I didn’t think giving up meat was going to be easy but it never even occurred to me that it would hurt as much as it did. A bizarre run in with a pig while on a walk with my pug got me to give up eating meat. You can read the story here. My first 12 weeks of meat free!

Week 1: I felt great. I couldn’t understand why people claimed it was so hard to stop eating meat. I pretty much just ate tuna salad sandwiches, pasta, and peanut butter sandwiches. No complaints since all three are favorites.

Week 2: I started feeling sluggish. I started wondering if I was getting sick.

Week 3: I felt worse than I had the previous week. I was tired everyday and I felt as if I was gaining weight. I was angry most of the day and feeling anxious. My girlfriend claims the littlest of things agitated me.

Week 4: Girlfriend talked me into eating more vegetables. I started eating things like kale, chard and brussel sprouts. None of this tasted good to me but I ate it because it turns out pasta has too much sugar. Eating tuna everyday can lead to mercury poisoning. Apparently peanut butter is high in calories and too much of it can make you fat.

Week 5: I found myself spending more time in the bathroom. Not eating meat and eating more vegetables, tofu and seitan really started messing with my stomach. Perhaps it’s the stomach issues that made me really miss meat and regret my decision. My body started to hurt pretty badly and all sorts of muscle aches developed. Nighttime sleep came with chills and sweats.

Week 6: I started getting headaches and vomiting. My mood shifted from angry to sad. The chard still tasted disgusting but the brussel sprouts and kale started to grow on me. My body still didn’t feel right and I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom.

Week 7: The headaches and vomiting still occurred every couple of days. I started feeling less sad and more hopeful. My craving for meat decreased a little. Nighttime chills and sweating at night decreased as well. My body still ached but not as much.

Week 8: I felt as if I finally started recovering from having been sick with the flu. I was still spending a lot of time in the bathroom but the headaches seemed to have gone away. Chard still tasted gross but surprisingly was easier to eat than the previous days. Kale and brussel sprouts tasted better and my mood changed for the better.

Week 9: Bathroom trips not as frequent. Headaches disappeared. Chard still gross but edible. According to the girlfriend my skin was looking better. Had to tighten my belt because my jeans felt a little loose. Feelings of being more energetic and actually sleeping which I was having a lot of problems with.

Week 10: Happy and positive. Started choosing to use stairs instead of elevators and escalators. Sleeping almost 7 or 8 hours as opposed to half of that. Just feeling better. Bathroom trips still much more frequent than when I was a carnivore. Not feeling heavy after meals and definitely losing weight. Kale and brussel sprouts actually started to taste good and the chard surprisingly still gross.

Week 11: Feeling good. Bathroom visits under control. Pipes seem to flow better than all those times when I ate meat. Sleeping well. Enjoying Kale and brussel sprouts. Still eating chard despite the gross taste.

Week 12: Meat still looks good when seeing an ad for a steakhouse but the craving feeling extinguished. Feeling happy. Feeling good. Sleeping well. Developed craving for grilled brussel sprouts after not having them for 4 days. Feeling healthy.

Thoughts: Recently I read about how all sorts of chemicals are injected into the animals we eat and all the chemical processes used to make the meat look a certain way. It makes me wonder if what I experienced was a possible drug withdrawal from the chemicals I had gotten addicted to during my 33 years as a carnivore. I’m not really sure why I had such severe headaches that caused me to vomit or why I got the chills and the sweats at night after cutting meat out of my diet. Although I did not mention this earlier but aside from eating kale, brussel sprouts and disgusting chard I also made sure to eat hummus, fruits, other vegetables, brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, beans, tofu, seitan, tuna fish once in a while, peanut butter, whole wheat bread, avocado, walnuts, brasil nuts, and drinking almond and cashew milk. Since giving up meat I have lost about 11 lbs and according to my girlfriend I am less irritable and moody…

If you need any advice on how to stop eating meat (break the habbit of eating meat, finding food alternatives, or overcoming pressure from peers about eating meat) please feel free to reach out and get in touch. I’d love to help in anyway I can.