Those of you who have known me for a long time would have know that I was vegetarian, or the more correct term is, pescetarian. No red meat, chicken or pork for seventeen years! (I ate fish and seafood.) This all changed three years ago, when I started training for triathlon. I was soo, darn tired. Working full-time, completing a master’s degree and training 12 hours a week was a recipe for disaster. Some people can get on with things like this no worries, but I have always been a little bit sickly, even as a child.
Too many big nights on a weekend = guaranteed to get sick.
Someone has something in the office = guaranteed to get it.
Too much stress = a cold sore that takes over my face.
The increased training and stress load put my body into overdrive and depleted my iron and adrenal glands. I hit the wall. Big time. I was sick in bed for around ten days and sleeping for 13 hours a night waking up tired, I went off to the GP to have all my bloods done. I was eating right, having iron tablets, protein shakes, and all that jazz, but it wasn’t enough. My iron was too low.
Red meat is what the doctor ordered. And it did do the trick.
I got through my half-ironman no sickness or injury.
To The Ginger Hunks delight, I kept on eating meat. There were ribs, and pork, and all kinds of things. I did enjoy the taste, I am not going to lie. But I never felt right about it. I never ate chicken, because I feel that they are the most poorly treated out of the whole bunch. The sight of it and the smell, often put me off, and some nights I just couldn’t eat meat at all.
In December something naturally occurred when The Ginger Hunk went away and I stopped eating meat. By the time I went to Bali, it had been two weeks. I enjoyed the food so much in Bali that I continued this phase.
Almost a month into 2016, I am still going.
And after googling a few facts, I am determined to keep going.
Here is some information from The Guardian about the impacts of meat-eating:
- Climate change. In 2006, the UN calculated that the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat were about 18% of the global total – more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.
- Land use. Nearly 30% of the available ice-free surface area of the planet is now used by livestock. With the human population expected to grow by 3 billion, a shift in developing countries to eating more meat, and global consumption on track to double in 40 years points to the mother of all food crises down the road.
- Health impacts and cost. Meat eaters get increased chances of obesity, cancers, heart diseases and other illnesses as well as a hole in the pocket. A meat diet is generally considered twice as expensive as a vegetarian one.
But my main reason – has always been this, I just don’t eating meat enough to cause all that suffering and production.
What about you?
A meat lover or vegetarian?
Ashleigh XXX
****Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT ****
