Well the initial switch was actually an on the spot decision. I watched The Game Changers with my wife which played in theatres here on September 16, 2019. We saw it in our VIP theatre which meant I was eating dinner at the same time. This happened to be the last time I ate meat, a chicken burger.
While the movie is not perfect, seeing it made enough of an impact on me to make the change, and since that day I have spent a lot of time researching the benefits of why this is healthier for me in addition to how this benefits the world around me.
Making the switch was not easy, but luckily Stephanie was already 99% vegetarian at that time which helped me immensely. Prior to seeing the movie I had pondered not eating meat anymore based on animal welfare but never actually did it, like most I was naive to how cruel the meat industry really is and ignored it jokingly when we went out for wings. Now I can't believe I spent the first 36.5 years of my life eating meat, sometimes 3 times a day! This was one of my last meat fuelled meals...at least there are some vegetables haha.
Everybody is different, but I have definitely noticed health benefits and did right from the beginning. The main differences were higher energy levels, better endurance and just a general better physical/mental feeling overall. The movie did highlight this a lot, but I was honestly skeptical at first. Over a year down the road, these benefits still hold true!!! This is something I love to eat now, a mango rice bowl at one of our local restaurants!
One of the other things that kept playing around in my mind was the fact that such a high percentage of people have pets at home and have a freezer full of meat from the grocery store. I could not imagine a cat or a dog being farmed in unquantifiable numbers, yet this is what happens with livestock.
The numbers are astounding...
60% of mammals are livestock, 36% are humans, ONLY 4% are wild animals.
70% of birds are farmed poultry, ONLY 30% are wild.
I could go on with numbers like how much land is used and destroyed just to feed the livestock that humans consume, including rainforests...this is where it gets really scary for me. But I will save that for another blog as this is not why I switched, but is now a by-product of research that has truly blown my mind and one of the main reasons it is easy for me to stay plant based with my diet.
The initial switch mixed with research and experiences like my last post about visiting The Happy Herd Farm Sanctuary have truly changed my life for the better...and forever.
While I have not had any meat products since that date, I have had the occasional cheat meal that involved dairy products like cheesecake, cheese pizza...I am not perfect and definitely felt the guilt afterwards. I would never expect anybody to be perfect with a change like this but I truly believe that even changing your diet to plant based even for 1 day/week has a huge impact on the world we live in.
If you have any questions or have anything to share please do so, this is such an important subject to me that I love to discuss with others because after all...you can't believe everything you see in a movie, or read on the internet!