To Meat or not to Meat

My unhealthy weight requires me to lose weight. To do this, I don't need to give up meat, but early on in the process, I decided to give it up, for the time being. I'm not sure exactly why I made this decision and I'm trying to analyze my reasoning for it.

As I started to eat healthily, I found that most of the meat I like is fattening. I'm not a huge fan of chicken, unless it's breaded and fried - then it's really good - but there's really nothing about a boneless, skinless chicken breast that gets me culinarily excited. I also think that somewhere in my mind, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are synonymous with diet. I think it's those early-nineties super low-fat diets with their "zesty chicken" recipes. Dry chicken marinated in gloopy, chemical-laden non-fat Italian dressing. Seriously, this was enough to put a person off weight-loss efforts for life. My mother's weight loss efforts around this time centered on recipes like this. Yuck.

I also began to think that meat engenders other fattening ingredients. It just goes well with them. Perhaps this line of thinking was perpetuated by me reading The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics at the time, which I picked up from a used bookstore on a whim after a conversation with a friend about macrobiotics and what it entails. I was really confused by the practice until I read the book. I thought that macrobiotics don't eat meat or fish, and were some sort of really extreme vegans, but then I discovered this wasn't true. In trying to explain the practice to a friend recently, I said that all food is a balance. Macrobiotics believe that you should eat in balance and some foods, like meat, are extreme and require that you balance them out with food or drink from the other end of the spectrum, thus creating a balance, but one that can create mood swings and health problems. The dietary restrictions of macrobiotic eating come from the person's desire to eat foods from the middle of this spectrum, foods that don't create extreme physical reactions within the body. Therefore, macrobiotics usually eschew meat, dairy, some "extreme" vegetables, and hard liquor. They do eat lots of whole grains, fermented foods, some fish, beer, pickles, vegetables, and beans. All of these foods, in theory, do not tax the body and keep the body and mind on an even keel.

After reading this, I decided I probably couldn't go, as Jessica Porter puts it, "whole hog," but I could start to incorporate some elements of the good ideas in the book. I liked the author's approach. Her lack of pushiness and judgementalism helped me to keep an open mind about the practice. She suggests just cutting down on extreme foods like dairy and meat, and introducing more whole grains and seeing where that leads you. That's basically the approach I've taken. I'm trying little by little to eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables and less stodgy foods (what she calls "sludge") like dairy and meat. I love dairy. I love it very much, and I don't see myself ever giving it up completely, but I'm using it now in moderation, as a carefully thought out addition to a meal, rather than a default.

The restriction of meat in my diet has led to more creativity. Even if you're eating fish, eventually you get sick of the whole fish, grain, vegetable plan for a meal, even if you vary the fish, grains and vegetables. This is how I've felt for the past week or so, so I'm now trying to explore other options, like tofu, tempeh, homemade meat substitutes, and also simply using more legumes in my cooking. Legumes have been severely looked over in my diet and I've recently allowed them to play catchup a little. Tomorrow I plan to make a recipe for chickpea cutlets with wilted chard and a bean and corn salad. This is going out on an extreme culinary limb for me, so we'll see how it works out.

I also plan to make hummus this week and come up with creative ways to use tempeh and tofu in sandwiches and salads. Wish me luck and inspiration!