My plant-based story began around 2005 when I made a chicken sandwich one evening in my Astoria, NY apartment. After I finished it, I knew I’d never have another one again. At that point I was on the tail end of a 2-3 year effort to phase out meats from my diet and chicken was the last to go.

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Rewind a few years prior when my father had a near heart attack episode that landed him in the hospital and resulted in a stint in his heart. I became acutely aware—as did my father— that heart health in my family was an issue and had been for a couple of generations. Call it genetic, call it dietary, or some combination of the two, it meant I was likely at risk if I didn’t start paying attention.

 

But even before my father’s issue, my doubts about meat consumption and animal agriculture were already deepening after years of quiet contemplation over what I was eating for most of my life and the true nature of how disconnected I was from my food. Growing up as a kid I never made the connection, as most of us didn’t, that beef came from cows, for instance. I knew it on a superficial level, but the process of turning a living, breathing animal into Sunday’s slow-cooked roast, was never something anyone spoke of, or much less cared to explain. For all I knew, they were in a grassy field one minute, on a plate the next. Seemed simple, right?

 

Fast forward to the early 2000s and my doubts had begun to take hold. Call it maturity, curiosity, whatever it was, I was motivated to explore what eating less meat would be like and I worried less and less about what many would express were the downsides and consequences to health that a diet absent of animal protein would bring. So I began to read more about the benefits of a a diet rich in whole foods. I decided I could start to switch the proportions of my meals to more veggies and fruits and less meat. As time progressed and more knowledge of the harmful effects of red meat were more publicized and available, I decided this was the moment I would start to phase it out. And just like that, I had my last taste of beef at a very good Lebanese restaurant one day for lunch near my office at the time.

 

For me, pork was basically the same thing as red meat. It involved a four-legged, warm-blooded mammal. It made no sense to leave one on the menu while taking the other off.

 

So, on it went, poultry, fish and seafood were the last to go. By this time, I had discovered the world of undercover factory farm videos online that animal rights organizations from a myriad of animal rights organizations. The horror and awfulness of living conditions and slaughter, the assembly line of death and terror by inaccurate measures to insure the animals “didn’t suffer” is not something you forget. However, I persisted with poultry and seafood. The reality seeped in though, albeit slowly. 30 plus years of eating habits is difficult to transform and to adjust one’s brain to accommodate this new knowledge takes time. I knew from the beginning quitting everything at once was not an option for me. Patience mattered. Moving toward the goal a little every day was the only way I could see this being successful. Being kind to myself and creating new habits that would last a lifetime moving forward was going to take time. Allowing mistakes, taking a step back was part of this process.

 

About a year after that last chicken sandwich in 2005, fish was off the menu, then all seafoods. It no longer made sense to include and exclude certain animals. They’re all alive and all fear for their lives in the end. It was really liberating to finally decide that was it. I’d turned a corner in my life I never really thought was possible.

 

By 2010 dairy and eggs, the last real frontier of the knowingly consuming animal products, were off the menu. I say “knowingly” because the challenge of shopping and eating out at restaurants and making sure animal products haven’t found their way into my food is an ongoing effort that will likely last for the foreseeable future. The proliferation of dairy, eggs, gelatins, and other by animal by-products in packaged and restaurant food can be, at times, daunting to think about. It’s a meat-eaters world. Though I believe we’re heading in the right direction, the process is slow and meets much resistance at every step. But patience is key. Phasing out what I started to feel was wrong and no longer served me, no matter how long it took, ultimately took me to where I am now.