For about 7 years of my life I was a very strict vegetarian. I guess you could say that I became a bit of a hippy when I went off to college, I certainly dressed the part and I decided that giving up meat was the right way to go. Though I have to admit it was difficult coming home for Thanksgiving telling my parents that I gave up meat because of all of the chemicals while smoking a Marlboro Light, but I digress. For the most part I was very content with my decision.
In 2002 I became pregnant with Zola and I started to be more concerned about my diet because now I had a whole other life that I needed to feed. So after talking with a fellow student at my massage therapy school and doing some research I decided that I would start to incorporate some fish into my life. I started to notice that just by adding a portion of fish about once a week that I was feeling better and had a little more energy through the pregnancy. I continued on with eating occasional fish after the pregnancy.
Ten months after Zola was born I discovered that I was pregnant with Ajay. I was really craving meat through this pregnancy. I used to go out on my lunch break from work to a deli that served an amazing ham pot pie (pot pie in PA is much different from other places, it is like a thick, creamy, doughy stew), it had huge hunks of ham that I would pick out and toss and I tried to calm my cravings with just the flavors of the ham.
It was the same way when I was pregnant with Taj, any time I had the chance I would have beef gravy on my food to once again try to calm my cravings for meat.
As the years have gone on and I have researched different types of diets I have started to rethink my vegetarian ways. Perry used to be into eating for your blood type and the books said that type O (me) should not be vegetarian and that a little red meat was good for our bodies.
But knowing what I know about meat there was no way that I could eat just any old meat.
One of the biggest factors for making the switch was reading the cookbook Nourishing Traditions and my introduction to the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Last fall I was talking with Perry about how I was thinking about slowly incorporating some meat back into my diet, but it would strictly have to be organic meat. So he put me in contact with a customer at the co-op that raises organic free range chickens. She was just about to butcher so I bought 3.
I thought that I was going to cook these and feed them to my family and reserve the bones to make broth for myself to eat. At the time I really didn't have any intention on eating the meat. It was kind of scary how when that 1st chicken came out of the oven how easily I dove into it. Perry sat there staring at me as I tore the meat off of the bones enjoying every bite. A few weeks later I was given a pound of local grass fed organic beef. I decided to make meat balls with it for Perry and the kids, once again when they came out of the oven they smelled too good to resist. So now about once per week I have been enjoying a big plate of meat for dinner.
I believe that is where the answer lies for a great way to eat. Listen to your body. Give your body what it is craving but in the healthiest form possible.
