Yup, every month for a year we got a different type of bacon sent to our house, and it was amazing. I love (eh, loved?) bacon. And my husband is known for eating everything--chicken feet dim sum, tacos de sesos (if you're not familiar, this is literally beef brain tacos), and beef combination pho which has every type of beef including tripe and tendon. To say the least, we aren't the typical vegetarian type.

At this point, I had seen pretty much every food-related documentary on Netflix--Fed Up, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, Food Matters, Vegucated, Forks Over Knives, Hungry for Change, and GMO OMG. I had also read a ton of articles, books, medical journals, and more. They may not have changed my eating habits for good, but I liked hearing other's perspectives on what we should be putting in our bodies. I'm not sure why, possibly just the timing of it, but when I watched Food Choices, it had a bigger impact on me. About half way through the documentary, I challenged myself to 30 days without meat.

Welp, those 30 days have turned into a year and a half.

Before I continue, I really am not here to tell everyone that they need to stop eating meat, I still believe that each person should to make their own food decisions based on what's right for them. Just because I made this decision, doesn't mean you should. I'm just putting out the reasons why I decided to challenge myself, do with it what you please!

With that said, here's why I stopped eating meat:

1. We don't need as much protein as many people think

This was interesting to me because we've all been raised to think that each meal needs to contain a large amount of protein. However, this isn't necessarily the case. The T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies states:

"If a varied diet sufficient in calories is consumed, it is virtually impossible to get an inadequate protein intake. Even a diet devoid of concentrated sources of protein such as animal products, nuts and legumes will meet optimum protein needs."

Of course it's still important to get protein, but protein can be found in vegetables like spinach, broccoli or mushrooms, in legumes, quinoa, and in many, many other sources. The documentary even interviewed multiple pro-athletes and Iron Man champions who eat only plant-based diets. I mean, if they can get by without meat and compete in the Iron Man, I think I'll be fine.

I heard something once that said people who want to be as buff as a bull think they need to eat the bull to get that way. But the bull only eats greens.

2. Eating a variety of vegetables is good for you

I'm not here to tell you that eating meat is bad for you. In fact, I don't even believe it is. For me, it isn't about meat being bad for you, it's about the shift from a heavily meat-based diet to a plant-based one. Our bodies need more vegetables and nutrients than the standard American diet provides. Many believe that the lack of these nutrients is can cause many diseases. There have even been countless stories of people who have healed and reversed diseases by switching to a plant-based diet. I like this quote from a New York Times article on the China Study:

"The idea is that we should be consuming whole foods. We should not be relying on the idea that genes are determinants of our health. We should not be relying on the idea that nutrient supplementation is the way to get nutrition, because it’s not. I’m talking about whole, plant-based foods. The effect it produces is broad for treatment and prevention of a wide variety of ailments, from cancer to heart disease to diabetes."

3. I had distanced myself from the reality of where meat comes from

This isn't new information, we all know where meat comes from. But don't you think it's interesting that we keep some animals in our home as pets, and others, we eat? There's really not a big difference between cows and dogs, besides that it's socially acceptable to eat one of them.

A year before cutting out meat, I toured a milk farm and was shocked at how friendly, smart, and dog-like the cows were. They made eye contact with you with their big eyes, they made expressions and showed their emotions, and I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the cows and Pixel (our boxer/pit bull mix). Seeing them up close and interacting with them hit a little too close to home--even though it took me a full year after that to actually stop eating meat.

There you have it

After 28 years of bacon-eating, these arguments were all I needed to at least try to change my eating habits. I decided to cut out all meat for 30 days to see what happens. Luckily, my husband was down for the challenge too, so we became pescatarians.