Meat Day

I was around 10 years old when I stopped eating red meat.  I just didn't really like it.  As I got older, I decided I was also abstaining from meat for health reasons.  I never stopped eating poultry, fish or seafood.  Just red meat (and other meat like pork).

For some time, I was really strict about it.  If there were bits of bacon, I picked them out.  Roast pork in the fried rice?  Picked that out too.  Some people thought that it made me picky but I could find something to eat in almost any restaurant, even steakhouses.  I just stayed away from meat.

People asked me sometimes if I missed a big juicy steak.  Never.  I never liked steak, which is possibly why I didn't care that I stopped eating red meat.  What types of things did I miss during the years when I didn't eat meat?  Meatballs.  Hot dogs.  Hamburgers.  Ground meat in some sort of wrapper (Jamaican beef patties, samosas, etc).

Gradually, I began introducing more meat into my diet.  I think it started with my "ballpark exception."  Rationalizing that there wasn't much to eat at the ballpark other than hot dogs, and since hot dogs don't really taste like meat anyway, I decided I would be OK with eating hot dogs at the ballpark.  Eventually it became hot dogs at home.  Swedish meatballs.  A bite of A's lamb dishes.  I still didn't really eat much meat but I would try it when I had the opportunity and then just go back to what I was otherwise eating.

A few weeks ago, it hit me that I seem to have completely given up on my meat restriction, instead just choosing certain types of it (ground meat... perhaps pink slime does taste good, ha) over others (steak).  I could eat kofta everyday.  I decided that, considering my lifestyle, this can't be good.  This much red meat while not working out, and as a general matter, can't really be a good thing.  Besides, I always feel better when I eat vegetables anyway.

I decided that instead of Meatless Monday I would do "Meat Day."  I would aim to only eat meat (this does not include poultry, fish or seafood which are unlimited) once a week.  If I had it more than one day a week, that would be fine and there was no point beating myself up or feeling guilty about it, but once a week was just a health goal to aspire to.

I don't think about it most of the time but I just try to be conscious of what I eat.  It did occur to me today, as I picked up our Shackburgers, that today was clearly going to be Meat Day for the week.  Sausages for lunch and Shackburgers for dinner.  Definitely Meat Day.