In three days, it will be one whole year since I've eaten meat. I did it, you guys! I set a nearly unreasonable goal for myself, and I achieved it! I'm quite proud of myself. And you know what? It wasn't THAT bad. Sometimes it was hard, but most of the time it was a no brainer. It's definitely more of a psychological exercise than a physical one. If I got my mind to believe that I didn't need meat, my body would follow through.
The hardest part was eating outside of my home. Eating and cooking at home as a pescetarian was easy. When I'm in control of my own food, leaving out meat was not a big deal at all. Going out, and especially going out to friend's houses was the hard part. I never wanted to be THAT friend. You know, that friend who's like, "Thank you for cooking this delicious looking BBQ, but would you mind throwing these tofu burgers on the grill?" I feel very uncomfortable asking people to make exceptions for me especially when they're doing something as nice as cooking me a meal, but alas. I was that friend for one year. I would like to take a moment and thank all my friends who supported me through this crazy non-meat eating year of mine, and thought of me when we had dinner parties. I really appreciate all of your efforts!
Going out to eat could be a challenge as well. I also never wanted to be that customer who's like, "Do you have veggie burgers?" and they politely say, "No," but you see in their eyes they're really thinking, "Bitch, this is Five Guys, of course we don't have veggie burgers!!" It was also a bit difficult being at a table with my friends who were all eating something delicious looking and bacon wrapped, and I'm sitting there with my quinoa bowl. But that goes back to the psychological part. I just had to keep telling myself, "You can't eat that," and magically, I stop wanting it...sort of.
But now the challenge is over! People ask, "Do you feel any different?" The honest answer? No, I don't. I feel exactly the same. The only difference is that I'm pooping more. But I didn't lose any weight, I have the same amount of energy, my nails and hair are of the same quality (I heard when you eat more fruits and veggies, your nails and hair get stronger), and my cognitive skills are exactly the same. I think the reason why I feel the same is because I've always eaten on the healthy side my whole life. I think the people who feel a noticeable change in their bodies when they do something drastic like giving up meat, are the people who had really bad eating habits to begin with. If I ate fast food every day and snacked on a tub full of Cheetos while binge watching Breaking Bad, and then suddenly gave up meat, then yeah, I'd lose a ton of weight and gain lots of energy. But I've always eaten a decent amount of fruits and veggies, and I was never a snacker, so it makes sense that giving up meat wouldn't affect me.
Then the next question people ask is, "If you feel the same, then what's the point of giving up meat? Why deprive yourself of bacon if you don't feel any healthier giving it up?" That is a good question. And I could ask the same question, but from a different perspective: "If I feel the same, then what's the point of EATING meat?" Chew on THAT! Should I support the incredibly horrendous evils of the food industry, the torturing of innocent animals, the annihilation of the environment, the destruction of the natural ecosystem, the serious drought, just to satisfy my own selfish desire for some tasty fried chicken? Or should I consider the bigger picture and sacrifice personal gratification to better the world? Decisions, decisions!
After a year of living a meatless life and discovering that it's not that bad, I have decided to become a flexitarian. For those of you who have never heard of the term (I'm pretty sure someone made it up somewhere, but then it caught on) a flexitarian is a semi-vegetarian. Or I guess in my case I would be a semi-pescetarian.
So here's the new plan: Over the next few weeks, I will go on a meat eating binge and eat all the meat I've been missing and craving over the past year, then once I get all that out of my system, (or, rather, in my system!) I will only eat meat when I'm eating outside my house. I can say with some confidence that I probably will never cook meat for myself ever again. (One thing this meatless year has done for me is totally turn me off of raw meat! I made country fried steak for Pat the other day and I almost threw up handling the raw meat!) When I go to friend's houses, however, I will happily eat what's being served. When I go out to restaurants, I'll TRY not to order meat, but...that's going to be hard.
So there you have it! I survived a whole year without eating meat. This girl who would eat at least one meat meal a day, this Chinese girl whose Chinese grandpa once said, "If it walks with its back to the sun, eat it!", this girl who hails from the Midwest and considers gravy to be one of the food groups, this girl who would enthusiastically eat anything put in front of her (chicken feet, fish eyes, duck intestines, pig's blood), gave up meat for one entire year.
The hardest part was eating outside of my home. Eating and cooking at home as a pescetarian was easy. When I'm in control of my own food, leaving out meat was not a big deal at all. Going out, and especially going out to friend's houses was the hard part. I never wanted to be THAT friend. You know, that friend who's like, "Thank you for cooking this delicious looking BBQ, but would you mind throwing these tofu burgers on the grill?" I feel very uncomfortable asking people to make exceptions for me especially when they're doing something as nice as cooking me a meal, but alas. I was that friend for one year. I would like to take a moment and thank all my friends who supported me through this crazy non-meat eating year of mine, and thought of me when we had dinner parties. I really appreciate all of your efforts!
Going out to eat could be a challenge as well. I also never wanted to be that customer who's like, "Do you have veggie burgers?" and they politely say, "No," but you see in their eyes they're really thinking, "Bitch, this is Five Guys, of course we don't have veggie burgers!!" It was also a bit difficult being at a table with my friends who were all eating something delicious looking and bacon wrapped, and I'm sitting there with my quinoa bowl. But that goes back to the psychological part. I just had to keep telling myself, "You can't eat that," and magically, I stop wanting it...sort of.
But now the challenge is over! People ask, "Do you feel any different?" The honest answer? No, I don't. I feel exactly the same. The only difference is that I'm pooping more. But I didn't lose any weight, I have the same amount of energy, my nails and hair are of the same quality (I heard when you eat more fruits and veggies, your nails and hair get stronger), and my cognitive skills are exactly the same. I think the reason why I feel the same is because I've always eaten on the healthy side my whole life. I think the people who feel a noticeable change in their bodies when they do something drastic like giving up meat, are the people who had really bad eating habits to begin with. If I ate fast food every day and snacked on a tub full of Cheetos while binge watching Breaking Bad, and then suddenly gave up meat, then yeah, I'd lose a ton of weight and gain lots of energy. But I've always eaten a decent amount of fruits and veggies, and I was never a snacker, so it makes sense that giving up meat wouldn't affect me.
Then the next question people ask is, "If you feel the same, then what's the point of giving up meat? Why deprive yourself of bacon if you don't feel any healthier giving it up?" That is a good question. And I could ask the same question, but from a different perspective: "If I feel the same, then what's the point of EATING meat?" Chew on THAT! Should I support the incredibly horrendous evils of the food industry, the torturing of innocent animals, the annihilation of the environment, the destruction of the natural ecosystem, the serious drought, just to satisfy my own selfish desire for some tasty fried chicken? Or should I consider the bigger picture and sacrifice personal gratification to better the world? Decisions, decisions!
After a year of living a meatless life and discovering that it's not that bad, I have decided to become a flexitarian. For those of you who have never heard of the term (I'm pretty sure someone made it up somewhere, but then it caught on) a flexitarian is a semi-vegetarian. Or I guess in my case I would be a semi-pescetarian.
So here's the new plan: Over the next few weeks, I will go on a meat eating binge and eat all the meat I've been missing and craving over the past year, then once I get all that out of my system, (or, rather, in my system!) I will only eat meat when I'm eating outside my house. I can say with some confidence that I probably will never cook meat for myself ever again. (One thing this meatless year has done for me is totally turn me off of raw meat! I made country fried steak for Pat the other day and I almost threw up handling the raw meat!) When I go to friend's houses, however, I will happily eat what's being served. When I go out to restaurants, I'll TRY not to order meat, but...that's going to be hard.
So there you have it! I survived a whole year without eating meat. This girl who would eat at least one meat meal a day, this Chinese girl whose Chinese grandpa once said, "If it walks with its back to the sun, eat it!", this girl who hails from the Midwest and considers gravy to be one of the food groups, this girl who would enthusiastically eat anything put in front of her (chicken feet, fish eyes, duck intestines, pig's blood), gave up meat for one entire year.
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