WHY I REDUCED MEAT CONSUMPTION

First of all let’s get one fact straight. I am not a vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or a follower of any other boxed-in diet group. If two days from now I really crave for a steak I will go and have one without any guilt about breaking some imaginary vegetarian-rules.

I am simply a guy who used to eat a lot of meat and who now eats a lot less. That’s it. Since making the shift eight months ago I can count my meat eating adventures with one hand. That’s a huge shift for me. If you would’ve met me two years ago and told me how you don’t eat meat, I would’ve stepped on my soapbox and laid out a verbal (non-physical or violent) abuse on you. I would’ve tried my very best to make sure you understand why you are wrong. Especially if your goal would’ve been a better body composition.

Back then I strongly believed that limiting meat eating would also limit your results in the gym.
Well, guess what? I changed my mind. Here’s why.

Reason One: I wanted to experiment

Two of my clients decided to be vegetarians. My first reaction? I thought I’d have to end our coach-client relationship. Yep, that’s how strongly I felt about meat being staple if anyone wanted better than average results. Luckily I came to my senses and started to research the information on how to structure and design a balanced, results-producing diet meat-free.

As I was digging into the information, there was even bigger questions I couldn’t get out of my head: how do these guys feel, both physically and mentally, without eating meat? I had no idea since I’d never done anything like it myself. I had never gone even a week without meat. How could I relate?  And once you add in that, for the same reason, I believe in never giving clients something I haven’t personally tried myself, it started to look rather likely that I had to get into experimenting with something I’d never even phantomed: not eating meat.

Reason Two: Health

Last five years I trained for, and competed in various bodybuilding competitions. The amount of protein and therefore the quantity of meat I had the past five years was crazy. What’s worse, because the quantity of protein I ate was so great there was no chance I could afford eating high quality meat. It just wasn’t realistic. Instead I was eating the cheapest variations I could get my hands on. Ugh, I try not to spare a thought for the antibiotics, hormones and other shit that all that meat contained.

So, I figured that having a bit of a break from eating meat would be beneficial for my health.

Reason Three: Animal cruelty, environmental impact, wastage

I can hear you going, “hey Michal, save us from your hippy-lecturing”. Alas, let me lay down something for you. If you’ve never watched any of the popular documentaries like Cowspiracy, Forks over Knives, Food Inc.  examining how the meat industry works to bring in the profit and to please our taste buds, go ahead and see one. You’ll be exposed to stuff like feeding cows with concrete to make them heavier and seeing overfed chickens spending their whole miserable chicken life in one spot, unable to move. So yeah, if you are an avid meat fanatic I urge you to see a documentary to see the realities that go into the making of a steak.

I acknowledge that these documentaries are often delivered with single-sided view and amplified with the commercial horror-factor. However, and to strengthen the case against meat industry, few of my friends have had the “pleasure” to see some of this stuff live in-person. And they’re scarred for life. I’ll take their word for it.
To top it all off, there are the issues with the excessive amount of energy and resources it takes to raise a cow or a herd of chickens. All the pressure it puts on the environment. Then that high-energy-cost meat gets to our shops and we’ll waste so much of it! It’s all far from effective use of resources.

Why am I sharing this with you?

This post was about my decision to cut down meat on my diet. The goal was not to preach you how you should eat less meat too… BUT, I can’t help to think what would happen if all of us would reduce our meat consumption, even a fraction. Not necessarily stopping it, but by changing some deeply ingrained habits.

And so, I’d like to ask you one thing (hey, this is my blog after all). The next time you are about about to cook a meat dish, or order a steak at a restaurant, I’d like you to ask yourself few questions:

– Do I really need to eat this much meat?
– Would I be healthier if I’d eat less meat?
– Would I save more money if I’d eat less meat?
– Would our environment be better if I’d eat less meat?

From a personal experience, I don’t miss eating meat, at all. And as it stands, I feel good. My body is healthy, strong and ripped. And what’s more, I haven’t lost any muscle.

If you doubt any of that, just come check it out. I am still standing, even without meat.