A Meat Eater's Guide to Eating Less Meat

I'm living proof that an old dog can learn new tricks. If you had told me a few years ago that I would be eating vegetarian meals most of the week, I would not have believed you. Like so many Americans, I grew up believing that meat is an important part of a healthy, daily diet. The Atkins fad had the populous convinced that eating meat at every meal kept your metabolism high and your BMI low. As an athlete, I believed that the caloric and protein density of meat was a necessity for building muscle and recovering from tough workouts. However, now that my partner, Mark, and I have been eating less meat for almost a year, we are just as fit and healthy as ever. A lower meat diet has become routine.

People choose to reduce their meat consumption or become vegetarian for many different reasons: ethical, environmental, health, fiscal, etc. I decided to begin eating less meat for a combination of reasons. Because of ethical, environmental, and health concerns, I am striving to limit my consumption of factory farm meat. I am trying to eat only all-natural, local, humanely-raised meat, which is generally more expensive than factory-raised meat. So, because of financial limitations, I am choosing to eat less, but better quality meat.

After over 20 years of a high daily intake of meat, it wasn't easy at first to reduce of my consumption. Vegetarianism was new and boggling to me. Mark and I have prepared great and not so great vegetarian meals. There were and still are days when I think it would just be easiest to stick a chicken in the oven, but in the end, we are both happy with our decision to eat less meat. As a meat eater myself, I hope I can help other meat eaters with their goal to eat less meat. Here are my tips:

1. Start Slowly. If you're accustomed to eating meat daily, be easy on yourself and don't jump into vegetarianism too quickly. You can still eat meat daily, just reduce your meat quantities or prepare recipes that 'spread out' the meat. For example, if you usually make pasta sauce with a pound of ground beef, use a half a pound of beef instead. Rather than eating a whole chicken breast in one sitting, make a large pot of chicken soup that 'spreads out' the chicken breast into many servings. Instead of eating an entire steak with potatoes on the side, make beef stew so that the same amount of meat is eaten over several meals, rather than just one.

2. Don't drastically change your diet at first. If you generally prefer to eat the same types of foods over and over, stick with your regular diet at first. Jumping into a drastically different, vegetarian diet could be frustrating and discouraging. If you like to eat spaghetti or lasagna with meat sauce, prepare these dishes the same as you always have, just omit the meat. If you regularly eat burritos with meat, beans, rices, and cheese, eat the same burritos, but without the meat.

3. Add extra beans, nuts, and seeds. If you've successfully omitted meat from your daily cooking, but aren't sure how to get enough protein into your diet, eat some extra beans, nuts, and seeds. If you eat meatless pasta or homemade pizza for dinner, top your side salad with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and kidney beans. When making a sandwich without the cold-cuts, spread some hummus on the bread for a protein boost. Instead of having bacon for breakfast, eat a bowl of yogurt topped with seedy, nutty granola. Rather than grabbing a bag of beef jerky at the convenience store, grab a packet of peanuts.

4. Try meat substitutes. Meat eaters crave the caloric density and thick consistency of meat, but tofu and tempeh can help to satisfy these cravings. If you regularly prepare stir-fry or curry with chicken and vegetables, replace the chicken with tofu. Rather than eating a piece of steak with vegetables and potatoes on the side, eat a slice of grilled tempeh instead of steak.

5. Branch out and be open-minded. If you're beginning to tire from your ordinary meatless meals or you are compensating too much cheese and bread for calories that used to be from meat (this happened to me), it's time to branch out. Try some new vegetarian recipes. There are a plethora of great vegetarian cookbooks and websites out there and if you are open-minded, you'll end up finding some very satisfying meals. Remember, there may be failures with any new recipe, with meat or without. If some vegetarian meals don't come out to your liking, just keep trying.

6. Find support. When I first started reducing my meat consumption and preparing vegetarian meals, I was totally lost. I reached out to my vegetarian friends for recipe ideas and advice. If you're perplexed or unconvinced about eating less meat, find a support system. There are many internet forums and blogs where you can connect with vegetarians or other meat-eating folks that are in the same boat.

7. Don't be a meatless martyr. If you went five days without eating meat, but now you're really craving a big, juicy steak, go for it. If you want steak again on the seventh night, that's fine too. By being too strict with your diet and not satisfying certain cravings, you may end up totally dropping your ambition to eat less meat. In my opinion, 2 meals of meat during the week is a huge improvement over 7 meals of meat.

Are you a vegetarian or have you reduced your meat consumption? What has worked for you?