Meat with every meal?

[Ilana46720]

Hi everyone!  I am on day 7 today! I have been struggling a little with my meat intake. I try not to eat a meat (red meat or poultry) with every meal. How much meat should you consume in a day. Does it matter? I am limited because I do not eat fish. I just find myself consuming more meat then before I started. Granted, what I was consuming before I started was probably worse.

So for example: today for breakfast I had turkey bacon with my meal, lunch, a salad with grilled chicken, and dinner I am having left over taco meat. Before this, I rarely ate that much meat daily, and certainly not consecutive days in an row! Any advice would help. 

Thanks! 

[Jihanna]

You definitely don't have to have "meat" with every meal, but you do need protein with every meal. If you want to limit the amount of red meat and poultry while skipping out on fish altogether, then I'd suggest getting comfy with eggs. For example, using your menu for today: instead of bacon with breakfast, you could do a 3-egg frittata (plenty of protein and tons of veggies); for lunch, pull the grilled chicken out and slice up 3-4 boiled eggs instead (or do half and half so at least you're reducing the chicken); then whatever meat you want at dinner.

I didn't eat fish at all before my W30, but did actually get adventurous enough to try some (after a ton of reading about which ones would likely be the mildest in taste and smell), and it went pretty well. Even now, I'm generally okay with the really mild ones. I'm not sure if your avoidance of fish is due to allergies or something else, but figured I'd mention that.

I know there are also some topics around the forums here that focus on vegetarian Whole30 or limiting meat during one, so those might be worth checking out as well. The biggest issue is just that you need to make sure you're getting enough protein, and that's not quite as easy to do while avoiding legumes as it would be otherwise. I've never had any issue with meat, myself, though I can go periods without it and not feel like I'm missing out... but even for me, eggs definitely played a heavy role in my W30 (I'm not sure it would've been affordable if I didn't use eggs as much as I did).

[Ilana46720]

Thank you so much! Yes, I am spending a fortune! Lol! But I am truly feeling great so I’m ok with it. Secondly yes, I have eggs every morning and I’m getting so sick of them! I gotta start researching recipes that are meatless, and some eggless breakfasts too. Just to switch it up. 

 

I an am allergic to shellfish. I know that is not all types of fish but I just never ever ate it growing up and it’s never ever been part of my diet. Maybe I will do exactly what you did and expand my horizons. 

Thanks again! 

[Jihanna]

I found that changing up HOW I was cooking the eggs helped a lot... about halfway through, I thought I'd die if I saw another boiled egg, and got nearly there with scrambled ones... so I definitely do understand that!

For breakfast, I got to where I was eating my leftovers from the previous night's dinner for my breakfast. It made a nice change to eggs first thing in the morning, and was less effort for me to grab and heat up than it would've been to stand over the stove while cooking. I did try to do some breakfast casseroles for freeze and reheat, but didn't prefer those to the leftovers so wound up not doing any after the 2nd one I tried. Soups are actually rather nice first thing in the morning, too.

Good luck with finding things that work for you!

[Ilana46720]

Thank you! All great ideas 

[Alexendra]

Hi Ilana46720 !!! I am a pure vegetarian, and also think vegetarian food is also for sound mind and body as well. So i think i am not able to help you here in this regard. Hope answer from others may help you…..