Why I am eating meat again

So, this story amuses me somewhat because I stopped eating meat after a diet and I started eating meat again after another diet.  In March of 1998 I “finished” dieting after losing about 30 pounds.  I had not eaten beef since ‘94 (and still try to avoid it), but I was eating all other meats.  However, after losing that weight, every time I ate meat I felt heavy and weighed down.  So me and my husband both decided to stop eating meat, while continuing to include seafood in our diets (called a “pescetarian” diet).

This made sense to us at the time for both diet and ethical reasons and I was thrilled with the choice.  I grew up eating a lot of vegetables and seafood, so the decision wasn’t hard for me.  And over the years, I loved discovering vegetarian recipes and never felt deprived.  We were never self righteous about it - I feel everyone should eat what they feel comfortable eating and we just weren’t comfortable eating meat.

The change in opinion, I have to say, probably started several years ago.  The “foodie” movement was starting to take hold and my husband and I started to appreciate food more.  And to really see what a good, balanced diet should entail.  We started watching chefs like Jamie Oliver cook beautiful meals using whole, unprocessed food and that had great appeal to us.  However, I was still not comfortable eating animals.

So in 2010, when I started dieting again, I was still pescetarian.  And I lost the weight on a diet of fish and vegetables, soy and vegetable protein.  But my exercise consisted mostly of cardio.  At the beginning of 2011, I had lost the weight and started to alter my exercise routine in order to build muscle.  By April of that year I was feeling poorly, as if my body, instead of building muscle, was actually losing it. I felt deprived. So I made the decision to start eating meat again.  Not huge amounts - but I wanted to see if it helped me feel better.  And boy did it.  Within a week, I felt 100 times better with regards to my strength.   I knew that eating a balanced diet that included meat was the right thing for me.
 
I still eat a lot of vegetables - I love them.  And, for convenience, I still eat a lot of vegetarian soups and frozen meals.  But as you can see from my posts, I’ve completely made the leap back into the omnivore world and I am loving it.  I feel so much healthier and stronger.  And thankfully I have the ability to purchase humanely raised and slaughtered meat.  I still have the goal to eat food in as natural a form as possible and avoid things that are over processed, refined or contain preservatives.  I feel like I'm only half of the way there but I think it’s good to have that goal and to always be aware of what you are putting into your body.