I Was a Vegetarian for 30 Days & My Body Had a Meltdown

Here’s what I did wrong and how I fixed it (:

I know I am not original, and this isn’t new; going vegetarian has been done and done successfully for YEARS. So obviously, I thought it’d be easy. I already wasn’t eating meat Monday-Friday for breakfast (Oatmeal is BAE). Imagine my surprise when I started feeling faint, foggy-headed, and starting fights with my boyfriend because I was hangry.

DISCLAIMER: None of this has anything to do with vegetarianism, and everything to do with my lack of education on being a healthy vegetarian. So if you’re trying to make the leap but don’t think you have the chops (*wink), here’s what I figured out.

My journey began on Wednesday after I read that 11,000 scientists declared, “If we don’t start making changes like today, the earth is in considerable trouble. #ClimateChangeIsReal” (paraphrasing what I got from the news article). My stomach sank. Nervous sweat pooled in my armpits. The feeling was equivalent to the one you get when you remember you’re going to die someday, and it felt ten times worse because I could die extra early because of global warming. Fight or flight was upon me. I chose to take action: vegetarianism. I gave myself 30 days to go completely meatless (no fish, no imitation crab meat because it is also fish ):). I instantly felt better and in control. HA! Little did I know.

My first mistake, (but I still defend the decision) was my spontaneity. I chose to become a vegetarian on a Tuesday, and I like every other person, do my grocery shopping on Saturday ( it is so crowded that I am convinced we all do the shopping the same day and time). My boyfriend and I had bought dinners for a meat-eating household, not for my new lifestyle choice. I lacked vegetarian-friendly snacks. It was 4:00 PM on Friday, and apparently, my boyfriend wasn’t ready to start eating the early-bird special for dinner. A fight ensued about needing to go to dinner right away. Lesson learned: Try to plan for your vegetarian lifestyle decision or go grocery shopping again.

My next mistake was not taking B12 seriously. Funny how I have lived in my body for 24 years but don’t understand what keeps it going. I’ve just been getting lucky by putting the right stuff in it all this time?! I didn’t know that meat provides a lot of the B12 I get in a day, so when I started feeling faint and weak a week into vegetarianism, I was confused.

I felt like these were symptoms of withdrawal, so I Googled “Meat Withdrawals” (not necessarily a medical term) and boom! There it was…B12 deficiency.

I bought a bottle of B12 on my lunch break, and I swear the next day I felt almost 100% again.

After I had my B12 and started grocery shopping for my lifestyle choice, I found that it was easy to make vegetarian choices every day!

That isn’t to say I didn’t mess up some like I accidentally had chicken broth. I thought the chicken broth was just spices they added to the broth that tastes like chicken, OKAY! I didn’t know it uses chicken still.

Final review of being vegetarian for one month:

Pros

• Reduced my anxiety about the world melting and my children’s children dying early
• Learned new recipes that I loved and still use (Vegetarian chili, baby)
• Discovered Chipotle’s sofritas and will never order anything else when I go there

Cons

• Missed eating certain things when I went out to eat
• Was kind of lazy and ended up eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly which probably wasn’t right for me

I didn’t end up sticking with a vegetarian diet longer than those 30 days, but I have since decided to make small changes in my life to reduce my part in global warming. Before I allow myself to feel guilty or weak for not becoming a full-time vegetarian, I remember that guilt and shame won’t further anyone’s efforts towards helping the planet. Why would I even try, why would anyone else try, if we feel like it will never be enough? Yes, the fear factor worked on me, but I already had a pre-disposition to worrying about global warming. It’s important to stay positive and encourage everyone for EVERY SINGLE thing they do to help: recycling, using a reusable water bottle, or buying second-hand.

What do you think will be more impactful: shaming someone into green activities or encouraging them?