After a lovely vacation to Aruba, I decided to challenge myself to a pescatarian diet. While I was on vacation, I was eating mostly seafood and noticed how energetic and good I felt after eating. I started my pescatarian journey on July 11th. I remained pescatarian for 40 days leading up to my birthday, August 21st! In this post, I’ll share the pro’s and con’s, my grocery list, and why I decided to rotate meat back in my diet.
My Overall Pescatarian Experience
The first two weeks of this diet change, I was starving all the time. I was hangry and snacked a lot more often. My stomach felt empty no matter how much I ate. It was frustrating. When I finally did feel full, the feeling would go away quick, like after you eat Chinese food. Those were the toughest weeks of the entire diet. Towards the later weeks, I became accustomed to the diet. Since I didn’t want to eat too many carbs, I ate more veggies, beans, etc.
Being around people eating meat was tough because smelling it reminded me of how great it used to taste. I was so glad I could at least eat fish and shrimp. I don’t think I’ll ever go full vegetarian but I can understand why someone would. A couple days before my 40th day on the diet approached, I grew tired of eating the same kind of food and was excited to be done soon.
Overall, I felt lighter and leaner as a pescatarian. I lost about 4 pounds and my muscle definition has improved greatly. I appeared leaner even though I barely lost weight. During the summer I tend to want sweets more often, during this time and I ate more sweets than I usually do. I did seem to have a heightened dairy intolerance which was annoying. Because of this I started eating coconut milk based yogurt instead of regular yogurt. However, I didn’t completely cut out cheese because that’s just not happening EVER. I love cheese.
Pro’s Of Pescatarian Diet
1. Eating a diet consisting mainly of plant-based foods has a plethora of health benefits, which the addition of fish and fish products significantly enhance.
2. You’ll save money on not buying meat.
3. You’ll spend less time cooking meals because seafood and vegetables cook much faster than meat.
4. People who eat fish regularly have lower blood pressure, a lower risk of art attack, and diabetes.
5. It’s not a secret that a lot of meat is raised on farms where the animals are not properly taken care of and are injected with hormones and other chemicals. Removing those animals from your diet removes the risk of the harmful chemicals entering your body. Scientists argue that fish cannot feel pain. Therefore, people concerned about animal welfare, don’t have to worry about this with a pescatarian diet.
6. You’ll most likely feel less bloated, lighter and more energized like I did.
7. Many people on this diet experience clearer skin.
8. You’ll look leaner. As mentioned above, my body retained muscle much better and I appeared more tone.
Con’s Of Pescatarian Diet
1. Fish can be expensive.
2. You can’t eat seafood at just any old restaurant and often when you opt for seafood you’ll notice that the portion is smaller.
3. Some fish have high levels of mercury. When buying fish, make sure to seek fish that are generally low in mercury like salmon, catfish, tuna, shrimp etc. Also, make sure they are wild-caught fish.
4. It’ll take time for your body to adjust and you may feel hungry a lot during that time.
5. You may get bored with your meals.
Grocery List
- I created a helpful grocery list to make shopping seamless. You can find it here.
Tips
1.Use Pinterest for recipes. I created a Pinterest Board with a bunch of recipes. You can find it here.
2. Aim to eat seafood once a day and eat vegetarian for the rest of your meals.
3. Snack on fruits & nuts, they’re filling.
4. Drink a lot of water & consider taking a multivitamin (I love HUM nutrition, when you sign up, they provide you with a personalized nutritionist, you can use code “1CB7FB” for $10 off)
5. Remember that diet’s are all mental. Stay committed to your goal by working on your discipline & committing wholeheartedly to your decision,
6. Mix up your meals and don’t be afraid to be adventurous. This diet has expanded my cooking skills.
The Verdict
After eating meat for the past couple days, I’ve noticed that I’ve become full faster, and I’ve been feeling more sluggish and bloated than before. As much as I thought I wanted to eat meat, now I don’t even love the taste of it anymore. Due to these reasons, I’ve decided to remain pescatarian for the most part. Meaning pescatarian will be my main diet. However, I will eat meat if I feel like indulging. I’m not big on depriving myself of things completely. If I’m out or it’s a special occasion or I just feel like indulging in meat, I will but it won’t be a daily occurrence.
If you have any questions about the pescatarian diet, feel free to reach out to me!
