Week 34: the week where I became a flexitarian.

Weight Loss Milestones - My Strongest Self

Summary of the key moments in my weight loss journey, including before and after pictures, and weight loss statistics.

My Strongest Self

Weight Loss Journal - My Strongest Self

A set of weekly posts, diarising my journey towards losing 20 kilos of weight, through transforming my eating and exercising habits.

My Strongest Self

The future we choose

I have just finished reading “The Future We Choose” by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. It is a book on climate change, which is both terrifying and inspiring in equal measures.

Two starkly contrasting futures are presented within the book.

The future we will meet if we continue on our current path of doing far too little, far too slowly, and far too late. And the future we could have if we take serious climate change action now.

The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis a book by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

Up until now I've always eaten a lot of meat.

But after reading this book, and with the impacts of climate change already so clearly upon us; with almost daily unfolding news stories of floods, fires, droughts, melting ice sheets, dead coral reefs; with more and more animals and plants facing extinction; and knowing that large scale meat production is one of the primary drivers behind climate change; I feel that I can no longer, in good conscience, keep eating a meat heavy diet.

So this week I decided to become a flexitarian.

In case you've never heard of a flexitarian - I hadn't until now - a flexitarian is just a 'flexible vegetarian' - so I will eat a lot less meat - but still eat meat sometimes!

Vegetarian and Vegan Mindful Chef Meals

Luckily Mindful Chef is ahead of me when it comes to ethical and sustainable food choices. Their recipes always include a good selection of vegetarian and vegan options, making my switch to a less meat-based diet straightforward - it's just a case of selecting different choices from their weekly menu.

So from this week onwards, I will be eating mostly vegetarian food from Mindful Chef, with just the occasional fish or meat meal. If all goes well, perhaps I'll transition to a fully vegetarian diet - and perhaps even a vegan diet eventually.

A Mindful Chef review: the best recipe box for weight loss and healthy eating.

I would love to have a personal chef. Sadly, I don’t have a personal chef, nor am I ever likely to have a personal chef. So I’ve gone for the next best thing - a Mindful Chef weekly recipe box.

A printable downloads library for self love, self care and personal growth.Lisa

Can individual actions make a difference?

I know that I am just one small individual person, and that my actions alone will make no difference to climate change. Yet I believe we all have a responsibility to live by our own beliefs and values, regardless of whether we think it will make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

In theory at least, if a substantial amount of consumers were to make the conscious choice to eat less meat, then demand would go down, and businesses would have no option but to change their practices to match the new demands.

So perhaps collectively we do have some power. Perhaps collectively a difference can be made.

How does eating less meat help the planet? - The Big Issue

All signs point to global populations eating less meat if global warming is to be stopped before it’s too late. This is what you need to know

The Big IssueHannah Westwater

Getting back to work with my weight loss journey

This week also marks my return to exercising and healthy eating after last week's lazy, indulgent - yet much needed and appreciated holiday in Cornwall.

It's now only six weeks until I'll be taking some more progress photos (see the three month progress update here, and the six month progress update here), so with that in mind, I have three personal training sessions per week throughout September, instead of the usual two.

A positive intentions plant update

Finally, the positive intention setting plants I planted in week 21 now have little sunflowers on them. They are only very little sunflowers - I think because I planted so many seeds in such small pots - but I'm still proud of their progress.

Weekly food diary

This week I have been eating...

Up next: my weight loss journey week 35

Week 35: where I had a run in with a lamp post.

The car doesn’t seem to be going backwards, despite my foot being down on the accelerator.

A printable downloads library for self love, self care and personal growth.Lisa