Recently my stomach started to bother me again and 

I wasn't 100% sure as to what was going on.

As a way to help cleanse my body, I decided to go one week without eating any meat, 

except I allowed myself homemade beef bone broth.

Reasoning behind the bone broth was it helps heal the gut. 

I felt by including it during this time would help my body, plus I would be receiving
a ton of nutrients and wouldn't be completely without animal protein.

My beliefs with meat:

I do not believe everyone needs to eat meat.

Some people are able to flourish without it.

There are a ton of ways to still consume protein without animal meat.

For the week, I over prepared. 

I thought since I wasn't eating meat I wouldn't get as full 

and would eat more meals throughout the day.

I was wrong.

My meatless week began on Saturday and it was going great. 

My body was also only craving vegetables for the most part, which made things easier.

I decided I wanted to help my body cleanse even more.

Saturday-Monday night I took 2x pills of activated charcoal before bed.

I felt fine.

Tuesday it all hit me.

1. I found out something BIG was happening for me at work. Really impacted my nerves.

2. I had been taking activated charcoal for the past couple of days.
3. I was only eating vegetables.

By Tuesday night the cleanse kicked in full blast.

I didn't want to eat anything because of the bubble guts. I just felt blah.

My nerves were crazy, which never helps my stomach at all.

All I have to say is thank goodness for immodium.

Sometimes you have to just take something. 

And I am so glad I did.

I was able to sleep and successfully complete two interviews on Wednesday.

It is so crazy how my nerves have such an impact on my stomach.

A part of me wonders if my body was actually just cleansing or if my nerves triggered it all.

I will never know.

By Wednesday afternoon/evening my appetite was back.

I prepared for the week of no meat by making the following dishes:

roasted sweet potato

1 lb of black beans (froze most of them)

sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini

home made roasted red pepper hummus

brown jasmine rice

overnight oats

acai bowls

lentil soup with turnips, rutabaga, + carrots

butternut squash soup (I ended up not eating most of this because it didn't taste right)

beef bone broth

I made hummus wraps with brown rice wraps and the sautéed vegetables.

I also enjoyed the sautéed vegetables over rice.

The goal was to cook in a way that I could eat the same foods in a variety of ways.

Some mornings I would have gluten free bagels or rice cakes

with cashew butter and grape jelly.

I like to have a variety.

Going a week vegan + bone broth definitely gave my digestion system a break.

Most of the time my stomach felt great after a meal.

I had a good amount of energy and I actually felt really full.

Almost too full at times.

It was fun to get creative and ditch the meat for a week,

but I think I want to eat some type of animal protein at least once a day.
By the end of the week I was craving a hamburger.

As someone who has soy and gluten sensitivities, 

being fully vegan or vegetarian is much more challenging.

I am still trying to figure out what is my perfect macro ratio.

Some people are better with high fats and others with high carbs.

I on the other hand seem to do well with higher protein and carbs with some fats.

I feel like my skin starts to break out when I have a week of high fats, especially coconut milk.

The best thing about experimenting is learning what does and doesn't work.

Of course the body is constantly changing.

I feel like I just need to keep trying new things and pay attention to how my body responds.

Back to the drawing board!