Sushi Anyone? (The Time I Went Pescatarian)

Honestly I can't take credit for the title of this one, it was all Maddy.

Firstly, I do want to say that this piece is going to discuss my eating habits during this time period so if that is something that may trigger you, please proceed with caution. I think it is also important to say that what I am about to tell you all is simply my opinion and experience with going pescatarian. While I did do my own research and tried my hardest to make sure I was getting enough of everything I needed, I can guarantee you that my diet was not always perfect during this time period. With that being said, please take everything I say with a grain of salt and know I am definitely not an expert. If you are thinking of changing your diet after reading this piece, I encourage you to do the proper research beforehand and make sure you are doing it safely and healthily.

I think one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I ever did for myself was when I went pescatarian. For those who do not know, being a pescatarian is very similar to being a vegetarian. Basically, it means that I cut out all meat in my diet (pork, beef, poultry) but I still ate fish. I also still ate animal products such as milk and eggs. And while this dietary change was short-lived (a grand total of four months), it definitely was an eye-opener for me and introduced a lot of new foods into my diet I would have never tried otherwise.

Before I even attempted to go full pescatarian, I decided to cut out red meat completely from my diet starting in late January. I made this decision after I had eaten a cheeseburger from a local restaurant in Rhode Island and gotten sick off of it. Looking back on the incident, it wasn’t anything the restaurant did wrong, I just think I have a sensitive stomach when it comes to greasy foods like that. But as someone who has Emetophobia (the fear of throwing up), I found myself turned off of red meat ever since that experience. The change of cutting out red meat wasn’t really that difficult for me. As a college student, foods like steak was never really in my grocery budget, and any time I wanted ground beef with a meal, I would substitute it with ground chicken. The only time I ever had difficulty with this was when my roommates would choose to make group dinner recipes that include red meat. In these cases, I would make myself something separate for dinner. But even then it would never really be that big of an inconvenience for me.

After about two months of cutting red meat out of my diet, I decided to go full pescatarian. This decision came after watching a documentary in my advertising and consumerism class. I don’t remember the name of the documentary but what I do remember is watching someone snap the neck of a chicken with their bare hands. Now I wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to animals so watching that broke a little piece of my heart. That visual is actually engraved into my head to this day and still very much upsets me. After leaving class I felt sick to my stomach and of course, I had to cook with raw chicken that night for dinner. That night looking at the chicken, the only thing I could picture was that one scene. One of my roommates at the time suggested cutting meat out altogether and it piqued my interest. While the video of the chicken was a partial reason for me choosing to go pescatarian, I also was curious if I would actually be able to do it. I’m the type of person who gets a lot of ideas in her head and tries to commit herself but the attempt usually falls flat. So I decided to give myself a goal of being a pescatarian for one month and see if I could do it.

Now I know what you might be thinking. Why didn’t I just go full vegetarian? The simple answer to that is that I know I would not be able to do it. I was (and still kind of am) an extremely picky eater so I knew in order to make sure I was doing this in a healthy way, I would have to eat some form of meat. For the first month, I succeeded, but I survived off of potatoes, pasta, and the occasional salmon dinner. I knew that if I wanted to keep doing this I would have to get more protein in my diet and cut out the number of carbs I was eating. I decided to learn how to cook with tofu and honestly I made some pretty killer recipes if I do say so myself. I made a chick-fil-a batter and fried the tofu. I also made a teriyaki glaze for it, as well as just cooking it to put in different stir fry dishes. Not only does it taste good, but it also is super easy to cook. The only annoying thing with tofu is the prep. You have to press the water out of the block for a minimum of one hour which means if you forget about this step, you’re screwed. But other than that, cooking with tofu was relatively easy and enjoyable.

I also had to learn to not be a picky eater when it came to food. I started incorporating so many vegetables that I would have never eaten before giving up meat. I ate brussel sprouts, beans, asparagus, quinoa, and so many other foods. And these are foods that I still incorporate into my diet today that I love. I also chose to take iron and vitamin gummy supplements every day to make sure that my iron levels stayed normal. I got all of my recipes that I made from Pinterest and honestly, if it wasn't for that app, I would have probably quit week one.

However, eating at restaurants proved to be a little bit more challenging. At home, I was able to pick and choose which recipes I wanted to cook whereas when I went out to eat, I was more limited in my options. While I would try and get a fish dish to provide me with protein, they were far more expensive than chicken dishes and as a college student, a $24 salmon dish wasn’t always in the cards for me. For the most part, I would usually either get fish and chips or pasta. And while I do love those foods, after about two months, I started to get sick of them. This was also the point in time where I really started to miss eating chicken and pork.

And that brings me to my current situation. As I said during the beginning of this post, I was only a pescatarian for four months which obviously means that I am not anymore. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first and biggest reason is due to the fact that after I went back to Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, I did my own food shopping and planned my meals out which meant I was able to control what I ate. But once I got back home for the summer, my mom would be making chicken and beef dishes almost every night. And while I could have cooked for myself, my mother’s dinners are simply too delicious to pass up. I also ended up getting my wisdom teeth out the first week of June and after two weeks of being unable to chew and only eating pasta and mashed potatoes, all I wanted was chicken nuggets. So after four months of not eating meat, I decided to break my no-meat-streak with a chicken finger sub.

While I did ultimately give up being a pescatarian, I definitely don’t regret the decision. A lot of people have asked me if I saw any difference in my health and body when I made the switch and I can confidently say that those four months were probably the best my body has felt in my entire life. I was full of energy, my hair was shinier, my skin was the clearest it has ever been. The only way I can describe it is that the inside of my body felt so clean. Before I gave up meat, some of the meals I would eat would make me feel so sick and gross. But in those four months, I never felt like that once. And while I did end up making the switch, going pescatarian helped introduce me to new foods, taught me how to cook better, and made me realize which foods make me feel good.

I also want to touch on the fact that just because I quit, doesn’t mean I don't carry the views of why I cut meat out in the first place. I am a firm believer that even the smallest change does make a difference and while I do still eat meat, my consumption of the products has gone down drastically. I also still rarely eat red meat. The only kind I ever eat is ground beef in pasta or tacos when my friends are making it. For me, as long as I eat meat sparingly I am content and that is all that matters.

Like I said before if you read this post and want to also go pescatarian, please please please do your own research and make sure you are doing it the right way. I don’t know if I will ever go back to being a pescatarian but what I do know is that I learned a lot in those four months.

Hope you all have a lovely week!

- Meg