I was going back over my foods for the week and I found that I only ate meat (not including eggs or fish) ONCE this week when I had a turkey sandwich and to me that is totally crazy! The meat is my favorite part of any meal. When I would go to a chinese buffet I would have a plate full of beef, chicken, pork and maybe a little lo mein noodles on the side. So how did I go through a whole week without realizing that I hadn't eaten any meat? It's just weird!
I wonder if it has anything to do with my 3 pound loss (which seems more than usual)....
I've experienced this. As I watch my saturated fat along with calories I've gravitated away from red meat, even though I love it. I hadn't realized how far I'd cut back until the new beau asked me if I ate meat (by which he meant beef) after we had been dating more than a month as he had never seen me eat or cook it when I made dinner for the 2 of us.
On the meat eating spectrum (vegan on one end, and veggie-hating meat eater on the other), I'm pretty much in the middle, but I tend to swing like a pendulum, rather than remain on a fixed point.
My husband is more consistent with his diet.
I lose weight best on a high-protein low carb diet, so I actually lose weight best eating more meat than I would naturally gravitate toward (though I still tend to choose poultry and seafood over pork and beef). Since moving to Wisconsin, I eat a lot more fish (besides canned tuna), because hubby loves fish (and he is very good at cooking it), and the fish is better here than it was in Illinois.
That's how I went vegetarian, too. I eventually realised that I was eating little to no meat, didn't miss it at all, and went ahead and made it "official."
I am slowly cutting down my meat as well; and noticed that I had gravitated to mostly chicken and fish for most of my meals, and turkey sometimes. I still do like a nice steak once in a while but not as often as I used to. I have also cut down my pork a lot; but my DH loves it and hamburgers, so I make him that and I have chicken or something else. I am even eating chicken burgers instead of beef when I can get them.
Have you all noticed a co-relation to cutting down your meat consumption (esp beef & pork) and your continued weightloss? Just curious ... thanks!
if meat is not replaced with carbohydrates, then I notice a huge weight loss. My HUGE error was about 10 years ago when my husband tried to convince me to be a vegetarian with him -- his idea of vegetarian was to eat pasta a lot, and a lot of side dishes. I gained 30 pounds in the year that I was a faithful ovo-lacto "pastatarian"(from about the weight I am now, actually).
He is still a vegetarian, and a much better one, so we have a lot of "strange" protien sources in our home like tofu, soy-based meat substitutes (dry textured soy protien (TSP) that you add to sauces and soups, looks like bacon bits, in all varieties of "meats", flavored and unflavored), purchased soy-based meat substitutes like bocaburgers (we hate tofurkey stuff,it is too salty, and he hates all the fake hot dog stuff because the consistency is funny to him).
Trader Joe's has an EXCELLENT Soy Chorizo that is very very tasty scrambled in eggs or added to their black bean soup (especially if pork chorizo is out of your calorie count, and for $1.99 a tube, that's a great deal).
Every once in a while I get a craving for a steak or something, I usually get it when I go out to eat (it's safer to get a slab of meat, I know what I am eating and what the cook did to it). My husband did make a cobb salad for me with some turkey lunchmeat on it. I also had a fake chicken cutlet and two fake chicken patties (breaded, so some carbs there, oh well).
I find that when I cut down on carbs and meat that I have all the calories in the world to play with (and often at the end of the day I have to have a piece of cheese or something to make sure I have "enough"). When you compare the calories in a piece of beef to the calories in some sauteed mushrooms and onions (light on the oil), there's a no-brainer there that you can have a more satisfying meal if you have a smaller piece of beef with a larger portion of mushrooms and onions...maybe throw in some green beans...yumm....
Given free reign, I wouldn't eat any protein or very many vegetables; I'd prefer to live on pasta, potatoes and pastry. Unfortunately that diet got me up to almost 250lbs so now I have a low carb/high protein diet and it feel like I'm eating more meat that I've ever done before and it seems to suit my body, even if it doesn't sit very well with me morally.
I think if I lived alone I might find myself a vegetarian, minus eggs and fish. My husband is a big meat eater, though, so the dinners I cook almost always have some sort of meat at the center. These days I pick most of it out unless my body is calling for it.
I don't like pasta much so I don't have to worry about that one being a "replacement" for the meat in my meals and in general I try to watch my carbs (I watch my bread/flour, rice and pasta intake). I hope I'm getting enough protein (I haven't been tracking my protein intake), I've eaten eggs or raw oats for each breakfast this past week and I've also had some type of nuts/seeds at least once a day and there has been beans and yogurt a couple times this week along with a few types of fish (I had salmon, shrimp and tilapia). Hopefully that's enough!
I lose better on a high-protein, low-carb diet. I've never been that much of a "slab-o-meat" fan. I love vegetables cooked with meat, but the meat itself
wasn't the main draw (I'd cook carrots, celery, potatoes, onion and sometimes cabbate with a roast and the vegetables would outway the meat 3 or 4 to 1, and I'd still finish the vegetables before the meat).
I've actually seen a correlation between better weight loss and INCREASED meat eating, but it's hard for me to see meat as the main attraction. And I also have a hard time avoiding the starchy vegetables. Giving up bread and pasta has been hard, but limiting corn, peas, carrots, and potatoes has been even harder.
I've found that too! If I want to eat meat, I want the "bad" stuff (roast beef, ground beef, etc), but if I'm watching my calories (which I am) I just tend to make beans beans beans! I LOVE beans!!! The problem is that if left to my own (meatless) devices I'm eating till I'm satisfied and I'm struggling to eat enough to break 1200 cals... Not quite enough I don't think. So I'll try to get the meat back a few times per week. I just keep forgetting to do it! I'm not a big egg person and I LOVE beans (seriously, is there a bean-lovers rehab?) I eat them probably at LEAST once/day on average. *shakes head* anyway, enough about beans and their loveliness....
I either need to eat more meat or start smothering my veggies with cheese!
Accidental Vegitarian?
