It is pretty hard to get my kids to eat meat and I do not like that.
 
Gardenmommy, thanks for your advice. It helps.
I'm still giving myself a week to think about it/mentally prepare.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leilalu View Post
So how can we get over this?
:
I don't want to have to eat out everytime I need meat - I can't afford that!
 
apart from the technical aspects, I got over it by thanking the animal whenever I cook or eat it, and the kids do too: "thank you chicken, thank you pig..". While I feel this might be a little flippant an apology for killing something, it certainly changes the energy around eating it and becoming nourished and vibrant from it.

peace.
 
I've been contemplating this. I first went veg after staying with some vegan friends for a month. I felt better, lost weight, etc. I didn't stay strict vegan, and never completely gave up fish (but only ate sushi, and rarely, because it's pricey and I'm poor).

My thing is, over the last year my sweet tooth/carb fest tendencies have gotten WAY out of control. I still get enough protein, but don't eat enough veggies and I know my diet is out of balance. I was just talking to DH yesterday (before seeing this thread) about maybe going back to eating meat. I miss eating good wings with him (something we used to bond over), and eating DH's cooking (he's a professional chef).

The ethical issue over factory farms is the main reason I've stuck with it as long as I have (those aforementioned friends took up smoking and then when I was a bit critical of it cut me off and don't speak to me any more). But I have issues with conventional plant growing methods, too, and I still buy a lot of those products because I can't afford all organic. I'm coming to realize it's ALL a compromise. I can at least get the natural/organic/free range type stuff from Whole Foods or Sunflower market instead of regular supermarket meat (I live in a major city and have NO IDEA where to find home-grown humanely treated animals) occasionally, though it's really expensive so I'll probably continue eating mostly beans.

And darn it, as yummy as field roast is, I miss eating a frickin' TURKEY at Thanksgiving.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by twinkletoes View Post
apart from the technical aspects, I got over it by thanking the animal whenever I cook or eat it, and the kids do too: "thank you chicken, thank you pig..". While I feel this might be a little flippant an apology for killing something, it certainly changes the energy around eating it and becoming nourished and vibrant from it.

peace.

Not at all...thats how its been done for ever...And I dont think it matters how you say it, just that you are aware. I thi it is so important to stay connected to where your food comes from. I too( and my kids) thank the animals that we eat ( and the seaweed too...after my oldest once asked over a bowl of kale and seaweed salad: "Mam, do we kill seaweed too?)

I am actually planning on learning to hunt in the near future(eventually with bow and arrow) just to stay even closer to that process. I think it will take quite a bit for me actually kill an animal, but I am looking forward to that challenge, and that connection too!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravin View Post
I've been contemplating this. I first went veg after staying with some vegan friends for a month. I felt better, lost weight, etc. I didn't stay strict vegan, and never completely gave up fish (but only ate sushi, and rarely, because it's pricey and I'm poor).
I think I mentioned something like this before, but I think a vegan or vegetarian diet can be a great therapeutic ( read: temporary) diet. Going form SAD diet to vegan, ususally means ( at least in the beginning) tons more veggies, fresher food, organic stuff and in general a bigger commitment to healthy eating. You are also doing something you have committed yourself to and that you believe is good for you and that feeds your vital force.
But ultimately, I think at least a vegan diet is not a sustaining diet. It was very interesting to hear from several people that there seems to be a 12-15 year "grace period" before you really start to feel bad effects. My mentor in nutrition always mentioned that number as well...

Tanya
 
I believe that being disgusted by meat is a sign of a zinc deficiency, caused by, ironically, not eating meat. So after being veg for a while, you get more and more disgusted with the idea of eating meat. I don't know if this is because if you ate it it would make you queasy from not being able to digest it, but I think i heard that somewhere. So it may not be just a psychogical thing...
 
I started with wild game. It helped I was craving red meat. The first few times I ate it I was amazed I was eating it, but it felt so good inside me that it became easier. Wild game is sustainable and is a big part of our heritage as people. My DH has not hunted since we moved, but we can get bison and elk from the farmers' market. I still do not eat cow for ethical reasons.

It took me 2 years of eating red meat before I could try chicken, but once I could psychologically try it, it really felt good inside. And I enjoy making the broths and having meals with broth and no flesh. I still have not crossed back to pork.

I was a vegetarian for 12 years, but I switched to NT to help my DD with eczema and digestion. I too had problems with my identity. I craved and ate red meat (pronghorn and deer) and pheasants harvested by a falconer friend while pregnant and breastfeeding but I still considered myself a vegetarian- assuming I would stop eating meat when I stopped breastfeeding. It didn't happen. So it took awhile to change my identity- like 3 years. DH is really supportive.
 
OK, I'm new to this idea of eating meat (just stumbled on this thread). Does anyone here think that adding fish only to the diet would satisfy your nutritional needs, based on your experience and beliefs?
 
I was a vegetarian for almost a decade before conceiving dd. I started out l/o, then stopped eating dairy, then added fish. During this time I was extremely fatigued and gained a significant amount of weight that I just could not take off. I didn't understand the connection with food and just thought it was the way I was.

I had horrible morning sickness with dd pretty much from conception. I craved meat really badly and began eating meat midway through the first trimester. I couldn't stomach red meat but chicken, turkey, and pork I could do, and actually had no trouble eating them. Preparing them was difficult; knowing they were healthy animals that were humanely treated helps with this alot. I now eat all meats and am so thankful that I started to again, it has made a big difference in my overall health. I think that, for me, a vegetarian diet was really unhealthy.

I don't have too much to add to this conversation except that something that helps me eat meat is to really use all parts of the animal that I can. I never discard a bone or gristle or anything; I make stock for us and clean the cartlige that is softened from the stock making and feed it to the dogs. It's labor intensive, but I really feel like no usable part of the animal is wasted if I do that.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by laohaire View Post
OK, I'm new to this idea of eating meat (just stumbled on this thread). Does anyone here think that adding fish only to the diet would satisfy your nutritional needs, based on your experience and beliefs?
You could try.

I tried to not eat fish, but I felt really out of energy when I did that, so I still eat it. Now I think I do need red meat (this may be weird, but I think I'd stomach red meat better than chicken) because no matter what I eat, I keep on feeling like something is missing. It's so weird, it's like my body is telling me I need to eat something I haven't been eating, because at the same time, I don't have much appetite, but still feel that I need to eat something that my body is missing.
:

Now I'm just trying to figure out what to eat and where.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by laohaire View Post
OK, I'm new to this idea of eating meat (just stumbled on this thread). Does anyone here think that adding fish only to the diet would satisfy your nutritional needs, based on your experience and beliefs?
I still ate fish occasionally during periods of my vegetarianism, and it did not stop me from becoming deficient in key minerals. I am sure that I did not eat enough, but I was always worried about the pesticides and mercury accumulating in fish. I do think that different people have different nutritional needs and can meet those needs in many different ways. And much of that difference is probably genetic. But, it seems to me that a varied diet, that includes a diverse selection of poultry and beef and fish and other game meats gives you a better chance of meeting all your nutritional needs.
 
For me, the real change came when I added lamb and beef. I enjoy the variety of chicken and fish, but do not find that they provide enough of whatever for my body. For a loooong time, I craved beef and lamb. It's finally started to taper off, although I do have days where I crave it still.
 
Former l/o vegetarian here; still not a huge fan of meat! I find the hardest thing going NT is finding good recipes. I keep going back to my Moosewood Daily Special cookbook for its awesome salads, a number of which can easily be modified to fit an NT diet, but when it comes to cooking meat I don't have a cookbook of equal quality, if you know what I mean - a lot of the middle-of-the-road cookbooks are pretty bland, IMO. Hard to disguise the taste of meat.
 
I started on beef mainly coz I could get homekilled beef plus I figured it would take us a year to eat 1 cow but we'd easily eat 52 chickens in a year. What I did initially was adapted all my veg stew recipes to use beef instead of pulses & bone broth instead of vege stock. Turns out my kids are big on meat & dh is so I never had any probs there. Having been vegan & subsequently getting my milk from a farm, I can also say I felt that adding milk into our diet was essentially just adding meat indirectly. In fact, I feel more comfortable eating say lamb than I do dairy. Eggs are different as it is possible to get eggs from things like rescued chickens who are not going to be bumped off the minute their rate of laying drops. But you do need to actively seek out ppl with flocks like these for that to be the case. Otherwise, all those extra roosters have to go somewhere.

Anecodotal evidence as well on omni vs veg*n. Middle dd didn't talk until she was 3 which was about 2 months after we went from vegan to omni. She literally started talking 10 or more new words every day. It may be a co-incidence & how she naturally was. The other thing none of the vege literature mentions is all vegan foods basically break down into starches which break down into sugars. My middle dd had yeast related excema which was not getting better. Once I got her on an omni diet we were able to gradually eliminate it nutritionally.
 
i prepare meat for my DH, so it wouldn't be hard for me to overcome preparing it. LOL

the greatest hurdle for me is actually eating it. i haven't tried, even though i've tried to try (that is, i'll say "i'm going to eat a bite of chicken), but then i try to put it in my mouth and it's like trying to drink alcohol for me--like trying to eat a tin can. i have no clue why.

so, i'm not worried about it either way.
it'll work itself out.
 


Vegetarian for 17 years...now eating (and loving) grass-fed beef and pastured poultry!


I made the switch when I was pregnant with my DS. It wasn't really a choice. My body just told me I was going to eat meat and lots of it so I sought out the best meat I could find and really started delving into NT.

I thought maybe I'd go back to being a vegetarian after DS was born but there is no sign of that happening. I just bought another 30# of beef for my freezer a week ago and have a beef stew cooking on the stove as I type this!
 
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