Eating meat again after 12 years...

Welcome back to another random story about my life. Today I’ll be sharing with you why I decided to start incorporating meat into my diet again after 12 years of being a pescatarian. I became pescatarian when I was in 7th grade. Whenever I would tell people, the only thing they would say way "I could never do that". The thing is back then I didn't have a choice. At that time, my dad had just gotten diagnosed with heart disease. He was prescribed medication for his blood pressure, cholesterol, and several others. He hated the idea of being on medication for the rest of his life so he did some research. Based on a few books he read, he adopted the mentality that the best thing for his health and heart would be a fat-free vegan diet. Not only does this mean the plant-based diet you're familiar with, but also no added fats such as olive oil. The only fats he ate were natural fats like nuts or avocado. He changed his lifestyle overnight, cold turkey, no pun intended. For anyone else, that sounds crazy, but for him, there was no other way to do it.

If you haven't already guessed, his choice was the reason that I was pescatarian. At the time, I was only 12, so when my mom said "If you want to eat meat, you have to cook it yourself" I basically accepted I wasn't going to be having a steak anytime soon. Before I knew it, I didn't even crave meat anymore. The idea of bacon wasn't appealing in the slightest. I hate the smell of it and even when something else has bacon grease cooked with it, I don't like the taste. I love lobster too much to give up fish and cheese too much to be vegan. As I got older, I continued that way of life because not eating meat was one way I could be proactive against heart disease since it‘a partially genetic.

I have eaten meat since I first went pescatarian. I had cravings just like you get for sugar or salt and would cheat with a chick-fil-a or McDonalds meal. I have thought about eating meat again for sources of protein a couple times over the years but when I really thought about it, I realized I didn‘t crave grilled chicken and turkey, I just crave the junk food versions like chicken nuggets or a burger. Staying pescatarian was just an easier way for me to stick to my "diet".

Now that I've gotten into fitness, it has been a whole new journey trying to figure out how to get enough protein because in order to build muscle, I need to feed it. As I build more muscle, my metabolism will go up, I can eat more calories, and I'll be burning more fat as I do. My go to protein sources are salmon, beyond burgers, and my the easiest and most effective, seitan. This is the best because it has the highest protein content but the lowest calorie, carbohydrate, and fat content so it really helps when tracking my macros. I currently aim for 1300 calories based on my basal metabolic rate and the fact that I want to gain muscle and lose weight. My percentages for my macros are 40% protein, 30% carb, 30% fat. I was eating 2 eggs everyday as well as a protein shake and a protein bar as a snack. For a while that was hitting all my macros and I didn't mind each meal but it got boring. I wanted some more variety. the problem was I couldn‘t change much about my diet because other pescatarian options I would look into had too many carbs and fats in relation to protein and didn’t work with my macros and my calories.

I started to explore the idea of meat again and tried to find forms of meat that are still healthy but more exciting than grilled chicken. After about a month or more of testing different meals and tracking my food and mixing and matching, I finally landed on my current meal plan that I’m pretty happy about. I was able to eliminate having to use protein powder as a supplement but adding meat. For breakfast I have 2 eggs, 2 pieces of Ezekiel bread, 1/2 an avocado, and 2 pieces of turkey bacon. For lunch I have Triple Zero greek yogurt, an apple, lightly salted cashews, 2 slices of mozzarella cheese, 2 slices of low sodium ham, and protein chips from Quest. I haven’t tried the chips yet but the macros are amazing and I’m very excited! Lastly, for dinner I have grilled chicken and a mixture of frozen vegetables.

Long story short, I really needed to be a bit more full and have the correct macros in a lower amount of calories and less meals. I don’t like eating 5-6 meals everyday, I prefer 3 meals because it leaves me more full each time and with my schedule it is more manageable. Eating meat allowed me to do all of that. Check out my YouTube channel to watch a video on what I ate in a day when I didn’t eat meat if you are looking for ideas! I will post an update at some point once I’m accustomed to this diet too so look out for that. I’m very grateful working at the gym though because over time, I've been able to combine these two thoughts of thinking when it comes to nutrition and use them to create my ideal diet.

Thanks for reading and I hope I made your day healthier!

XOXO Gabriella Blais