If you are working on heart-healthy nutrition, that may include cutting back on red meat (or all meat) in your diet. One tip for an easy way to start slow is to implement "meatless Mondays." Most people eat a little less healthy on the weekends, so Mondays are the perfect day of the week to balance that out with lots of veggies.

If you are used to a traditional American diet, you may plan your meals around the meat, so reducing meat means totally changing the way you cook and what kinds of meals you prepare. That's a big deal! One initial instinct is to prepare the same meal as usual but without the meat. While this can certainly be effective, it rarely is easy to sustain because, well, you don't really feel satisfied after eating only "side dishes" for dinner. The second instinct is often to replace meat with the plant-based protein equivalent and keep the same meal, yet many find that either the taste isn't to their liking or the sodium or other ingredients are not allowed on their new diet.

Enter Meatless Mondays--one day each week to focus on finding a new way to cook that centers around ingredients such as the fresh produce from the farmer's market or a really great sauce made with herbs. This doesn't mean you only cut back/cut out meat one day per week. It just means you give intentional focus to using Monday to focus on creating flavor and joy and filling meals as you slowly learn a new way to cook, a new way to eat, and a new way to live. Feeling comfortable with a new approach to cooking takes time, but committing to doing it every Monday helps you ease in gently.

Before you know it, you will find your preferences and create some meals you want to eat other days of the week, too! Until then, cut back everywhere you can and continue to take emergency stop-gap measures as needed, of course, but use Meatless Mondays as your time to start a new journey toward healthy AND delicious!

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