If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be living a meat-free lifestyle, I probably would have looked at you sideways, whilst simultaneously shoving a large prawn or a BBQ chicken wing in my mouth.

Not having meat or seafood with any meals just seemed unfathomable. Where would I get my protein and even if I could get needed protein to nourish my body from elsewhere, why would I give up tasty dishes like seafood paella, jollof rice with beef stew, Juniper-brined pork or lamb chops, or even just a good old fashioned cheeseburger with bacon and a fried egg on top? Nope, never going to happen or so I thought. Yet, here I am, writing this as someone who has been meat-free for over five years and isn’t returning to a carnivorous diet anytime soon. How did I get here and what made me change my mind?

My first attempt at vegetarianism lasted no more than half a day. Yes, you read that correctly, just half a day! It was early September of my 2nd year in college and I decided to give it a try. Having eaten meat all my life, I thought, why not try something new? Plus, my New England collegiate environment began to broaden my knowledge of vegetarian and vegan diets and what they included, such as tofu, seitan, and dairy free products, as well as the cruel farming practices some animals are subjected to.

I can’t recall what I had for breakfast that day, but I do know that by midday, I was craving some type of meat and I gave in. I’m pretty sure it was some crispy chicken tenders, with a side of honey mustard sauce that did me in! I gave it a second try later that month, going cold turkey and I was able to stay committed right up until Thanksgiving break. I thought I would be able to make it through the week back home, a meat-heavy environment (hello first generation African family) and almost instinctively I found myself eating meat. I didn’t even think twice about what I was feeding my body one afternoon until my sister stated, “Hey! You just ate meat. I looked down at my fingers and stared at the culprit, a piece of oxtail my mother had cooked and it was chewed down to the bone. I remember just laughing while shaking my head that my three months as a vegetarian had come to an abrupt and unceremonious end. I did the next best thing and went over to my best friend's house later that evening and had even more oxtail! Her family is from the West Indies and the way they make oxtail! It’s almost a crime not to eat it.

Suffice to say, I completed University as a meat eater, not giving much more thought to a vegetarian diet, even though I was now more mindful of how much meat I consumed and figured I would try again at a later time. Fast forward a couple years; after having lived in Brazil where red meat and chicken are dietary staples (I lost count of how many Churrascos I dined at),

and also living in Thailand (this is actually where I began I give up pork because I couldn’t find cuts of bacon that I liked, so I gave it up altogether) where I ate some of the most delicious Indian meat-based dishes outside of India along with readily available fresh seafood, I would find myself finally back in Ghana, not having been back in almost 17 years, visiting my mum. Outside of breakfast, every meal consisted of meat or seafood –goat, chicken and beef (some of the best beef stews can be found in Ghana) and of course, fried snapper or tilapia, both staples of the Ghanaian diet.

At some point during my six-week visit home, I began to feel heavy from all the meat I was consuming. Not so much in the physical sense as weight wise I remained about the same and exercised regularly, but more of a feeling of being inundated by the consumption. It sounds odd, I know; especially since I’d been eating eat all my life and I even used to kill chickens and defeater them as a kid living in Ghana. There’s not a moment that I can recall being turned off by meat before this point, but something just came over me and I couldn’t shake it.

Don’t get me wrong; the meat was perfectly fine, and fresher than most of the meat I would eat stateside as they would have been killed either that day or just a few days before. Perhaps I felt an uneasiness because my options for non-meat proteins were limited and I could only eat what was readily available- it’s not as if I could have gone to the market and bought tofu, tempeh and other meat alternatives.

This new inner conflict of eating meat made me reflect on my second year in university when I first decided to refrain from meat, and even though I was only able to manage a day at first and then three months, I thought why not give vegetarianism another try. It had been a couple of years and I somehow knew that I would have the resolve to commit to a new dietary lifestyle for more than just a few months. So I essentially made a pact to myself to see how long I could go without meat and on 29 November 2013, the day after I got back from Ghana, which also happened to be the day after Thanksgiving (I pretty much had a field day with meat dishes, as if they were to be my last meal) I simply stopped eating meat. However, I didn’t give up seafood, as my love of prawns and salmon kept me on a pescatarian diet for two years until 8 January 2016.

What started out as a self-imposed challenge, to simply “test the waters” again and see how far I could go, has now transcended into more than just an alternative dietary lifestyle, but also a more environmentally conscious mindset. I’ve found myself paying more attention to causes for animal rights and have even gone so far as to question the ethics of eating meat, but that’s a matter for another time.

It’s been five years since I’ve eaten meat and sometimes I can’t believe it’s been that long, especially when I failed so miserably on my first try and it’s been three years without seafood. Do I have the occasional cravings for some shrimp, duck, a slice of pepperoni pizza and other meats? From time to time, yes, but I’ve learned how to live with those cravings and with the proliferation of faux meat and seafood products it’s not as hard as one might think.

So, that’s my journey on becoming a vegetarian. It didn’t begin with an ethical inner crisis on meat consumption, or even the treatment of animals-all of that was secondary. It was a shift in mindset, based on a feeling that I was eating too much meat and that perhaps I should just try and give it up for a while.

After all, we are mostly creatures of habit and if all you’ve known is a meat lifestyle, how will know if you can adapt to a plant-based lifestyle if you don’t, give it an earnest try? It all begins with a choice, so why not challenge yourself?