How I got my husband to eat at least less meat

[Manuela Guarneri]

I.e. “I did it! I killed the bloodthirsty beast”

 

My husband loves meat but he ate too much of it even if he was very aware about the risks for his health and damages caused to the environment.

The nagging wife inside of me tried to convince him so many times trying to make him feel guilty… but it didn’t work. Nothing happened except for turning him very very nervous. But it got worse: the nagging wife was sick of it thus she started doing very stupid things like throwing away all the meat from the refrigerator and preparing vegetarian meals only. The first 2-3 days he reacted nicely saying things like “Thank you darling but… where is the real food here?” and after dinner he ended up eating a lot of bread, cookies or chocolate. Can you believe I was so stupid that once for dinner I prepared boiled potatoes and cabbage only? And I was pretending he liked it? Ok please, stop laughing at me! After that lame attempt the bloodthirsty beast inside of him came out scaring the nagging wife away.

 

1 lesson learned: I couldn’t eliminate 100% meat out of the clear blue

 

As the nagging wife was still grounded, I became craftier and started “diluting” meat by replacing part of it with beans or mushrooms in recipes like lasagna, stew and casserole. Guess what? It didn’t work. He was complaining about how the meals weren’t as good as before.

 

2 lesson learned: I had to cook whether good vegetable or good meat meals instead of a strange mix.

 

Sorry. The nagging wife is still around but it’s a good thing she is now concentrated on something else. Anyway she is proud to share with you some of my successful tactics:

·         Scale down the frequency gradually

·         Cook vegetable hamburgers and salty cakes with vegetarian side dishes.

·         Accompany vegetarian stew and hotpots with something substantial like potatoes and cereals (otherwise the bloodthirsty beast…).

·         Go into Indian and other ethnic food. India is the home of vegetarianism

·         Get curious (believe it or not this was no effort for me): I tried new veggie and cereals I didn’t know their existence.

·         Add one new ingredient at a time if you’re worried about causing allergies

·         Show him the bill: I took on the role of accountant (can you see the nagging wife gloating?) and proved him that we could afford local organic meat without spending more

·         Order first when you are out for dinner: I realized I put some unconscious pressure on him by ordering vegetarian courses before he opens his mouth. Can you imagine how much I can satisfy my untenable desire of changing him this way???

 

Knock knock. Uh, sorry the nagging wife is here for some advisory:

·         -meat = + legumes

·         Don’t put more cheese on his plate (it’s not very healthy and doesn’t help with global warming)

 

If you’re wondering about me having kids, yes I have a 6 years old wonderful girl. Did this process work for her too? Yes: not too many spices, I always cook something I know she already likes, I prepare small portions and involve her mentally and practically.

 

Ok I have to go now. I just noticed that my husband (holy man) didn’t repair the closet door yet! I have to write a note on a paper for him, text him,…

 

 

 

PS: if you find some odd things in my writing you’re probably right. Please forgive me I’m not a native English speaker but I’m hardly trying to improve my English!!!

[Simon]

Thank you for sharing your story. 

Quote

I couldn’t eliminate 100% meat out of the clear blue

This is 100% true. I'm a vegetarian and have been happily for 6+ years now and when I began I didn't stop eating meat altogether at once. That's not possible and will only make it harder for you - and your husband - to become vegetarians. Changing diet is a long process that never really ends. In the beginning you will have temporary setbacks where you go back to eating meat again. This is especially true if you immediately try to eliminate meat from your life. Because no matter how strong your willpower is, and lets be honest here, it's really easy to fall back into bad habits (eating meat) on a day when you're tired and doesn't feel like coming up with a "complicated" vegetarian dish. We are all lazy, and it's okay. 

A better way is to slowly cut meat from your diet. I first started with only buying organic and/or locally produced meat. Such products tend to be more expensive than non-organic meat so you basically end up buying and eating less meat. 

After that, I completely eliminated beef from my diet. Why? Because beef is the one meat that has the biggest negative effect on our environment and climate. So cutting down on beef will make a huge impact on your climate footprint. Slowly after that I also cut meat from pigs from my menu (after beef, meat from pigs have the biggest impact on our climate). At this time the only meat I ate was fish and chicken - all organic and/or locally produced, of course. This was a process that for each step took several months. Finally, I also stopped buying and eating meat from chicken and other birds. Fish was also eliminated from the menu shortly after.

Because I slowly started to change my diet I had started to grow accustomed to vegetarian dishes and I knew a bunch of tasty and easy-to-make recipes. This made the last steps, cutting chicken and fish from my diet, so much easier and faster than it took me to eliminate beef and pig from my menu. Now I don't have any urges for meat and I no longer think that meat taste or smell good.

Another good way to make sure you don't have any setbacks is to educate yourself and your family. You can easily do this by sharing news articles, documentaries and other stories on the hugely negative effect the meat industry has on our climate and environment. Another point to bring up here is how much the animals in the meat industry suffer. Eating meat is not a crime - but people who do should the very least have a bad conscience for doing it.  

Again, thanks for sharing your story - and good luck!