From today I have decided, after a long time of thinking about it, to cut down on the meat that I consume. I’m not going vegetarian as I don’t feel the need to yet, however, I am going to ‘try’ and eventually cut out any animal products completely. I started typing up a blog post a couple of years back about what it takes to become Vegetarian/Vegan and never got around to expanding the post or making it public.

I have a completely new diet and hopefully I can save eating 5/10kg of chicken per week, which is just to feed my own ego. It’s simple to eat chicken/meat with each meal as it’s cheap, low fat and low carbs, high protein. The problem is, I believe that I have fell in the trap of this bodybuilding world and it’s crazy advertising. I have always believed I need around 250g of protein a day and therefore consumed lots of chicken. To get that much protein per day, I wouldn’t be able to eat enough fruit and veg (with my lack of knowledge) etc.

I have now decided that being natural and the time it takes to build muscle, I don’t need a high amount of protein as originally thought. After having a bright Idea, I’m sure 100/150g of protein is plenty enough for me to maintain. Especially when I’m cutting as I currently are.

So, my meals now only need to contain around 15-25g protein per meal to get my daily amount I think I need. The obvious positive from this is the food I can use to get my protein from. The main reason is to stop eating so much animal meat, just for my own self goals. Let’s be fair, all those animals being mass produced, having no life and then being slaughtered for me to gain a little bit of muscle, it’s not right. (but I do it and that’s my concious I need to live with)

I feel that I am in a good place with my body now and I know I can be more fitter and healthier by changing my diet around. Cutting out the meat also allows me to go out and find more foods, broadening my knowledge and experimenting with my own body through different means.

I will have to supplement a few things if I do cut out meat completely (which I’m not planning on) As I can cut down on the meat I’m consuming, I may be able to afford Organic Meat, which I will get more nutrition from it and also know that the animal has had a more natural life. I have also come to the conclusion that the protein world has gone crazy and anything with the word PROTEIN will be made and bought. Obviously I have used many protein products and have relied on them for years. I strongly believe that I can stay away from all these super muscle building protein products and use nutritious meals instead.

Now let’s remember that I’m reasonably happy with my body how it is now. I’m not sure how building muscle without meat would be, maybe I’ll find out over the next year… What I do know is that experimenting with my own body is fun. If I did want to step up my game and be bigger, I wouldn’t be a natural bodybuilder. That’s not my current goal. One day when I do decide it’s a good time to use steroids, I will already know exactly how my body responds to what I put in it and hopefully this will maximise my muscle growth.

I have always led my own journey through trial and error, my goal is to gain hands on knowledge over years and I don’t feel the need to have a quick fix method. Personally I find this another challenge to make things more difficult and that’s a good thing. I’ll report back in a few weeks and see what’s going on and if this worked out for me…

25/02/2016

A quick update on my diet, regarding protein, fats and carbs…

I can easily reach a high protein, low carb diet with the foods I have found within a basic supermarket. I can reach 200g protein with just 70g carbs and 40g good fats. On a average daily boring meat diet I was getting around 220g protein, 130g carbs, 20g fat.

I also believe that the quality of nutrition from these meals I’m now consuming, is much higher. Time will tell through strength, weight and accessibility to the food. Either way its a different journey to the boring one that I feel I can stick to without much of a challenge.

Again, I’m not vegetarian, I just want to see how a veggie diet and bodybuilding works, monitor my finding and go from there. Perhaps the next step can be Vegan for a few weeks…

The gym is just a thing that I just plod along with and push myself, but the hard part is out the gym with diet.

I’m in a very happy mental place at the moment and that’s all that I really care about right now. 🙂