As it’s a New Year I could talk to you about the latest diet to go on and give you my top tips on “how to lose weight fast”. Cause that’s what we all like isn’t it? A quick fix! But I’ll be honest I’m no longer into ‘diets’ and quick fixes because I’ve come to realise that simply, they don’t work. But is a plant based diet the solution?
However, I am into feeding my body what I feel it needs and requires to function at its optimal strength and serve me well. In other words I’m more conscious these days about what I’m eating for health reasons, rather than the aesthetic reasons. Although, don’t get me wrong, I’m still a woman and I’m forever critical of my body, so I also eat well to keep my body at a weight I’m happy with!
Why am I moving towards a Plant Based Diet?
It’s hard to ignore the current pleas to reduce eating meat, in order to save the planet and although it’s something (in all honesty) that I would have in the past ignored, this time I haven’t. Reducing meat in fact resonates with me now for a number of reasons:
- I’ve been less bothered about eating meat since being pregnant
- I’ve recently learnt more about the health benefits of cutting down on meat
- I think we should all take some form of responsibility and do our bit to ‘save the planet’ where we can.
I know there’s a huge controversy around the subject and I’m not 100% sure myself if we get enough protein and iron by cutting out meat completely. But, I do believe that cutting down on meat and animal products can have huge benefits on our health.
So, what are the benefits of eating less meat and animal produce?
Whether you chose to be vegan, veggie or just reduce the amount of meat and animal produce you eat, I believe it will all play a part in improving your overall health, as well as reducing your carbon footprint.
Just recently, I have started eating a vegan diet around 80% of the time. I would do it more, as I’m honestly preferring eating this way, but I’m all about convenience and sometimes it just isn’t that convenient! Plus, I can’t imagine life without chocolate!
So here are my top ten reasons to eat a plant-based diet:
- Eating less meat (especially red and processed meat) can increase your life expectancy, as you will naturally be reducing your risk of heart attack, type 2 diabetes and cancer.
- Dairy is one of the first things doctors tell cancer patients to cut out of their diet.
- Cutting out dairy can improve your skin! Skin conditions like rosacea and acne are linked to dairy. Plus, cutting it out can also improve the texture and tone of your skin, so dermatologists say.
- Red meat can take several months to fully digest, where as plant based foods pass through our system quick and efficiently.
- Most of us don’t include enough fruit and vegetables in our diet, switching to a plant based diet will naturally encourage us to do so.
- Eating a plant based diet naturally reduces our fat intake, as well as the amount of processed and sugary foods we eat, which as we all know can lead to obesity, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes and cancer. In turn, this naturally promotes weight loss.
- Eating less meat reduces our carbon footprint by 50% as methane emissions from cows and livestock is one of the biggest problems our planet faces.
- It requires 1,799 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of ground beef!
- It’s cheaper.
- Meals are usually quicker to cook.
My Conclusions
I think people believe it has to be all or nothing. But why should we have to label ourself as vegans, veggies or meat eaters? Why not just reduce the amount of meat and dairy products we eat if that suits us better? Even if it’s just one day or even one meal per week. Especially if paired with exercise.
And if you’re under the impressions that eating a plant based diet is dull and unsatisfying, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised as I have. Yes, you may need to do some research and arm yourself with a few new recipes, but that isn’t hard with the recent plant based boom! In fact, as we often get asked about our diets so much (as well as Pilates) we have decided to release some food plans which will host an array of plant based recipes, as well as meat and veggie recipes to suit everyone.
Watch out for these coming soon!
