Meat Cheat (denial)

I'm roughly 2 weeks away from when my surgeon said my body will be physically healed from the spine surgery I had back in August. Until then, I've told myself that I could eat meat if I felt I needed to, physically. I have done so, when I thought necessary, but usually with chicken. This is the first time I've had red meat in quite some time. I had Estancia beef from 8 oz., a burger. I talk about this place in an earlier post. I was craving it, and I figured I must have needed the proteins found in that kind of meat.

Since going back to work, I've had less time to prepare and eat right, plus I'm just tired sometimes, and I want to be sure I'm doing all I can to heal properly. My spine is so important to my health and comfort for the rest of my life that I wanted to take no chances.

If I was rich, it would be awesome, and I could pay someone to feed me a plant-based diet that supplied me with everything I needed. The reality is, when left to my own devices, I don't always come through. Meat is my "cheat." It still apaulls me as much as it ever has the way the animals are treated, and I have no desire to eat animals long-term. I plan to be mostly vegan for the rest of my life.

Denial:
This brings up a similar feeling I once had about meat: denial. I wrote about it here. And now I'm doing it again. Only this time I'm not in denial about the origins of the meat I'm ingesting. I'm fully aware. Hyper-aware. Sickened. Still, I travel to a place in my mind, surprisingly easily, where I can forget these horrible things and eat meat when I know it's for my health.

The China Study, which lays out a convincing scientific argument for a plant based diet, details the proteins that our bodies need. It's just a fact that eating animals, needing what we need, supply us with the proteins we need much easier than can be done with plants. I think like any other "cheat" there is a trade-off. And I'm speaking purely physically here, not about the treatment of the animals. The trade-off as I see it is this: Eating meat supplies certain vitamins and proteins that we need, easier, to fill in the gaps we might miss otherwise. But, too much of it is harmful. It leads to high cholesterol, cancer, etc.

So, I think, in the long run, I'll be good to go. But, still, denial. I wonder why it's so simple for me to turn it on and off. I'll have to get back to you on that one.