Bye-Bye Steak – Looking Back at How I Became Vegetarian
This article is not meant to be preachy or pressure you into making any particular lifestyle choices. It’s simply to tell my story of how I became vegetarian and made a change that has been working out well for me. If you’re looking for inspiration for doing the same or are simply curious, keep reading. I’m sure you ended up here for a reason. 🙂
Now, to begin, let’s be very clear: I NEVER thought I would become vegetarian, and especially not vegan.
EVER.
As far as I was concerned a few years ago, that was for weird hippies or flaky people trying to impress the world with their alternative lifestyle. But not for me.
Growing up in Germany, I was raised with meat as a big part of my diet and I learned the only balanced, healthy way to eat was to have a good mix of animal and plant-based products.
Also, the idea that the food I ate could impact my health (and not just my weight) never crossed my mind.
Learning About the 30-Day VEGAN Challenge (Wait, the what?!)
Then came my last year of college. In the first week of the semester, a good friend of mine brought this new book she had discovered during the break, over to my apartment. It was “Vegan for Fit” by Attila Hildmann.
She went on and on about how the author had created this cool 30-day challenge that would help you lose weight and feel fitter all without dieting or starving yourself. Well, I thought, that doesn’t sound too bad.
But I knew there had to be some kind of catch. And a catch there was. The 30-day program in Hildmann’s book required participants to go vegan. Ha.
As soon as I heard that, I think I recall telling my friend she was completely insane.
After all, who would stop eating meat out of their own free will?? Nobody, as far as I was concerned.
But she had already decided she was going to do this challenge and insisted I do it along with her. Again. No, thank you.
After taking out meat, dairy and eggs, what would there be left to eat? Lettuce? Carrots? Dry rice? No way was I going to live a month on what I considered rabbit food. Her insisting that there were plenty of other yummy things to eat apart from animal products did not impress me much.
Taking a Closer Look at Plant-Based Eating
After going back and forth like this for a while, we agreed that she would leave the book with me and that I’d have a look. By now I had gotten somewhat curious about this whole weird vegan thing and wanted to know a bit more, but was not quite ready to admit it. Because who knew, maybe she was actually on to something…
To start off lightly, I first looked at all the recipes and their photos. My logic was, that if they didn’t look good, I wouldn’t even go to the trouble of reading the rest of the book.
And how good could vegan food look, anyway? I was ready for boring images of dry bread, rice and bland vegetable sticks…
But what a surprise! It didn’t take very long for me to realize, that vegan dishes could indeed look very, very good!
Only a few minutes into my browsing of vegan pancakes, vegetable noodles, mushroom burgers and fruity desserts I realized I was already making a meal plan in my head. I wanted to cook everything in that book.
Something had gone very differently than I had expected…
Now it was time to actually read why the author was so into this whole vegan thing and what, according to him, were the benefits thereof. I went through the first 30 pages of the book, where he starts by telling his own story (from a sick and overweight omnivore to a fit, healthy, marathoning vegan) and then outlines the reasons that made him opt for a plant-based lifestyle.
You’ve probably heard them before: animal welfare, environmental concerns and health.
While I was less interested in the first two points, the last one struck a chord. (And while this might make look selfish, I’m just being honest here.)
Could it really be that the food I ate had a way bigger impact on my health and vitality than I’d ever thought it could? According to this guy, it did.
By the time I was reading this, I was on my way down a rabbit hole, exploring everything there was to read about veganism, vegetarianism, their pros and cons etc.
After several hours of intense research, I decided to let curiosity win and give it a go.
The next day my friend and I went shopping for all the ingredients we needed for our 30-day challenge.
This is where I would love to say I never turned back.
But I did many times. In retrospect, it feels like I went in quite a few circles. And I’ve only been vegetarian for about two years now (as of January 2018).
Starting the 30-Day Vegan Challenge
Back when I did this first experiment with vegan food in 2013, part of me still wanted to prove my friend wrong.
In a way, I was doing this challenge to show her (and myself) that you wouldn’t lose weight or feel any better just because of ditching a couple of animal products for fruits and vegetables.
But boy was I in for a surprise.
After the first two days of the challenge, I had insane headaches. Later I realized they came from eliminating added sugars from my diet. I hadn’t considered that quitting animal products meant saying no to most of my favorite cookies, snacks foods and other sweets for a whole month… This brought me quite some suffering as I’d never gone so long without any dessert or treats!
But that went by too (after two days, thank goodness) and I stuck to the food plan.
And lo and behold, four or five days into the challenge I felt this surge of energy like I’d never known it before.
I slept better. Exercising felt easier. And there was a sense of lightness in my body that I’d never experienced.
Although I was still skeptical, by now I was convinced that there must be some truth to this whole plant-based food thing.
To be sure, I turned the 30 days into 60. I could still go back to eating meat anytime I wanted. But this awesome new energy I’d found had made me keep going.
At least for a while.
Falling Back into Old Habits
As the initial excitement waned, meat and dairy snuck back into my life slowly but surely. I was still eating way less of them than before, but alas, they were back on my plate.
Although I wanted to be vegetarian, I couldn’t find the self-control to do it. Working in Jordan (right after college), a country where similarly to back home, everything but the starters are made with meat or fish, being veggie was just too inconvenient.
The same was true during my next job. Working in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, where our chef let us try his amazing creations on a daily basis, I would have felt ungrateful and wasteful to pass up his yummy food.
How I Became Vegetarian – Finally
Then finally, after a long spell of long-distance, I moved in with my now-husband and going vegetarian became easy. Having been raised as a vegetarian, for him, this lifestyle wasn’t even a question. And having someone support me in making this same decision finally helped me commit and stick to it too.
What was most important to me though, was that he was never preachy about his way of living. He gave me the time I needed to adjust and never judged the (few) slip-ups I had.
Now, after almost two meat-free years, I’m steadfast in my veggie choice and can live with having a smaller selection of dishes at the restaurant or bringing my own food to a party.
18 months back that still really bothered me.
How’s my health, you might be wondering?
Awesome, thank you for asking 🙂 . Since going veggie, I’ve been feeling great. I eat more fruits and vegetables and regularly find myself craving a colorful salad when I’m hungry rather than a steak.
I’ve had bloodwork done regularly and always found that my results have been great. Even my tendency towards anemia has gotten better. Yes, I was surprised too…
Lastly, apart from a B12 supplement, I am not taking any multivitamins or other pills.
Nature packs so much goodness into our food, it feels unnecessary to add these little colorful tablets.
Going From Here…
Currently, I’m also cutting back on dairy and eggs, with the ultimate goal of ditching them altogether. After having WAY too much of all that on our recent trip to Germany for Christmas I can tell they got to me.
Apart from feeling tired and bloaty from all that cheese (fondue, anyone?), the considerable weight gain after only 10 days of what used to be a fairly normal diet for me (minus the meat) are strong indicators that it’s time change something.
Right now, I’m not sure if I can eliminate them from my life completely. But I know that time will come sooner or later, simply because it’s right for me and I’m really looking forward to going fully plant-based in the near future.
How about you? Have you ever considered doing a 30-day meat-free challenge?
Or maybe you’re already sold and want to become vegetarian or even vegan?
Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments below because as always, I’d love to hear your input!
Until next time, have a great week.
And don’t forget to share this article if you enjoyed reading it!
Now, to begin, let’s be very clear: I NEVER thought I would become vegetarian, and especially not vegan.
EVER.
As far as I was concerned a few years ago, that was for weird hippies or flaky people trying to impress the world with their alternative lifestyle. But not for me.
Growing up in Germany, I was raised with meat as a big part of my diet and I learned the only balanced, healthy way to eat was to have a good mix of animal and plant-based products.
Also, the idea that the food I ate could impact my health (and not just my weight) never crossed my mind.
Learning About the 30-Day VEGAN Challenge (Wait, the what?!)
Then came my last year of college. In the first week of the semester, a good friend of mine brought this new book she had discovered during the break, over to my apartment. It was “Vegan for Fit” by Attila Hildmann.
She went on and on about how the author had created this cool 30-day challenge that would help you lose weight and feel fitter all without dieting or starving yourself. Well, I thought, that doesn’t sound too bad.
But I knew there had to be some kind of catch. And a catch there was. The 30-day program in Hildmann’s book required participants to go vegan. Ha.
As soon as I heard that, I think I recall telling my friend she was completely insane.
After all, who would stop eating meat out of their own free will?? Nobody, as far as I was concerned.
But she had already decided she was going to do this challenge and insisted I do it along with her. Again. No, thank you.
After taking out meat, dairy and eggs, what would there be left to eat? Lettuce? Carrots? Dry rice? No way was I going to live a month on what I considered rabbit food. Her insisting that there were plenty of other yummy things to eat apart from animal products did not impress me much.
Taking a Closer Look at Plant-Based Eating
After going back and forth like this for a while, we agreed that she would leave the book with me and that I’d have a look. By now I had gotten somewhat curious about this whole weird vegan thing and wanted to know a bit more, but was not quite ready to admit it. Because who knew, maybe she was actually on to something…
To start off lightly, I first looked at all the recipes and their photos. My logic was, that if they didn’t look good, I wouldn’t even go to the trouble of reading the rest of the book.
And how good could vegan food look, anyway? I was ready for boring images of dry bread, rice and bland vegetable sticks…
But what a surprise! It didn’t take very long for me to realize, that vegan dishes could indeed look very, very good!
Only a few minutes into my browsing of vegan pancakes, vegetable noodles, mushroom burgers and fruity desserts I realized I was already making a meal plan in my head. I wanted to cook everything in that book.
Something had gone very differently than I had expected…
Now it was time to actually read why the author was so into this whole vegan thing and what, according to him, were the benefits thereof. I went through the first 30 pages of the book, where he starts by telling his own story (from a sick and overweight omnivore to a fit, healthy, marathoning vegan) and then outlines the reasons that made him opt for a plant-based lifestyle.
You’ve probably heard them before: animal welfare, environmental concerns and health.
While I was less interested in the first two points, the last one struck a chord. (And while this might make look selfish, I’m just being honest here.)
Could it really be that the food I ate had a way bigger impact on my health and vitality than I’d ever thought it could? According to this guy, it did.
By the time I was reading this, I was on my way down a rabbit hole, exploring everything there was to read about veganism, vegetarianism, their pros and cons etc.
After several hours of intense research, I decided to let curiosity win and give it a go.
The next day my friend and I went shopping for all the ingredients we needed for our 30-day challenge.
This is where I would love to say I never turned back.
But I did many times. In retrospect, it feels like I went in quite a few circles. And I’ve only been vegetarian for about two years now (as of January 2018).
Starting the 30-Day Vegan Challenge
Back when I did this first experiment with vegan food in 2013, part of me still wanted to prove my friend wrong.
In a way, I was doing this challenge to show her (and myself) that you wouldn’t lose weight or feel any better just because of ditching a couple of animal products for fruits and vegetables.
But boy was I in for a surprise.
After the first two days of the challenge, I had insane headaches. Later I realized they came from eliminating added sugars from my diet. I hadn’t considered that quitting animal products meant saying no to most of my favorite cookies, snacks foods and other sweets for a whole month… This brought me quite some suffering as I’d never gone so long without any dessert or treats!
But that went by too (after two days, thank goodness) and I stuck to the food plan.
And lo and behold, four or five days into the challenge I felt this surge of energy like I’d never known it before.
I slept better. Exercising felt easier. And there was a sense of lightness in my body that I’d never experienced.
Although I was still skeptical, by now I was convinced that there must be some truth to this whole plant-based food thing.
To be sure, I turned the 30 days into 60. I could still go back to eating meat anytime I wanted. But this awesome new energy I’d found had made me keep going.
At least for a while.
Falling Back into Old Habits
As the initial excitement waned, meat and dairy snuck back into my life slowly but surely. I was still eating way less of them than before, but alas, they were back on my plate.
Although I wanted to be vegetarian, I couldn’t find the self-control to do it. Working in Jordan (right after college), a country where similarly to back home, everything but the starters are made with meat or fish, being veggie was just too inconvenient.
The same was true during my next job. Working in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, where our chef let us try his amazing creations on a daily basis, I would have felt ungrateful and wasteful to pass up his yummy food.
How I Became Vegetarian – Finally
Then finally, after a long spell of long-distance, I moved in with my now-husband and going vegetarian became easy. Having been raised as a vegetarian, for him, this lifestyle wasn’t even a question. And having someone support me in making this same decision finally helped me commit and stick to it too.
What was most important to me though, was that he was never preachy about his way of living. He gave me the time I needed to adjust and never judged the (few) slip-ups I had.
Now, after almost two meat-free years, I’m steadfast in my veggie choice and can live with having a smaller selection of dishes at the restaurant or bringing my own food to a party.
18 months back that still really bothered me.
How’s my health, you might be wondering?
Awesome, thank you for asking 🙂 . Since going veggie, I’ve been feeling great. I eat more fruits and vegetables and regularly find myself craving a colorful salad when I’m hungry rather than a steak.
I’ve had bloodwork done regularly and always found that my results have been great. Even my tendency towards anemia has gotten better. Yes, I was surprised too…
Lastly, apart from a B12 supplement, I am not taking any multivitamins or other pills.
Nature packs so much goodness into our food, it feels unnecessary to add these little colorful tablets.
Going From Here…
Currently, I’m also cutting back on dairy and eggs, with the ultimate goal of ditching them altogether. After having WAY too much of all that on our recent trip to Germany for Christmas I can tell they got to me.
Apart from feeling tired and bloaty from all that cheese (fondue, anyone?), the considerable weight gain after only 10 days of what used to be a fairly normal diet for me (minus the meat) are strong indicators that it’s time change something.
Right now, I’m not sure if I can eliminate them from my life completely. But I know that time will come sooner or later, simply because it’s right for me and I’m really looking forward to going fully plant-based in the near future.
How about you? Have you ever considered doing a 30-day meat-free challenge?
Or maybe you’re already sold and want to become vegetarian or even vegan?
Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments below because as always, I’d love to hear your input!
Until next time, have a great week.
And don’t forget to share this article if you enjoyed reading it!
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