My Challenge for 2017

My challenge for 2017.. It took some time but I made up my mind! It ofcourse knew that I would take a challenge again but I didn’t know which one! Most of my challenges are part of my travelllife…but this time it’s different.

My Challenge for 2017

Healthy and most of all Honest!

For years already my aim is to hardly eat any meat. While traveling it’s always easy because I travel in countries where people are veg or where meat is not a large part of the meal. In Europe that’s different. I did cut down on the consumption of meat in the last years but still I think it’s too much.

I think it;’s too much because meat is still part of my dinner. The feeling that dinner is not complete without it.. Somehow feel that the taste is missing or the structure.. I don’t know

My Vegetarian Challenge

Back home again from a long travel, 5 months this time, I was back in the kitchen struggling to make a nice dinner. While traveling I hardly cook any food because of the great food I can buy on the street for hardly anything. That tasts so much better then anything I can cook!!

But cooking my own dinner again I started to buy meat again. Not because I really felt like eating meat but just to complete my meal. SO strange! Because when I’m in Asia, especially India, I choose vegetarian dishes because they are are so much more flavorfull!!

Meat….substitute

So before learning to cook in a whole new and different manner.. (what I really want to) I started to use meat substitute products to complete my dinner. I always had the idea that they tasted like carton and were not tasty at all!! Maybe that was 20 years ago and I had never looked at them again in the supermarket.

My challenge for 2017

I found all kinds of substitute meat products. Small meatballs, slices of spiced tofu and so on. It really felt strange that I was standing in front of this part of the supermarket…and that I was really going to buy this!

I always thought that if you are vegetarian you shouldn’t go for meat replacements….and to replace what you didn’t want… And now I was standing there 🙂

This spaghetti with those fake meatballs was great!!

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Why do I stop eating meat in 2017?

I’ll stop eating meat because I really think we have to do something about the environment. The biggest polluter in Holland is the bio industry. So the farmers…And it is not their fault!! We eat so much meat and the industry is trying to meet that command. It has grown out of proportion and is way past responsible!! If we want to cut down on emission caused by this industry we have to cut down on consumption and this is where I come in.

I do hope a lot of you have the same opinion. If you just cut down on the consumption, ofcourse you can eat a piece of meat. But not every day!! And not the bigger part of your meal should be meat!

And the meat that we are eating… it is not even that healthy anymore. The meat of decades ago was a totall different kind of meat. They add so much fertilizer or other chemicals into the food of the animals to let them grow fast, not get sick and so on. I really think it is not good anymore to eat that  much meat or even to eat meat. So to stay healthy it is not an issue to  me either.

Yes, I do know that vegetables and herbs are also grown under the same conditions, they use those things too but what also is a big thing for me… the animals are suffing!! Why am I part of this?? Why would I contribute on this? Is it the thought that it is only a small piece of meat that I don’t think I am quilty on this too?

What did  S.N. GOENKA thought me?

During my 10 day Vipassana course in Chennai last december 2017 I was thought by the late guru GOENKA (By instruction video ofcourse) that there are some rules to live by if we want to live good and peacefull with eachother. One of those rules are that you will not kill anything. I say anything because he was not only talking about humans but also animals!! He gave the example of buying a piece of meat at the butcher. You know how the butcher got to that piece of meat, he had to slaughter an animal. ‘I didn’t do that’ or ‘ It is not my responsibility’ .. but you did, and yes you are!You are paying him to do it for you. You know that this is the only way to get to this piece of meat and you order it. There is nothing else to it, you are responsible!! 

And that is why I mentioned Honest in the beginning of my blog!

This explanation really got me thinking.

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So my Challenge 2017 will be

more vegetables and variation in my food!

I do think it is good for my body too if I’ll do this. I’ll eat more vegetables and because of a change of diet I will vary in products. More and different products is always good and well….I don’t have to give a plea about veggies do I?

Did you have the same problems when you cut down on meat or stopped eating meat?

I love to hear about your variations and solutions.

 And eh, so you have some good veggie recipes for me?

🙂

I love to challenge myself!

10 days of Noble Silence – Vipassana

200RYT Yoga Course

Do you Breath Correctly?

Or take this challenge!

The Hanstand is a Must Do! Yoga – Adho Mukha Vrksasana