No meat month update

This is my last week in my no red meat month. Before that, I hardly went two days without eating beef. I put it down to the buffet kind of service at the office canteen. First of all, white meat like fish and chicken is more expensive than beef. Secondly it is easy to just go with the flow without even thinking about what you are doing.
So I decided to break the tight hold that red meat had on me by snubbing it for one month. Warrabout!

Week 1
I am so determined to stick to the deal. I have decided to build a buffer zone by telling as many people as I think will be around me during meal times. The logic is that they would remind me in case I made the mistake of ordering beef mindlessly.
This did not help me on the weekend when sitting next to my house help I ordered chips and sausage at Java’s restaurant at City Oil. Actually, I chose the meal because it was one of the cheapest on the menu and I was just waiting for the four wheeled Esperanza to be serviced. I only remembered my resolution well into the second sausage.
And then, two days later I had a lunch at Fang Fang restaurant as part of a group. Without thinking, I chewed on beef among the fancily prepared meats they served. Arrrgh (but the chilli beef was too good. I am glad I let down my guard for it).

Week two

I think I am already feeling different. I wonder whether I am not psychologically biased to expect good results. There is a certain lightness and I don’t feel tired in the afternoons (after lunch) like I used to.
Well, the other truth is that visits to Mr. John have been less stressful. So Cheri’s colourful description of what red meat does to the colon must be true.
On the two days the rest of the house was eating red meat, I ate my rice ‘dry’. Poor planning. I should have stocked some alternatives. I could see my house help thinking: “This is no way to live!”

Weak three
No mishaps this week. I was wise enough to buy a tin of tuna and somebody sent us two fat cabbages so I have been covered nicely. I commended myself for resisting the juicy looking liver stew like a Hindu.
I still feeling gooder than I have felt in years. For real. I am not sure if this feel-good-ness is due to the no-red-meat regime. I have been waking up earlier every day and with less of a verbal and physical tug of war to get me out of bed. This is great!

Weak four
I am having problems with chocolate cravings. I have eaten many bars of chocolate, lunch bars and TV bars in this week than I have in the last two months. I must be trying to convert my catholic resistance to beef into indulgence of anything not forbidden. This is not good.

Today
It is two days to go. I want to celebrate with a platter of the P1G, flanked by avocado, kachumbari and cassava (I am drooling at the mere thought) on Thursday.
Over all, this is something I will certainly hope to do again, if only to feel less enslaved by things that seem to have a grip on me. Plus, my mind has come to accept that lunch at the canteen can be complete without beef. I am going to be stricter on the amount of beef I eat from now on.