One Man's Switch from Red Meat Heavy Diet to a More Plant-Based Eating

Mark’s journey as told by Mark

In order to understand my journey, it's important to understand my starting point. At day zero, my diet would be classified as “meat-centric” consisting mainly of red and white meat and barely any fish. This included about 2-3 serves of red meat per week. Beyond meat heavy diet there were some elements of healthy eating. But this was mixed with a steady diet of unhealthy junk food and poor eating habits.

The volume of food I was consuming was in excess. Something I wasn’t aware of at the time. And I really had no idea about how much protein, fibre and nutrients were required for a healthy diet nor which types of food provided the best access to these.

I had a poor understanding of the benefits of even the most basic food types such as fruit & vegetables. And I was being ignorant of the variety of healthy foods available.

It's also important to note my health and fitness

My exercise regime at that point was moderate – swimming laps two times per week along with walking the dog each morning. Day to day, I felt reasonably okay but was clearly overweight (roughly 106kg) and considerably out of shape.

Considerations when transitioning to a more plant-based diet

The hardest part of any new meal plan is the transition phase. This is where most people fall off. Here are the main steps and considerations in this phase that I encountered.

The big switch vs starting slow

I’m not sure which of these is easiest or more efficient. I guess my experience would be classified as a hybrid approach. I adopted a core meal plan while slowly cutting back some of the unhealthy snacks that were a part of my previous diet and obviously did not form part of the new plan. This worked well as the weight gradually came off as I dialled back on the unhealthy options.

Cutting down on red meat and processed foods

This was the biggest change for me. I went from a moderate-large consumer of red meat to a minimal red meat consumer. The gap left by this has been filled mostly with fish (salmon and trout). Also, I cut out processed foods completely – and I don’t miss them at all!

Educate yourself on which foods provide what benefits

While a meal plan is mandatory, you should also educate yourself on the benefits of each food group. Some foods have different reactions to different people so substitutes and alike are important. Know what you are eating and if possible, prepare the meal yourself. Most meals from a food court and not healthy – not even the seemingly healthy options.

Keep meal prep to a realistic level

While a meal plan consisting of many types of different protein and alike appear ideal, these will most likely involve excess preparation time and shopping. This is difficult to maintain in a busy lifestyle. I recommend avoiding it as it will be another factor which may lead you to abandon the transition.

One simple example would be cooking a meal for dinner one night and having the left-over for lunch the following day. Seems obvious but some meal plans involve preparing multiple meals to maintain variety. Besides the time cost, it is also potentially more expensive financially.

3 years later…

I’ve transitioned to a plant-centric diet centred around fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes and nuts but kept some animal products. It has been important for me to maintain dairy. I have yogurt and milk in breakfast and haven’t given up my daily flat white. I’ve also kept some animal protein from mostly white meat while adding fish to the plan. Fish has been mostly salmon & trout.

I can easily see myself eating less animal protein over time. But for now the most important thing is to plan my meals around plant-based foods. This is a big shift from my past red meat centred eating.

I now eat about a dozen types of vegetables that I rarely ate at all previously. It's like I’ve discovered the fruit and vegetable aisle in the supermarket – which of course, has been there all along. My energy levels are much better and more consistent which has flowed through to my fitness regime (an important element to combine with any meal plan) and has boosted my general happiness and disposition.

The strangest change I experienced has probably been a simple one - while I would consider my current diet plan to be fairly plain & simple, the food just tastes better now. It’s hard to explain but it must be the high levels of processed sugar in many non-healthy food types that I was consuming before which also ruined my taste for healthier food options.

These foods were also highly addictive. Shame on the food industry for providing so many unhealthy meal options to the general consumer and being unethical with labels such as “high in protein and fibre” without highlighting the excessive amounts of sugar and salt. However, that is a story for another time.

I hope that this has helped anyone contemplating making the transition. My biggest piece of advice is to make it through the transition phase before making final judgement.

Good luck!