Meat! Meat! I LOVE MEAT!
Did you know that meat is delicious? And makes you feel like a superhero when you eat it? Hello, protein rush! In the two weeks that I’ve been eating it I’ve tried roasted chicken, burgers, braised chicken legs, a pulled pork sandwich at the farmer’s market, pork chops, a sardine sandwich, bacon and eggs, roast beef, and…is that it? I think that’s it. There were several roast chickens and two roast beef incidents. In other words, I’ve been eating a hell of a lot of meat.
When I started my intention was to eat it maybe twice a week or so, and that’s still my intention. But I decided to give myself this beginning period to just enjoy and try new things. Meat is all new and shiny and I’m excited about it and I’m SO DAMN HUNGRY for it, so I just went with it.
And I lost six pounds without trying. And yes, I’m totally still eating carbs. I’m a big fan of carbs–we go way back.
But then on Sunday I started to feel..aware…of my kidneys. And by today I can tell you that yes, my kidneys are tender. Shit. I just talked to the dialysis nurse/herbalist next door (I love my neighborhood) and she confirmed my suspicion that I’d overdone it with the meat. It wasn’t more meat than a lifelong omnivore would have eaten but it was way more than was fair to expect my body to handle after twenty-two years of no meat at all. She’s bring me some dandelion root to make a tea, and has encouraged me to drink lots of water and eat watermelon, and to take a break from the meat. When I do start to eat it again I need to add it into my diet slowly, easing into it. Which is exactly what I should have done from the start.
Yes, I know better. But it all tasted so GOOD. And it makes me feel so very, very good.
Ah, meat.
So kidney discomfort aside, the dietary change has been a good one. (I know that’s a hell of a thing to set aside, but Nurse Next Door doesn’t think it means I shouldn’t or can’t eat meat. Just that I overdid it.)
Here’s what I’ve learned in the last two meaty weeks that has me convinced I don’t want to go back to being a vegetarian:
- It is apparently not normal to need to eat every two or three hours. And if you don’t eat that often, it is not normal to a) turn into a raging bitch b) feel like you’re going to pass out or die c) hijack the whole family with your hunger d) watch what you’re doing to everyone around you and be unable to behave differently because you’re so hungry you can barely function
- It IS apparently normal to feel sated after a meal, to not be constantly resisting or giving in to the urge to eat.
- It is not normal to drive yourself totally nuts with intense food cravings when you are not pregnant.
- The low-level exhaustion I dragged through for the past decade at least? Not normal.
- The low-level anxiety? Also not my normal state.
It all changed with that first chicken leg, I swear. That’s the biggest reason I wanted more and more and more. I feel like I have an entirely new brain. And when I eat a meal, there’s true satisfaction, not just hungry or full.
I was eating a good, balanced vegetarian diet, and I was starving myself*. I’m not going back to that, so I sincerely hope that after a few days of meatless rest I can ease gently into a diet that includes meat, with my kidneys’ blessing.
*My experience only. Not trying to say YOU must eat meat.
hilarious. i see a comic strip version in my head as i read this.
I’m so glad you’re posting this. I think people need to hear it. Not everyone can be a vegetarian/vegan. The milenia of evolution say we aren’t quite done, yet.
(You know, kidneys aside; I’m surprised you could digest meat after so long without it.)
Welcome back to the dark, bloody side!
I’m married to an Italian so we eat meat. Prosciutto, salami, homemade sausage, all sorts of things. But all in moderation, right?
I had a meaty reawakening in Portland, too, after 11 years of vegetarianism. Funny to successfully live as a veg for over a decade in the MIDWEST then fall apart in the great PNW. (I’m happier this way, now, too). I was so judgy of my veg friends that caved until it happened to me! I repent!
This made me laugh out loud! Not the kidney part, I mean… the unending meat part.
I don’t eat much meat at all, but I could never give it up 100%. I mostly eat chicken and fish, but every once in a while I just need beef or bacon or a pork chop!
I felt similar OMG I have energy now feelings when I added fish and chicken to my diet about ten years ago. I still can’t bring myself to eat beef or pork though. I’m glad you’re following your body’s lead.
Heh. Yeah, I remember Paris. And my first meat after a decade of vegetarianism – The Great Accidental Beef Ingestion of 1993. Wow. So, uh, this is what it feels like, being not-sick, not-tired, and not-gloomy, huh?
It was quickly followed by the Great Completely Intentional Return to Carnivore-Ism of, uh, the rest of my life.
Welcome to the club. Enjoy it responsibly. 😉
Well, darling, all I can say is, I started eating meat again for exactly the same reason – spurred by a rise in my weekly mileage that had me on the verge of passing out every two hours (sometimes less), even though I ate six, seven, eight meals a day AND tried to cram as much vegetarian protein in as possible.
And I’ve had the same experience with it. I eat something with animal parts in it, I feel sated, and it stays that way longer. On days I don’t eat meat, I’m more prone to blood sugar “events.”
I did, however, do it a lot more gradually than you did. Not because of any particular strategy; just ’cause I’m kind of adjusting to the idea. And trying to remember how to cook that way again.
Boy am I looking forward to my first lamb chop. Sigh.
I have a few questions, purely curiosity, hope you don’t mind!
I am veg too, have been for over 10 years – purely because I felt it wrong how animals are treated at abbatoirs etc. Probably similar to yourself.
I have had 2 children both raised veg – 4 and 2 years old.
I (although not ready to change anything yet) have pondered eating a little meat (well actually our roosters…). I am very much into sustainable living etc too.
Did you change over the whole family, and how did that go? I have always tried to make my kids feel proud to be vego, and I don’t know how my daughter would feel to eat an animal now.. did you have this issue with Thumper?
I am tired too, although I wouldn’t have put it down to being veg… but maybe it is…
Thanks for sharing this part of your journey.
Sharon
I wonder what this carni-val of discovery might do to your writing….
Glad you’re still blogging
Like Lizbon, this is why I started eating meat as well, though unlike either of you I hadn’t been vegetarian for very long AND I wasn’t eating very healthily. Regular balanced meals, yes, but I snacked a lot and not very well. (Or VERY well, depending on your perspective.) I was low-energy and irrational (more than usual) and then my entire being rebelled and was all “YOU WILL GIVE ME CHICKEN.”
Interestingly, every time I’ve done the low-carb thing, there’s an initial surge of energy, but after the first week I’d get dizzy every time I stood up. So no more of that either. Carbs are good.
Dude. Don’t forget about the fish! Yum, fish!
And roast beef with yorkshire pudding and roasted potatoes and carrots and peas…also yum!
Interesting…. welcome back. It’s a better world you’re entering. 🙂
Um, I mean, better than it was 15 years ago, meat-wise.
This was cute, and I did smile sometimes, and I do eat meat all the time and have eaten it all my life, and will probably be eating it until I die. But I still know that it is wrong. I am simply not a moral enough person to do the right thing. I wrote about this here:
http://doniganmerritt.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/the-things-we-kill/
I see that if one clicks on the blue name, it leads to an old blog I deleted some time ago. I have fixed that now, here.
I meant to add, and see that I got in too much of a hurry, that the healthiest, strongest, and most active man I know is a Slovak mountaineer, who has climbed every difficult mountain of consequence in the world, who has dismaying levels of energy, is in his mid-40s now, and for more than 25 years has not eaten, in his words, “anything that has eyes.” (Or even potential eyes, in the case of eggs, for example.)
In my own experience, also as a climber, I learned to avoid heavy meat meals before climbing, because all that bulk and protein made me sluggish and sleepy — not a good combination when hanging by one’s fingertips on a rock face a deadly distance from the flatter part of the earth.
So I don’t understand eating all that meat perking you up and making you a sudden dynamo. Maybe you have an odd metabolism?
I have the opposite physical response to yours. A heavy meat meal makes me feel like a slug, while a meal of fruits and vegetables produces abundant energy. I am just too addicted to the taste of meat to stop eating it. My weakness is not physical, it is moral.
It’s comforting to read the honest self-assessment reports from you and some of your readers that mirror my experience which took place about… um… what? 6 years ago, I think? after being veg for 10, vegan for 6. For me, it was not only the weight gain and the blood sugar issues, but a complete turnaround in my blood lipid profile in the positive direction (the opposite of what we’d expect) and blood pressure (also the opposite of what we who believe[d] in vegetarianism as an almost-religion would expect).
Today I bought a giant sirloin steak at the farmer’s market which will feed David and me for several meals. The meat vendors had run out of meat and had not appeared at the market for several weeks. I was so thrilled they were back.
I will still eat my meat carefully and cleanly, and do still eat meatless meals (in fact, tonight I can’t wait for my eggplant parmesan), but I am thoroughly convinced that it is the most healthful way to go.
Man, re-reading that, I’m wondering if it makes any sense at all. Campaigning has taken all the juice right out of me, and it’s hard to string two sentences together….
I was a vegetarian for nine years, then started eating meat again when we were trying to conceive and having issues (which had nothing to do with vegetarianism, as it turned out, but at the time I was anaemic and I was trying anything I could think of). I think the vegetarian period was important because I tried so many different veggies and grains during that time; it made me a more adventurous eater, and I still incorporate as much of that into our diet as I can. In fact, I need to add more vegetarian meals back on a regular basis… It’s so easy to fall into a food rut, one way or the other.
You’re in the “kid in a candy store” phase. I promise you that you will level out, find yourself making vegetarian meals (but without the intent) and having a really nice balanced diet. Sunday–beautiful roast chicken. Monday–leftover chicken. Tuesday–spaghetti with marinara (vegetarian). Wednesday–risotto with butternut squash (vegetarian). Thursday–Chinese take out. Friday–out to eat at some fabulous new place in town. Saturday–friends over to barbecue a whole fish (somewhat vegetarian). Sunday–chicken again! Just role with it and you’ll even out.
Cari, the comments above are why I LOVE reading your blog. Your readers know how to write a comment that respects the rest of your readers opinions/feelings, and at the same time shares their own experience.
I guess this should be no surprise from a good writer that is interesting, entertaining, considerate, and thought-provoking.