I am having a go at not eating meat. I have lasted 11 days but unlike other death sentence habits I have stopped in the past, I am not craving it. That said, I am not denying that the day might come where I am crawling the walls screaming “BACON SANDWICH…NOW!”

Don’t worry, I haven’t started wearing dungarees or grown one of those ponytails that bald men create to pretend they are not bald; I just thought I would try it out. And when I say no meat, that doesn’t include fish, so I am not sure what it makes me. A Fishaterian or something?

Inspiration

I was inspired by my partner who also likes meat but is going through a phase of cooking vegetarian dishes. I can’t remember what it was she made me the other week, but she only informed me after I had polished it off, that it had no meat in it.

So, when not eating veggie at her house, I have been making fish dishes and vegetable curries for my own dinner (see above pic, I made that, I did). Playing around with different herbs and spices is good fun and, in many cases, replacing meat with vegetables is not as dull as it might sound. Cooking, as any of you amateur chefs will know, is all about the herbs and spices you enhance your food with. Eating a boiled chicken leg is as dull as eating a boiled carrot or potato.

How Do I Feel?

So, if you are still interested enough to be reading this post, I expect you want to know if I feel any different? The answer, I’m afraid, is no, not really. That said, if you give up fags after 40 years you are not going to be climbing Ben Nevis ten days later, are you? I could say, “Oh wow, it’s amazing, I can’t believe I haven’t done this years ago”, but I try to be candid in this Blog.

As autumn and winter looms, I have my doubts that I will continue staying on a fish and vegetable diet only. The lure of winter comforts such as Sunday roasts and beef casseroles may become too much to resist. Maybe there are equivalents to stave that temptation off, but I have my doubts.

For now, I am going to continue this journey into unchartered territory as an experiment of how it affects my well-being and middle-aged spread. I saw a picture of myself playing cricket the other week. Like a delusional Brexiteer who thinks great times are ahead, I found myself in a state of denial, pretending the photographer had caught me at a bad angle.

The Lockdown Downside

Lockdown was not kind to me. In the early days, in a state of paranoia, I assumed Covid19 was going to kill me. So, with gay abandon, I ate and drunk as I pleased. Result? Clothes that appear to have shrunk whilst hanging in the cupboard. The halcyon days when I could eat and drink as I wished and not put on an ounce, are consigned to the history books.

So, I shall try to stick it out for a while and see if it has any effect on my well-being and weight. However, I am almost certain that there is one reason I have gone from youthful skip, to weight on hip.

Old father time.