I’ve been planning this for a couple of weeks, and the closer I got to May, the more apprehensive I became.

Maybe it was just an empty boast to say I could give up meat. I fear I will go to bed hungry every night and dream of bloody encounters with rib-eye steaks.

It’s too early to tell how this will shake out, but I have loaded up on recipes and menu plans to make life as stress-free as possible.

I decided a couple of things up-front.

First, I am not going to eat a vegan diet. My daughter tried that for a week or so and gave up. And I know I love cheese and eggs too much to go that far. So eggs and dairy are in. That means I am more precisely eating a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

Second, I don’t want to eat a lot of processed food. No soy crumbles to resemble ground beef, no faux chicken tenders. I don’t want a diet that I can pretend contains meat. But I will make an exception for veggie burgers, some of which are made with whole foods and don’t try to copy hamburgers.

I realized right away that I was going to have to increase my consumption of carbohydrates. Like many people, I had gradually decreased my dependence on bread, pasta and other carbs over the years. I don’t necessarily need a starch on my plate at every meal.