If you've not come across No Meat May before, it's exactly what it sounds like. Thirty-one days of plant-based eating, with proper meal plans and support to help you actually pull it off.
I'm a fan. Not because I think everyone needs to be vegan forever, but because a month-long experiment with how you eat is one of the most useful things you can do for your health, your wallet, and yes, the planet.
When my health fell apart in 2012, food became one of the few levers I could actually pull. Not in a perfectionist way. In a "what's making me feel worse and what's making me feel slightly less terrible" way.
Plant-based eating wasn't the whole answer for me, but it was a big piece of it. Less inflammation. Better digestion. More energy on the days I had any to begin with. The further I leaned into whole plant foods, the better my body responded.
That's been the pattern with every client I've worked with too. You don't have to go fully plant-based to feel the shift. But cutting meat for a month, even just to see what happens, tells you things about your body that you can't learn any other way.
What You'll Probably Notice in a Month
Bloating goes down. Energy levels stabilise. Sleep often improves. Skin tends to clear up. Bowels start working the way they're supposed to, which after years of working with women, I can tell you is not a given.
And if you're someone who's never really questioned the daily meat habit, you might be surprised at how easy a month of plants actually is. It's not the deprivation people imagine. It's just a different way of eating.
"But What About Protein?"
I knew you'd ask.
This is the question that comes up every single time someone considers cutting meat. The answer is: it's a lot easier than the meat industry has trained us to believe.
Lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu, tempeh, edamame, quinoa, nuts, seeds, hemp, spirulina. These foods are full of protein. A cup of cooked lentils has around 18 grams. Tofu and tempeh punch well above their weight. A handful of pumpkin seeds will get you another 7 grams.
If you're hitting the gym hard, feeding teenagers with bottomless stomachs, or just want to stay fuller for longer, plant-based eating can absolutely meet you there. The No Meat May team has actually just released a high protein meal plan for exactly this reason. It's free when you sign up.
Think protein-packed chia pudding, fluffy tofu pancakes, smoky tempeh bowls, tofu sandwiches, supergreen protein pasta. The kind of food you'd actually want to eat, not just choke down because it's "good for you".
You don't need the high protein plan to do this well, though. All six of their standard weekly meal plans are nutritionally solid. The protein-packed one is just there for people who want to push that lever harder.
What You Actually Get When You Sign Up
It's free. Worth repeating, because plenty of "challenges" these days have a price tag attached.
You sign up at nomeatmay.org and they send you everything you need. Recipes. Meal plans. Shopping lists. Tips for eating out. Support emails through the month. None of it's preachy. None of it assumes you're going to be vegan forever. It's set up for the curious, the experimenters, the people who want to try something different without committing to a lifelong identity.
You also save an animal a day on average, cut your grocery bill (plant foods are cheaper than meat, full stop), and reduce your environmental footprint without having to think about it.
How to Actually Do This Without Losing the Plot
Don't try to recreate every meal you'd usually have but with a fake meat substitute. That's the fastest way to feel deprived and quit by day four.
Lean into meals that are naturally plant-based. Curries with chickpeas or lentils. Big grain bowls with roasted veg, beans, tahini and herbs. Pasta with a proper tomato and white bean sauce. Tofu scramble for breakfast if you're feeling fancy. Avo on sourdough with hemp seeds and chilli flakes if you're not.
The recipes from No Meat May will give you ideas if you're stuck. Save them. Use them after May too.
If You Do Nothing Else
Try a fortnight. Even a week. Even a single No Meat Monday. The point isn't to become something you're not. It's to give your body a chance to show you what it can do when you change the inputs.
That's the whole basis of how I work with clients. Small experiments, run with curiosity, that build into bigger changes once you've got actual evidence from your own body. No Meat May is one of the easiest, lowest-stakes versions of that you can do.
Sign up at nomeatmay.org and give it a go. You've got nothing to lose except a few kilos of bloat and maybe some assumptions about how you've been eating.
