When I tell people that I don’t eat meat, the first reaction I get is along the lines of “Really? How do you do that? I could never give up meat”.  I never thought that I could stop eating meat either, until I read a book that vividly described what happens inside of a slaughterhouse and those graphic images decided to lodge themselves permanently in my head. After that, I could not bring myself to eat meat.

That is not to say that I quit eating meat cold turkey (pardon the expression). It was something I thought long and hard about because I realized what a huge lifestyle change this was going to be. I know there are many others who are interested in becoming a vegetarian or even a part-time vegetarian (for the record, I despise this expression. It’s like saying someone is a little bit pregnant. It’s not possible) but they think it’s too hard or too much work. Completely not true!

There are steps you can take before you decide to stop eating meat that will help make the decision and the transition easier for you. Here are the ones that worked for me:

1. Eliminate one meat at a time. When I ate meat, I really only ate chicken and beef. I found most other meats disgusting for a variety of reasons, and by the time I stopped altogether, it was just down to these two. Giving these up was easy for me. But for others, maybe not so much. So I suggest that you pick one meat a week, a month, whatever, and start removing it from your diet. When you don’t miss that one anymore, pick another one and start all over again.
2. Take it one day at a time. Or even one meal at a time. When meat is an integral part of your diet, it’s hard to remove it entirely. So start with removing it for one day (like the trendy Meatless Mondays). Then try the next day. And the next. If thinking about one entire day is too hard, just try to remove meat from one meal a day and work from there. It’s not a race and no one expects you to make this kind of commitment all at once if you don’t want to.
3. Discuss your plans with the people you share meals with. You need to make sure that the person or people you share meals with are aware of, and support, your new choice. It becomes quite difficult if you don’t share. When I decided I didn’t want to eat meat anymore, I felt I needed to discuss it with my husband. This was a huge change for us and he is a meat eater. He will always be a meat eater. I needed to assure him that my beliefs would have no impact on his beliefs, and that even though I was opting out of meat consumption, I would not force him to do the same.  We figured out an arrangement for meals that worked for both of us.
4. Figure out what works for you. There are so many mealtime options for vegetarians that if there’s something you don’t like, or something you do like a whole lot, you can incorporate that. For instance, I hate tofu. I hate everything about tofu, particularly the texture. If I were being force fed tofu on a daily basis, there’s no way I’d still be a vegetarian.  So I don’t eat it. I figured out how to make tofu-free meals because that’s what worked for me.

Not eating meat has far reaching benefits: environmental, health, financial.  I concede that it’s not for everyone and I certainly am not trying to force anyone to stop eating meat. While I choose not to eat meat, I respect the decision of those who continue to do so. It is a very personal choice and I would be out of line to suggest otherwise. But should you want to entertain the thought of even being a part-time vegetarian, these steps will make the transition easier.

Guest Post Author Bio:  This article is from Jana over at Everything Finance. Everything Finance is a site about just that, everything related to finance. You can get information about investing, saving money, shopping, blogging, and making money online. If you like what you see here, make sure to stop by or better yet subscribe to their feed so you don’t miss a thing.