When I was in college (undergrad), my roommate Dennis was a vegetarian, and being extremely health conscious at the time, I thought that it might be an interesting option for myself, and so I decided to give being a vegetarian a try. I ended up lasting about two years before I had meat (I was vacationing in Europe, and the language barrier forced it on me!), and it was probably 7 years or so before I had beef again. Well, recently, I have been looking at my eating habits, and I have been wanting to make some changes, so I thought about going vegetarian again.
So… a month ago (actually, 32 days ago today), I decided to go vegetarian again. Now, some of you will be all “nuh uh, you’re cheating” about this, but I am actually more accurately described as pescetarian, because I am not excluding fish from my diet; note that many doctors try to get vegetarians to each fish because of the vitamins that only come from animals, and fish don’t have legs, so it is easier for some to eat them. I will admit that this recent decision is partly because of dietary choices, but there is a large component of my decision that stems from how animals that are harvested for their meat are treated before slaughter. I always knew that meat comes from something with a face and legs, but I have read a lot about how incredibly horrible some animals are treated, and as such, it just helped me make my decision for myself. I am not against anyone eating meat, that’s their choice, but I just wanted to stop being a part of it myself.
So there it is. One month in, and I feel great about my re-decision to go to life of vegetarianism (plus fish!). I’m actually glad that I decided to go back, because I did feel great being vegetarian before, and it was unbelievably easy for me to re-embrace the lifestyle. Seriously, have you had a veggie corn dog!? They are awesome! Other than that, being a vegetarian basically introduced me to the world of vegetables, and I am much more willing to try things now as a result. I used to shun anything green because I was raised as a “meat and potatoes” kid, but now, I can’t get enough of things like Brussels sprouts because I became a vegetarian. I am glad to get back to that too; eating more healthy is something that goes hand and hand with vegetarianism for me, and I am glad to be re-instituting that in my life.
I wanted to wait a whole month before saying anything about this on the blog, so as to show that I am serious about it. I am going to do everything I can to make this a permanent change in my life, which I know will only be the better for it (especially health wise). Hooray for vegetarianism and me, together again!
