Flexitarian 101: How to Get Started Eating a Flexitarian Diet

Now that you understand a little more about being a flexitarian, here are some tips on getting started with a Flexitarian Diet.

Create Awareness. The first step in the transition into Flexitarian diet is becoming aware of how much meat and animal products are you consuming. Consider keeping a food journal to be able to see how much you are consuming animals products such as meat, chicken, seafood, deli meats, eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese, coffee cream, etc.

Begin to Reduce. After you are aware of how much animal products you are eating, it’s time to start cutting back. Begin by serving yourself smaller portions of meat, reducing or eliminating cream-based salad dressings, cheese, half and half and butter.

Embrace the Replacements. Now that you’ve reduced your animal foods,  get creative with the replacements:

• Swap out meat for beans, lentils, chickpeas or other meat alternatives.
• Bulk up meals with brown rice or quinoa and add veggies such as zucchini,  carrots, or kale.
• Use plant-based creamers such as hemp, pea or almond creamer in your coffee.
• Replace ground meat with diced mushrooms, or reduce the amount of ground meat and add beans, legumes or  mushrooms.
• When baking, replace eggs with mashed bananas or applesauce.
• Swap out heavy cream with canned coconut milk.
• Replace traditional mayo with mashed avocado or guacamole.
• Enjoy fresh fruit as dessert. Bake up a fresh fruit cobbler or change traditional ice cream with frozen fruit popsicles.

The great thing about following a flexitarian diet is you simply eat more plants and few animal products, so you can start anytime  anywhere!

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