The Selfish Reason I Went Vegetarian
And all the other benefits I found along the way.
TL;DR I didn’t want to feel sluggish and bloated. Simple as. It was nothing to do with the animals or saving the planet. I did it for me first.
I didn’t want to go through all the obvious things you’ve heard a million times. It’s good for your health, the environment, saving the animals. Instead these are more side effects than straight up benefits.
It busted lethargy after big meals.
I had started to associate more meat in my meals with that awful lethargic feeling you get after eating a big meal. Well, I thought it was caused by the size if the meal, turns out it was just the meat.
Since going vegetarian I can eat plates of food, which before would have put me into a certified food coma. Now I find my energy levels aren’t swayed by the volume of food I consume, which is great. I get to eat more and reap the energy benefits of all those veggies.
It stopped me being a fussy eater.
I used to be a terrible fussy eater. I wouldn’t brave eating anything I wasn’t remotely familiar with. This lead to me being terribly unadventurous.
It’s true what they say, variety is the spice of life.
There’s so many varieties and variations of cooking and garnishing meat dishes, I had no real reason to experiment. Cutting out the single thing that’s been the main portion of your meals can be quite restricting. You have to get creative.
You have to replace your usual go to dishes with something that isn’t just salad bowls, like a lot of people think.
I tried a whole host of new foods I would have turned my nose at before. Beetroot, falafel (beetroot falafel ❤), a wild variety of mushrooms, different style of beans, courgettes, aubergines. You name it, the list goes on.
I started cooking (and got pretty good at it).
Vegetable dishes can be extremely easy and quick to prepare. So I started making myself super quick meals by chopping up a few veggies and stir frying them.
You also aren’t as likely to mess up and potentially give yourself food poisoning, which can happen when you cook with meat. So you can be a lot more daring in your culinary experiments.
The results blew me away. Especially since vegetarian dishes automatically look incredibly appetizing with all that colour.
With this new found variety in my diet you get excited to try new things. I was experimenting and began to love cooking. Before I knew it I had a plethora of cook books for inspiration. There something so wholesome about the process of making vegetarian dishes with really fresh veg.
I spend a lot less money on food.
Meat is expensive! For the price of 2 sirloin steaks I can get enough ingredients to cook up a storm for 2–3 days!
The savings have been incredible. I would estimate I’ve shaved about 20–25% off my grocery budget.
Even dining in restaurants is far cheaper for a vegetarian, albeit you have to get creative when your restaurant of choice doesn’t have many (or none) vegetarian options.
Pro Tip: You can always order a mix of sides and starters instead of a main course when the options are poor!
These are just some less obvious side effects of going vegetarian. Saving the environment and animals is also a fantastic reason to go vegetarian but that’s a post for another day.
I think it’s easier to get people to do something beneficial for the world at large if they see how something can benefit themselves.
I hope after reading this you see a vegetarian lifestyle less as a save-the-planet endeavour full of sacrifices, and more as something that can benefit you as a person in a variety of ways.
