I have dedicated the past few years to consistently kill negative habits and install better ones. Following this principle, my family and I have built a lifestyle more aligned with our values of sustainability, health, emotional balance, and so on. It’s been hard work and it didn’t happen in a day, nor we are anywhere done.
Today I want to share a personal success I am really proud of: how I changed my regular diet and went (almost) vegetarian. Well, I think pescatarian would be the correct term. Now, I know for a fact I cannot adopt a vegan diet and, frankly, not even a 100% vegetarian one. However, I wanted to heavily regulate how much meat I ate.

Let’s start with my motives. The main one is sustainability. Mass meat production is responsible for plenty of environmental disasters: greenhouse gas emissions, destruction of land through grazing, excessive water consumption, the list goes on.

In 2017, over 15 thousands scientists worldwide signed the “Warning to Humanity“, which included a plead to reduce meat consumption.
The second motive was personal health. I wanted to reduce red meat especially and, in general, monitor and control how much meat I was eating. In addition, I wanted to trick myself into introducing new regular ingredients into my diet, as well as forcing my hand into eating more greens. The third reason was linked to the first two and it was to transition to quality over quantity. One current issue that worries me a lot is superbacteria:

By cutting my meat intake, I will have the same buying budget to spend on less, thus being able to make more conscious consumer choices. I can choose organic meat or meat produced under certain standards.

Now, what concretely helped me in changing my habits? I have to thank my health coach Stefania for the support (read her story here). First, she encouraged me to cut my meat intake to only 4 times a week. It may seem like a lot, but I quickly realised how far from my goal I was starting. I would eat processed meat in snacks or sandwiches; out of gluttony I would choose the meat option at the work cafeteria more often than not; meat would sneak in pasta sauces unnoticed. As soon as I introduced that upper bound, I realised how bad I was doing. After few successful weeks, Stefania reduced it to 3 times a week. However, at the point I had made the bigger step already. I had developed an eye for it and learned new recipes (the app Yummly saved me, seriously). Nowadays, I still have my limit of 3, yet I often end the week without reaching it.
Here’s some small tricks that helped me:

• I made sure my husband supported me from the start – the man never blinked when I served unfamiliar dishes and approached them with an open mind;
• I recorded my meat intake through the app Tally to make sure I was sticking to my goal;
• I took on to choose the vegetarian option whenever I ate out;
• I sticked to learn at least 2 new vegetarian recipes every week – some were enjoyed and became regular;
• I tried to add extra veggies and fruit whenever possible – for example nowadays I regularly top my risotto and my pizza with rucola;
• one of my worries was proteins – I included more legumes and I mixed some natural supplements (maca powder, flax seeds, …) into my dishes.

Now the million dollar question: do I feel differently? You know I am very skeptic of diets and I didn’t spare you my honest opinion in the past. However, I have experienced an interesting shift in well-being in the past weeks. It’s hard to attribute 100% of credit to the diet, but honestly it is the only major lifestyle change I have made beside going on short walks regularly. The first 2 weeks I was bloating with gas – sorry for the detail – but after that I started feeling lighter and definitely more energetic. My work stress usually gets to my belly, yet it never did since I changed my diet. I am not claiming you would experience the exact same, just observing a pleasant unexpected side effect I had.

I am very proud I have achieved at changing this habit and I feel rewarded by the positive effects. It didn’t happen in a day, but overall it was easier that I thought. I hope my modest experience will inspire others to make a similar transition. If I have succeeded, everyone can!