changing up my eating habits

This January I have made some major lifestyle changes, specifically in terms of food. Together with my husband I gave up for the month:

1. Candy
2. Chocolate
3. Baked Goods
4. Ice Cream AND
5. Meat

Now in general I eat pretty healthy. I love fruits and vegetables and my meals are mostly balanced, but I do have a few vices. I definitely have a sweet tooth and find myself reaching for the candy while sitting at work in the afternoon and I wanted to see if I could go a month without eating those items.

As for the meat I have found myself eating less and less over the past year, only having it once or twice a week at most lately (and that was mainly when outside of the house). We wanted to challenge ourselves in our recipes, find new foods at the grocery stores, and see if it was something that we could do.

It was interesting to see people’s reactions as we told them in December and into this month and what they seemed to focus on. Some people were shocked that we wanted to give up all the “fun” stuff (and I am not saying that I don’t think they are fun) and others were completely unsure how we were going to survive a month without any meat.

How it Went

Giving up meat for the month was easy, I don’t think I missed it at all. I really enjoyed that we got to try out so many different recipes including making tempeh bacon, homemade miso soup, and trying out some new veggie “meats” from brands such as Gardein. Some friends and family had to adjust their meals to make it work for us and I am glad that we made them get out of their comfort zone a bit

Giving up my sweets was a bit harder, but I am very impressed with how little I craved some items. There were a few afternoons at work where I had run out of fruit and really needed a little bit of a sugar kick and I really wished I had something, but most of the time I felt like I didn’t need it. We did have a few chocolates in the cupboard that we would slice in half and share one on the evenings where we needed that little bit of a sweet treat and so we didn’t feel the need to binge.

Going Forward

I can definitely see this experience changing up how I eat in the future. I had gotten into a bad habit of picking up candy to eat at work and now I know that it is so much better to have fruit and only treat myself once in a while. As for meat I can definitely see my consumption going down even more though I do have some stuff in the freezer to work through. I love so many of the recipes that we tried (minus one) and we found some great cookbooks as well.

Challenging myself this month was fun. Though I hoped to make this month a bit healthier for myself it was really mostly about experimenting and trying to things and I am excited to bring those things into the rest of 2019!