Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet for 75 days – Why and how did we try this?

We followed a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet for 75 days.

Yes, you read that right.

We lived through 75 straight days without eating a morsel of fish, poultry or meat. If you know us personally, you know how uncharacteristic this is of us. If you know us personally AND you are a vegetarian, chances are good that we have had several veg vs. non-veg (healthy) debates in the past. Moreover, if you are one of our Bengali friends, are you starting to think something is seriously wrong with us? 😛

Most Bengali parents think their children are underfed if they do not have at least one non-veg item on their lunch plates. Raised in Bengali households, both Indranil and I have been hardcore non-vegetarians all our life. We love our chingri and ilish. We love to feast on Mangshor Jhol aar Bhaat (mutton curry and rice) on lazy Sunday afternoons.

So, let us begin by addressing the elephant in the room.

Are Pubali and Indranil turning vegetarians?

No.

You serve me a plate of Mutton Biryani. I will keep licking my fingers well after scraping off the last bit of food from the plate.

So, no, we are not turning vegetarians, at least not any time soon. The honest reason is it is too painful for us to completely let go of some of our favorite dishes.

What is lacto-ovo vegetarian diet?

Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet is the kind of vegetarian diet that allows you to consume certain animal products like milk (lacto) and eggs (ovo), but not any fish or animals or birds. It is different from vegan where you cannot consume any kind of animal products.

Is it easy being a vegetarian or vegan in Costa Rica?

Red meat, lean meat, fish – all are important components of typical Costa Rican meals. If you are traveling in Costa Rica, you may not find a wide range of vegetarian/vegan options on the restaurant menus. It is certainly not impossible to stick to a vegetarian diet while traveling in Costa Rica. Just that your options may be limited. But you can definitely look for accommodations with kitchen setups where you can cook your own meals.

However, if you live in Costa Rica or can cook your own meals while traveling here, being a vegetarian is a whole different game. The tropical climate of the country enables favorable agricultural conditions almost round the year. So, you can shop for a variety of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables from the local supermarket or the farmers’ markets to toss up your own delicacies.

Why did we suddenly try lacto-ovo vegetarian diet?

Interestingly, our attempt at lacto-ovo vegetarian diet in 2020 was not really sudden. In 2019, wildfires spread across the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Around the same time, we watched the Our Planet documentary series on Netflix. That is when we started researching on how we could make meaningful lifestyle changes to protect our environment. We were already following some of the recommended environment-friendly practices, but were severely lacking in one area. That is meat consumption. Higher meat consumption requires increased cattle farming, which negatively impacts the environment. I need not get into the technical details here. But in case you are interested you can look up this report.

Thus, in 2019, we decided to significantly cut down our meat consumption. We also wanted to ensure we could prolong the practice. So we decided not to be too stringent with our choices while eating out, but to expand the scope while eating at home. Hence we stopped cooking any kind of non-veg dish at home in July 2019 and could manage to continue this for the rest of 2019.

However, we did not impose any severe restrictions on ourselves for the occasions of dining out or traveling, especially traveling. We absolutely love trying out different local cuisines of the places we travel to. But for a brief period in August 2019, we did not shy away from ordering vegetarian food even while traveling or dining out. For example, in Uvita, we tried an eggplant pizza that actually turned out to be quite delicious!

Why 75 days?

After this major change in our eating habits in 2019, giving it a more serious turn was the natural next step. But this had to wait for a while due to our scheduled personal vacations and family trips between December 2019 and March 2020.

So, when the pandemic hit our planet in March 2020, life presented before us an opportunity to live a simple life while self-quarantining at home. We extended that simplicity to our diet as well, and tried the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. No, we did not decide on the number 75. We just planned to go with the flow, until we felt an absolute desire to eat non-veg. That lasted 75 days!

How did we manage a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet for 75 days?

Actually, managing a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet at home has not been that difficult. On the contrary, we had quite a bit of fun, planning, preparing and eating different types of meals. Some days Indranil made egg rolls with a Mexican twist. One Sunday morning, we prepared Gallo Pinto, a typical Costa Rican breakfast dish. You can also check out our easy custom recipe for Gallo Pinto. We also tried our hands at making samosa/shingara on a rainy weekday evening.

But all these experiments aside, the real reason we could manage a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet for 75 days is our homeland cuisine. To the surprise of many, Bengali cuisine actually boasts of several excellent vegetarian dishes. They range widely on a scale of ultimate comfort to fancy feast. Thus, we not only survived but thoroughly enjoyed our 75 days of lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

Pssst! Also, so that we do not get bored of eating vegetarian food only, we occasionally treated ourselves. Not just with wine and cheese, but also with dark chocolates. 😀

How did we conclude the 75 days period of lacto-ovo vegetarian diet?

After 75 days of self isolating at home and eating lacto-ovo vegetarian only, we finally got a craving. Not specifically for non-veg food, but more for junk food! We wanted to eat some good old McDonald’s burgers. So we went to the nearest McDonald’s drive-thru and picked up couple of crispy chicken burger Mc combos. And that is how we put an end to this lacto-ovo vegetarian streak.

Why are we writing about this?

We believe many of you can relate to this story of ours, although in different ways. If you have been contemplating reducing your meat intake but are not sure if you want to go through that commitment, we hope you can find some takeaways from this story.

Now, since you have made it till here, let me share a secret with you. This weekend we plan to cook chicken at home after what feels like an eternity. In fact, going to the supermarket to buy chicken is THE most exciting thing I was looking forward to doing this weekend! The McDonalds burgers may felt like a one off deviation. But this ‘cook chicken at home’ plan seems to us like a formal conclusion of our 75 days of lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Thus, this felt like a right time to share this story.

What purpose does this serve? What next?

As we have said before, we will probably not be able to turn vegetarians, and neither do we want that. We are too obsessively in love with food to let it go. Also, trying local cuisine is an essential part of our travel style. We cannot imagine not eating ceviche in Peru or not trying a Bandeja Paisa in Medellin, Colombia.

Having said that, we still do want to contribute towards protecting the environment. Thus, we will continue to have such phases of lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Of course, each phase may not last for as long as 75 days. Nonetheless, we believe that every small change does make an impact.

Do you want to play a guessing game? How long will our next lacto-ovo vegetarian streak last? Let us know your prediction in the comments section.

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