Completed: 1. No Meat for a Week
I don’t think there’s anyone on this planet that enjoys the taste of meat quite like me, but I chose to accept Lyssa’s challenge to go without meat for a week. I knew it would be a struggle.
If I had thought it through, I would’ve chosen a week that didn’t take place during football season — the time of year I do most of my pigging out, but oh well! I decided to make this a Monday to Monday type of deal so that I could have my last Sunday of gluttony before I started my hell week. Even though Lyssa allowed me to eat eggs, I decided I wouldn’t eat them. I’m an all-or-nothing type of guy. I put it on myself, but this was the hardest part of the week. My regular diet consists of a lot of eggs, especially egg whites, but I really wanted to push myself.
Regular daily diet:
- banana
- fiber bar
- green beans
- chicken breast
- fiber bar
- eggs whites
- baked beans
- rice
- turkey
- chicken breaast
The biggest mistake I made was not having a plan. I thought I could just eat vegetables and be okay, but I was so unbelievably wrong. I needed a protein substitute and peanuts, the only nuts I eat, weren’t cutting it, but the last thing I wanted to do was to buy substitute patties or fake chicken crap. I find those things repulsive.
After a couple of hopeless days, I found something that met my protein needs thanks to Chipotle. Lyssa’s dad tipped me off on their sofritas. They are a little spicier than what I’m used to, but other than that, they’re pretty good. I went to Chipotle from Wednesday to Friday for my sofritas fix.
Even with the sofritas, though, the pain of meatlessness hurt. I had to find protein for the middle of the work day. I swallowed my pride and broke down and bought veggie patties. When burnt to a crisp, they’re actually not bad! I had about two of those a day.
Unfortunately, I relied a lot on fruit snacks to both fill and distract my stomach. The more skittle/fruit snacks I ate, the less I thought about meat. Needless to say, my sugar levels are probably skyrocketing.
My friends didn’t help matters either, which made it that much harder. A special shoutout goes to Tom Davis and Steve Spinosa for sending me pictures of meat every day. From bacon to steak, they made sure I saw a piece of meat on a daily basis and for that I say… thanks?
Two things I learned after completing this goal: 1. it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. Don’t get me wrong, as noted above I had my moments, but nothing I couldn’t handle and 2. I lost weight. I didn’t expect that result, but I lost about two pounds during my hell week.
I don’t know how people go without meat. I truly love the taste of it too much to cut it out of my diet. I kept thinking about how much I missed bacon. Believe it or not, I actually bought veggie patties after this challenge ended. Maybe I did change?
So, Lyssa wanted me to do this so I can now say HA HA I did it.
Goal #1 on Lyssa’s list for me: No meat for a week (only eggs allowed) has been completed.
– Kris