Look, I'm a friend of the animals! Actually, this is a really rare sighting of me with a live animal. And I probably ate craploads of meat for dinner.
This week... I've still felt fairly lousy so I've really been taking it easy, combined with some gentle household tasks and whatnot. Mum was supposed to have chemo on Friday but her blood counts and stuff weren't good enough, so we're to go back next week instead. Which... is pretty annoying, cause it just makes the whole thing that much longer, but obviously I don't want her to be poisoned and all if her body can't take it. The plan for this week is to feel better- although I totally see a trip to the doctors in the cards if I don't.
So, that was the week. Now, allow me to talk about something more general/probably more interesting! I realised that around now-ish (I think technically Friday, actually, but whatever) I've not eaten meat for 4 months, and I know you've all just been thinking, 'hey! How's that going?' but you've just been to shy to ask... Ahem. But really, I have some observations on the subject, so I'm going to share them, whether you want to hear them or not.
Firstly, I would say that, if you go into non-meat eating expecting that you'll get crazy skinny, then dispel such illusions now! I wouldn't necessarily say that I've gained weight (I did that around Christmas time, and, bless it, it hasn't wanted to leave me, mainly cause I haven't encouraged it to do so in any way) except I probably have because learning to eat in a new way is HARD, and it's often just easier to fall back on carbs then to figure out how to make some kind of beanburger or something. I mean, I'm sure it's possible to lose weight whilst not eating meat (and actually, it's probably really easy) but I haven't really mastered that yet.
But how do I feel, I hear you cry? Well, pretty much the same. I mean, it's difficult to say, cause I've been feeling pretty rough for like two weeks now, but this isn't something that I attribute at all to not having meat in my diet, but more to being run down and kind of stressed and worried for, oh, I don't know, FOREVER? Or, like, 6 months or so... But before these two weeks? I don't know, I guess maybe slightly healthier? When I manage to actually avoid sugar like I try but inevitably fail to do? I definitely feel like sugar's a bigger factor in making me feel like crap than meat eating/non-eating, so, yeah, definitely need to work on that...
And here's a thing- I feel really uncomfortable referring to myself as a vegetarian. Like, I'm not sure it's a thing I've said out loud yet. I'm not sure if that's because I feel like I don't have the right to call myself that until I've been meat-sober for like a year or something, or for some other strange and surely justified by my brain reason, but it's really weird- has anyone else converted and had the same issue? It's not that I think I'm going to backslide and like stuff ALL THE ANIMALS into my face at some point, because I kind of don't even think of meat as food that I can eat anymore- it's sort of been consigned to the 'foods Laura doesn't like list' which, believe me, is MUCH longer than the foods Laura does like list. I'm not saying that I haven't been tempted by the ridiculously good aroma of cooking bacon; but also, little piggies! So yeah, I don't know why the reluctance to say 'I'm a vegetarian'. Maybe I just don't like labels...
So, basically, that's about all I know so far about being a vegetarian. I also know that it's very tricky eating out nowadays, but for a normal person who likes normal types of food, it totally wouldn't be (I've only had to order from the kids menu once, but what sort of restaurant offers more vegetarian options for kids than adults? Exactly). Oh, and also, I don't feel bad when I see the sheep that live right near my house anymore cause I wouldn't even dream of eating them (not that I ever really had that much lamb. But still) or like any animals ever, so that's good!
Basically, this is what I want to say- giving up meat isn't the easiest, but it is easier than I thought it would be, and I feel pretty good just like, morally, not eating it anymore. So what I'm saying is, if you want to not eat meat anymore but you still do because you think it'll be too hard not to, then hi me of 4 months ago! How are ya? Just know that you can do it (if you want to, I'm not really aiming to convert anyone here) and that it'll make you feel real good following through on what you believe in. Honestly, it will.
My sister is a lot like you in some respects re: no meat. She just didn't like it for a long time, and stopped eating it unless she was in a place where she couldn't refuse it without being rude. Then one day she started telling people she was a vegetarian just so she wouldn't have to eat something she didn't like. It was easier to say that than to explain that she just didn't like meat. But it took her 3-4 years before she got comfortable saying she was a vegetarian.
ReplyDelete3-4 YEARS? I think I'll be comfortable before then... Probably... I do sort of wish that I genuinely didn't like meat, but pretending that I don't is working for me at the moment :)
DeleteSo yay you and your vegetarian-ness! Not that I am ( I love me the animal food) but I'm glad that it's not as hard you thought. Except for eating out... but you know what, I have a vegan friend and it's SUPER hard for him to eat out. He basically has to stick to Chinese/Indian/Thai restaurants.
ReplyDeleteHope that you and your momma feel better this week!!
Thank you for yay-ing me! If I like really stop and think about it (as in this blog post!) I do feel a bit like 'yay, me!', but mostly it's just like yeah, I don't eat meat, no biggie. Which is good because I feel like, if I had to think about it too much it'd just be exhausting and I'd be like 'fuck it, I'm having a burger.' Duuude, I can't even think of how difficult it would be vegan-ly eating out. Especially because I'm so fussy- I think that if I ever went vegan (which I sort of want to morally, but can't really imagine doing) I'd hae to make exceptions for eating out because it would just be WAY too hard!
DeleteAlso, thank you for the getting better wishes! We'll try our best :)
Did you just type in Scottish dialect for a second there at the end? "I'd hae to make exceptions"? I CAUGHT YOU.
DeleteDid you spellcheck my comment?! Clearly born to be an editor!
DeleteI think it's normal to be pretty hesitant, for a while, to define yourself as a vegetarian, in part because one of the first questions people tend to ask vegetarians (besides "why?" and "don't you need meat for protein?") is how long they've been on a veg diet. And you know, when you say that it's been a few months, you can almost see them preparing some wisecrack or an attempt to get you to eat meat. Not sure how long I've been a vegetarian now (around 5 years I think?), but I remember a lot of the issues about eating well that you're having. It is really hard to figure out a new way of structuring your meals. If you don't already have it, I'd really recommend buying Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It's an amazing cookbook, and great for new vegetarians because bittman goes into such detail on things like how to cook beans and tofu and a lot of other foods most people don't use much until they cut meat out of their diet. Anyway (now that I've done my proselytizing), glad to hear you made it to the 4-month mark and are feeling good about going vegetarian!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this comment! It's really good to know that it's not just me having some slight issues adapting (well, not really adapting but in trying to be healthier and not just eat loads of fake meat!) I'll definitely look out for that book because it sounds really helpful (I actually genuinely love tofu but have NO idea what to do with it!) and so, yeah!
DeleteI think the not calling myself vegetarian thing is more of a kind of not-meeting-new-people thing than anything else- it's kind of like, with my family they're all aware that I'm not eating meat, so I don't need to call myself anything to them, and with my friends I've just kind of addressed it as it's come up, like we're out to lunch and I'm like 'oh yeah, I don't eat meat anymore.' So I haven't really needed to, you know?
I'm glad that you're feeling good about your vegetarian-ness. It kind of is intimidating to start, but overall it's not that bad if you do think of it as more of a food I don't like thing. I know (in theory) how to make bean burgers but mostly I buy the frozen veggie ones because I'm lazy. This last week I've taken to making fruit smoothies for breakfast. I'm a lazy cooker in summer.
ReplyDeleteI don't eat out often. I've got the same problem as you. When I do go out, like Sarah said, I'm kind of limited to Thai,Chinese, sandwiches or pizza. It's a pain.
I made these kind of chickpea patty things which were sort of like burgers once and they were nice, but mostly I've been fairly lazy on the whole cooking thing, which is ridiculous because I have SO many recipes to try! I think I need to like cook one thing a week or something, like make a goal out of it. I'm going to blame the summer too :).
DeleteChinese is literally my favourite food, and it's sad because, at the one that we get takeaway from they literally have like, 2 non-meat dishes (apart from rice and noodles and stuff) and they're just like vegetables. Which is sad because dammit I want some kind of delicious chinese tofu! I've discovered paneer curries though which are AMAZING and I wholly recommend :)
I ate a vegaterian diet for about two months on a bet and I agree with you about finding *good* substitutes. I did lose weight, mostly because I was trying to make sure I was getting all of the proper nutritional stuff that I wasn't getting through meat anymore. The upside to all of this was that I don't think I've ever felt better in my life. But it was hard for me to maintain long-term since the rest of my family was still eating meat.
ReplyDeleteBut GOOD FOR YOU!
Good work not carb-loading! I should really try that... I did really well to start with (and, actually, I felt really good then) but I've sort of gotten lazier and lazier as it's gone on, which, I've decided, I'm going to blame on my mum and her cancer! (how nice of me... lol). Also, I TOTALLY feel your pain on your whole family eating meat thing. I half-heartedly tried to be vegetarian last year and it didn't work because no one was really helping me, but this time I kind of eased everyone into it/arranged my own meals and it's been fine! So I feel like a bit of a dick for not sticking with it before, but oh well!
DeleteCongratulations! Four months is pretty good :-) I was vegetarian for about eight months in college (which is when *everyone* seems to go vegetarian!). For me it wasn't too hard because I grew up in an Indian household, and we tend to eat less meat than most other people, anyway. So I always had access to a lot of lentils and vegetables, and my parents/relatives/friends never really bothered me about it one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteI think that I grew up in a household with much less meat than others, though, and now I rarely cook meat at home. I am happy with that balance, and I don't really know what to call myself, either- flexitarian? I just eat whatever sounds good at the time, and am quite happy with that! (Though I agree that, as I eat less meat, I totally lay into the carbs!)
I was sooo a partial vegetarian at university, but whenever we went out to dinner I'd have a big old burger, so that was a bit fail-ish! Very cool that you had a fairly veggie-ish upbringing though- I have had such a meaty upbringing that it's a bit like 'what do I dooo?' and NO ONE knows! I'll figure it out though, I'm sure!
DeleteReally interesting post because vegetarianism is something I've thought about for a while. I rarely eat meat and never cook it. My dad makes fantastic hamburgers and brisket, so every few months when he cooks it, I have meat. And occasionally at a restaurant I have chicken. Other than that, nada. Of course, because of those things, I don't call myself a vegetarian. My family teases me about it, especially because I stopped eating pork about ten years ago, and they thought I was nuts. I had seen a special on pork, and I just couldn't eat it after that. Period.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I am so picky that, like you, finding other sources of protein is difficult. I've found black beans are my biggest source of protein, other than eggs (and I eat eggs sparingly).
Good for you, though, for sticking to it. Several of my friends have gone paleo/primal (no grains, dairy/no grains), and though I cannot do that 100%, I am trying to cut out as many grains as possible. The idea behind it is that our bodies weren't originally intended to process grains and that they cause a lot of digestion problems. I thought it was insane at first but am slowly thinking it's interesting.
I feel like if I cut out grains then I'd really have nothing to eat! I definitely agree with the idea that we're not really meant to eat dairy though, because it's SO weird that we're the only species that has milk after like infancy/childhood, and I don't think it can do us much good really! I know that calcium is meant to stop osteoperosis and everything, but apparently in places where they eat less dairy, they actually have lower rates of osteoperosis, so.
DeleteBut no dairy=basically no protein, so I'd definitely have to sort myself out properly if I was going to be all vegan! Also, re: you- I feel like, if you want to go veggie than GO FOR IT, cause it's honestly pretty easy (the few things I've picked out don't really affect me that much) but if not than I feel like you're doing a pretty good job in not eating like *that* much meat and having a lower environmental impact and all! :)
Awesome job sticking with the non-meat-eating-ness. I can't and don't really want to do it but awesome of you to stick with it. As for the labeling thing, if you don't want to you don't ever have to label yourself as vegetarian. My step-mom hasn't eaten any meat except seafood for as long as I've known her but I don't really hear her call herself any form of vegetarian. She just lists meat as things she doesn't like.
ReplyDelete(Psst... you totally could do it if you wanted to. But you don't want to and that's cool!) Your stepmum's way may totally be my way! I don't think it's something that I'm ever going to like announce about myself, but if, like someone offered me a big ole hunk of meat on a stick, I might be inclined to say 'no thank you, I'm a vegetarian'. Although actually I'd probably still just say I don't eat meat... Hmm. It's so odd! I feel like, 'vegetarian' is something people would say about me to other people, like 'oh no, she's a vegetarian' and yet that I wouldn't use to refer to myself... I don't know. I guess it doesn't really matter either way, as long as no one shoves meat down my throat!
DeleteCongratulations on your 4 month anniversary!! I'm so glad you're spreading the news that going veg is actually easier than you were expecting. :-)
ReplyDeleteTrust me, learning how to formulate meals around a veg diet when you were raised omni takes time. I HIGHLY recommend Vegetarian Cooking For Dummies (http://astore.amazon.com/opiofawol-20/detail/076455350X). It was my go-to cookbook when I went veg 6 years ago, and it also helps explain how to avoid proportioning your food groups wrong (for me, the pitfall was dairy).
Also, it will get easier eating out in restaurants. Eventually looking for food that you not only can eat but WANT to eat becomes second nature. :-D
Thank you! Well, I just wanted to tell anyone who was like 'I want to, but it's so haaaard' (ie me of last year) that it's not so bad, but not like force/shame anyone, so hopefully I hit the right tone!
DeleteThanks for the book recommendation! I definitely need to see what's out there and get a few cookbooks- I do have a vegan cookbook (Veganomicon) that I need to use more, and actually, a for dummies book sounds super helpful! (My pitfall is absolutely dairy. Cheese must be my main source of protein, hence the not losing weight thing! Not that that was my main motivation, at all, but still, I kind of expected it! But nope!)
I'm sure it will get easier eating out! It actually has even in the few months, so I'm sure it'll get even better :). Thanks for the support!
Good for you, fellow vegetarian! I totally understand your reluctance to call yourself a vegetarian. *I* haven't eaten meat (aside from fish, which is meat, but let's not get into that right now) for...oh, I don't know...about 20 years, but I have vegetarian friends who turn up their noses to my diet. Because, here's the thing...I'm a really lazy vegetarian. I'm the only vegetarian in my family, so eating something I didn't have to cook myself usually entailed first picking all the meat particles out/off of it. Pepperoni pizza? Just peel off the pepperoni, and voila! It's now cheese pizza with a slight pepperoni flavoring. I have no problem doing this, but so many of my veg friends are like, "Ewwwww...MEAT TOUCHED THAT."
ReplyDeleteSo according to SOME, I'm not even a vegetarian (or pescetarian, whatever). But does it really matter? YOU define your diet and call it whatever you want and be as one with the neighboring sheep.
I recently went veg after doing a lot of reading and research on industrial farming. Even though I've always hated cooking meat and never much liked anything but chicken...it was hard making the transition. Much hard than I thought it would be. I live in an area that's staunchly omnivorous, and it was difficult being at home where there was meat at every meal.
ReplyDeleteThen I moved to England, where everybody and their dog is/was vegetarian and every pub/restaurant/cafe has multiple vegetarian options that are quite tasty. It really helped ease me into a new diet.
Now that I'm back in the States with my family, they are eating less meat than they previously did. Like you, I don't feel the need to convert anybody to my way of thinking/eating, but it's nice to see them enjoy certain dishes they previously dismissed simply because they were vegetarian. It's been fun exploring new foods and cooking different dishes. I hope you enjoy it!