30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 30 - And Scene

So here it is...30 days of not eating meat! Whoop. To be honest, I knew that I would never really struggle with this one. I'm educated enough to know that not every meal must have meat in it and for people who think that, you really need to broaden your horizons. Not saying become vegetarian but just not relying on having meat for every meal. Even once a week would be a great start.

So what have I learnt? I have become aware that the way animals are treated and killed for their meat is absolutely disgusting and barbaric. I have watched enough documentaries and seen enough visuals to really upset me and question the real reasons why I eat meat. And really, the only reason I could come up with would be because I love the taste. Nothing like a medium rare steak covered in garlic and some hot chips. Or a Coles BBQ Chicken. Or a BBQd sausage in bread with sauce. Even as I type this, I do not drool or yearn for the day I can have one. I go to restaurants and I skim past the meat options not even giving them a second glance. Why? Because I now know where that meat comes from and how it is processed. I remember hearing someone say 'if we had to kill our meat, almost everyone would be vegetarian'.

Since going on this challenge I have been eating healthier - still not as healthy as I would like as I find I am skipping meals and so forth but my junk food intake has decreased dramatically, in fact, in the last 30 days I have had Grill'd twice (vegie option) and chips from McDonalds once - and even that was a matter of starvation. I know there are health benefits from red meat and so forth but I am fairly certain I am getting these from all the other foods I have started eating these last 30 days.

The vegetarian challenge was supposed to be for 30 days. Today was day 31 that I did not have meat. I will continue to not eat meat but I may treat myself to a nice piece of chicken every blue moon but I will ensure that it is free range and not a battery chicken which is caged up in a cage the size of an ipad. Even though it is not the same thing as not having it at all, at least the chicken was not - for want of a better word - tortured all its life. But yeah, so I have said I may give in to chicken every now and again but we will see how long I can go without it...maybe I will never have it, who knows...but this challenge has certainly opened up my mind and eyes a bit more and given me the first step to leading a healthy mind/body and soul once more.

We'll see if the next one does the same thing!

PS> I didn't want to alter my original posting but when I went to add some pics I saw this horrible picture of a chicken and it just disturbed me so much I couldn't even look at it. Having just seen this I think it would now be near impossible for me to eat chicken. If you find it disturbing too and look away, I guess you need to ask yourself why? And what can you do to help stop it?

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 29 - The Calm Before...

The penultimate day...not much to report, had a busy day preparing things for the next challenge, which starts on MONDAY! But more about that later.

Tonight's dinner was ricotta and spinach tortellini with spinach and garlic - starting to develop a bit of a love affair with the spinach I must say. Broccoli still retains the title of being my favourite vegetable though.


That's about it for tonight...short and sweet...looking forward to tomorrow, not so i can eat meat again but because I will have completed my first of 12 "30 Day Challenges". Whoop!

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 28 - Junk food!!!

It's amazing how your diet and food intake can be so much affected by what's going on in your life. When I'm nervous, anxious or stressed I don't eat. And that's what happened today. I won't delve into what or anything as that's not what this blog is about. It's about my experiences of not eating meat. So after a really long day, I was really exhausted and lethargic I decided to get a vegorama pizza from Domino's - yes, I hear you groan, Domino's. Not exactly the world's best food but it's close, cheap and convenient. Was actually pretty good but does not even come close to comparing to the pizza I made in the beginning of the month.

As I near to the end of my challenge, I felt it necessary to remind myself of the vast array of reasons why I should continue to be vegetarian. Especially as I seem to have fallen into that trap of  cooking the same foods and the laziness I have in preparing food - hence the pizza tonight.

I found this documentary online, Myth and Truth about Vegetarianism - For Earth, for Animals, for Yourself which its description states it 'systematically analyzes the scientific basis of claims thart vegetariansim is unnatural for humans and thart we require meat". Just a reminder as to the benefits of being a vegetarian.

Ironically, those who say we need meat in order to stay healthy, I came across this news article today; A spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill - a burger place with burgers names such as "the triple bypass' died of a hear attack. Whilst sad, it is also ironic. What's even more frightening is that they offer "diet plan eating" to customers with items such as the Double Bypass Burger, Flatliner Fries and Full Sugar Coke - although I am genuinely hoping they are having a laugh. Anyway, I may have digressed a bit from the vegetarian thing but it's just a reminder to me that eating meat is not always the best thing for a person.

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 27 - Tivall

Mock schnitzel

Coming in to the home stretch. For dinner, I have sampled another mock-meat company; Tivall - founded in 1985, is the world's leader in ready-made vegetarian food products. In their website it states: 

"Tivall products are specifically designed to be a complete source of protein and to provide all the amino acids necessary for a healthy meat-free diet. They contain natural sources of egg protein, soya protein and wheat protein."

Having learnt to be a little sceptical of the healthiness of vegetarian meals, I have done some research and from what I can see egg and wheat protein are good for you as the support each other in storing and using protein. I know about soy but again, it's not like I am having massive amounts of it. So I think this might be a good one, but again, in moderation.

Also got a response from Grill'd regarding my Vitamin C question. What do people think? Is this all above board or are they just talking it up to make it seem like it's that great? How much vitamin C can you actually get from a few slices of tomato and tomato relish?

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 26 - Vitamin C burgers?

Today was a much better eating day than yesterday. Started off with a great breakfast of home made pancakes; Haven't had them in so long and I was secretly not looking forward to them but I think it's because having tasted these, I realise my mum was just really bad at making pancakes!

Headed to St Kilda Festival for the day. I knew there would have to be a vegetarian stand somewhere but I was getting pretty hungry so decided that I would go for some Grill'd again. This time I got the Garden Goodness, a premium quality veggie pattie beetroot, tasty cheese, avocado, salad, relish and herbed mayo. Was pretty good, as far as burgers go. The thing that got me interested was the tag that came with the burger, that said the following:

I am not quite sure where exactly the vitamin C comes from in a burger so I have tweeted/facebooked Grill'd with this question and hopefully they will answer it.

Then I managed to score myself some vegan ice cream from a Zebra Dream stand. Not that I can't have normal ice-cream but I had heard of these guys through some vegetarian forums and so I thought I would check it out. I went for the Super Berry Yum Boost (coconut cream, agave nectar, acai berry, blueberry and raspberry) and I was not disappointed. Clearly, there was a difference in taste but not to the point I wouldn't have it again.