hi,
I also have to have meat. I was reminded of that the other day when I took a bite of steak. I felt immediate energy. I had been doign the egg, yogurt, protein powder, nuts, rice.. .thing and meat is important fo rme.

I love coffee.. but it is likely not that great for me.

thank you for being so honest and talking.

I dunno, you may have to eat meat, but I totally resonate with your not wanting to. Here are some thoughts. . .

In chinese medicine, which I study, meat is considered a blood tonic. . . other foods, however, can impair the quality of the blood. excesive sugar, excessive pasteurized dairy, wheat and refined grains. . . since you have a nut allergy, you're probably sensitive to food in general, so things like soy, wheat, eggs, dairy (other common allergens) may be a problem, even if not as obvious as nuts. SO, if you're compromising your system with foods such as these, the heavy blood-tonifying properties of meat might be serving you.

another question: how much meat do you eat, when you are eating it? one approach, if you feel at this time that meat is beneficial, is to use it only in medicinal doses - i.e. 3 ounces per day max, or maybe just a few times a week. then in the meantime you can experiment with refining your diet further, with the goal of greater balance, and perhaps eventually letting the meat go as well.

Godspeed and great discernment
Zeke

~ Aloha ~

It is said that certain vegetables can be combined to provide the necessary building blocks for a "complete" protein.

Potential allergens/sensitivities may be troubling you. Some people free up more energy when gluten is eliminated from their diet.

Perhaps practicing more back bends will open energy up.

There is Truth in Silence,

```.
`3~

the whole thing about yoga is that You tell your body what to do, not the other way around.
It's all about overcoming your animal self.
Sure you're going to have withdrawal symptoms. Your body has it sweet --- you giving it all it asks for and more. Now take charge; take control and do what you Know is good for you.
It's up to you.
---and you're the one who benefits from doing it truly right.

I hear you. After ten years, I am a vegetarian (ovo-lacto.) However, I do not say that I will never eat meat again. Be kind to yourself. I drink one cup of espresso in morning, and "fuel" up on eggs because my work for money demands this type of energy. I stay away from soy because I hear it depletes our intake of protein. Wheat grass juice might help you. Grow your own, get a juicer. Wheatgrass is as close to hemoglobin as you can get in a very direct way. Wheatgrass is what the cows chaw on, but we are not cows so a slow juicer helps.

Drink lots of water.

Human body needs meat, there is absolutely zero doubt .

i try to avoid fatty meat/pork but i definetly eat chicken several times a week.
like you, i get sickly and weak if I dont .

it also helps repair the damage that over stretching can do .

coffee is a double edged sword or whatever they say .
i cannot have more than 1 cup per day or its like i'm tripping acid all over again .
i love a good soy mocha but ... concerned bout phytoestrogens and all the sugar in the mocha base .

To wean oneself off meat, there are meat-like tofu-derived non-meats, like Boca or Tofurky.
Tofu is soybean based. Soybeans are imbalancing and debilitating to one's estrogen levels. Even more disempowering for women. Avoid soy-based foods.
To wean oneself off soy foods, try myco-proteins -- mushroom based non-meats, like Quorn or "Vegetarian Beef Chunks" from Taiwan made of mushroom stem, both of which have a meaty "mouth" with texture and taste like meat. Gluten & wheat based non-meat non-meatballs also can help one maintain, like in a sphagetti sauce.
Then to wean off these non-meats go to raw/live foods.

A pure vegan sattvic diet may provide one with all necessary nutrients. But difficult to maintain without the cultural suppports.

If you're bound and determined to do the meat thing and have got yourself all convinced of it's merits, then take your meat in as pure and effective form as possible to get the most of it.>>
- raw venison steak, ground and spread thickly on a slab of yeast bread.
- fresh pork liver, diced and salted.
- coldwater deepsea oil fish such as tuna, salmon, swordfish, seabass... in sashimi cuts.

Meat contains stearates, which is a sort of naturally occuring steroid. This gives one a rush, however slight and hard to perceive on eating it. And it's that part of it that makes meat hard to kick. Meat IS a drug, and you'll want to approach it as such when refining your diet, instead of congratulating yourself on how you've overcome the newage yoga programming by going back to shoveling lard down your face for the great buzz.
They say that quitting cigarettes is harder than stopping heroin. I quit nicotine in 1993. Even harder than that has been putting away red animal flesh out of diet. But I did it and there's no turning back.
So
let's move on.

metta

knowing what we know about the care and feeding of most poultry, and even then the high colesterol count of even organic free-ranging fowl, plus the reports from PETA, make domesticated birds a no-go zone for many.

Howdy,

This line caught my eye.

"But I know that caffeine is a) not good for the body in general, b) not good for mindfulness."

I'm not sure where these ideas come from.

Caffeine has been repeatedly shown in studies to increase concentration, alertness and focus. All of which would support the ability to maintain mindfulness. Various types of tea are frequently used in Buddhist traditions for the precise purpose of improving mindfulness.

As long as one doesn't indulge to the point of jitteryness (or to the point that one gets a "caffeine crash") caffeine should actually favor the development on mindfulness to at least a limited extent.

While there are some negative aspects to coffee consumption, medical science in the past decade (and to a lesser extent before) has been uncovering a number of important health benefits for coffee. Coffee contains antioxidants that likely have health benefits including cancer prevention and improved heart health. Coffee can reduce the risk of Parkinson's by 80%. Coffee can produce an 80% drop in the risk of liver cirrhosis. Coffee can reduce the risk of diabetes by more than 50% in men and 30% in women. Coffee can reduce the risk of gallstones by nearly 50%. Coffee reduces risk of colon cancer. Coffee can help with asthma. Coffee can stop a headache. Coffee can boost mood. Coffee can prevent cavities. Coffee is even a "performance enhancing drug" that positively impacts physical and cognitive performance on a whole range of tasks. Coffee can even mitigate the damage caused by drinking alcohol and smoking

Just thought I'd add another perspective.
Ryan

I eat meat. Rarely, though I do, mostly in the form of free range Organic eggs and the occasional free-range Chicken. I appreciate the food I put in my body. I realize what it is I'm taking away from it to ingest it and I'm thankful to the animal because it truly is giving up it's life so I can live mine. Like many of us do, in emotional, mental and physical ways for the people and things that we love.

Although the main difference between the two points is that the animal is never given the choice to give up it's life. Even the free range , humanely brought up animals that we take far better care of. Then again, I wonder to myself, if we weren't bringing the animal up to ingest it, it most likely wouldn't be there in the first place, so.....

Also if you step on an ant, are you devastated by it's death? If you hit a wasp or bee away from you and it dies is it as great an injustice as killing an animal to eat it? To me, life is life and being ok with an animal humanely dying so I can eat it is the same as walking around without paying absolute and total attention to where I'm stepping 24/7. One's intentional and one is not however I say again, life is life and I AM capable of paying constant attention to where I walk just like we all are but we make the choice not to and I'm sure we're all aware that we kill things when we walk. Even though I intentionally eat meat and some of you may think that stepping on the ant is ok because it's unintentional. At least I realize what it is I'm doing and not choosing ignorance. I don't think an ant's life is more valuable than a chicken's, ASIDE from the fact that a chicken's can feed more of my family than an ant's could. And I realize that I choose to walk on life without paying constant attention to where I'm stepping. (what a metaphor right?! But I mean this literally) And why is an animals life so much more important than a plants... The list goes on, see where I'm going with this?

I'm similar to you in that I start to whither away, can't keep weight on and don't feel right when I eat vegetarian. I would like to stay away from being responsible for the death of anything else as much as I can, BUT I am alright with eating small amounts of meat that I do appreciate. I am one that thinks it's kind of different than shoveling bacon & eggs down my throat every Sunday morning without a thought in my mind that what I am eating was once alive. I don't choose ignorance, I consciously understand what it is I'm doing, I'm for the most part, alright with it as long as the animal lived in something other than it's own filth, had room to live and was generally taken care of well. I'm definitely NOT ok with eating animals that are mass produced. I will pay twice the price to know something I and my family are eating was taken good and decent care of.

Maybe all of this doesn't make me a Yogi, or only an unenlightened Yogi : ) Either way, I don't really care much. I do the best I can at this point. Like most of us are.

Rittamatra:

I'd not worry so much about what you've heard what's right and not for you. I went vegetarian for a number of years and then starting eating some meat again - didn't notice a damn bit of difference.

Go for your cup of java in the morning or whenever and don't worry about it. Everything in moderation.

Go with the diet that works for you and put that chapter behind you.