"Wow, I could never do that." that used to be my response whenever I met someone who was vegetarian. I ate deli meat as a snack, I took the top half of the bun off burgers, not to save calories but to get a better meat to bun ratio, and as a kid who didn't love vegetables meat was half of my diet growing up.
And then one fateful day, after picking up the best fried chicken I've ever eaten in my life from a fellow culinary friend, the boy next door (as my boyfriend is affectionately nicknamed on my instagram) presented me with a pamphlet he'd been handed that day about the cruelty of the meat industry. I chose to believe the things in that pamphlet were an exception, not the norm, but he didn't eat any chicken that night.
It bothered me. That was perfectly good food, and beyond that it was fucking amazing and we'd been talking about it all week.
I gave the pamphlet a more thorough read and then decided I needed to find out if this stuff actually happened that often. I ordered "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer and after the first chapter decided I would drastically cut back on my meat intake. By the time I was half way through the book I was heartbroken and a little disappointed in myself for turning such a blind eye for so long. In high school I petitioned Lakewood City Council to grant me an exemption for the swine ordinance so I could get a teacup piglet for my 16th birthday, ever since Babe I've had a great love for pigs. And yet there I was, supporting their disrespect and severe mistreatment. I'll spare you any further detail; I'm not here to gross you out or make you feel like shit, just read the book and you'll get plenty of that.
So then when the New Year came instead of vowing to finally run a 10K or do a handstand or stop eating sugar I decided to give up meat for all of 2019.
Full disclosure, I've accidentally eaten it twice already since it wasn't listed in what I was ordering & I wasn't used to having to ask about everything I wanted in a restaurant yet.
I wanted to go a whole year so that I would force myself to figure out different alternatives, I knew if meat was an option I would keep falling back to it.
The first two months I attempted to survive off of eggs and vegetables instead of any meat substitutes but that lead to constant hunger and some fatigue fairly fast so I broke down and started cooking tofu. I was surprised how good it was, and not at all as I had always imagined it. The boy next door and I were also pleasantly surprised to find some good veggie nugget and sausage substitutes and since then it's honestly been pretty easy.
I still cook meat for my family and my job and have been surprisingly untempted.
After 2019 is up I foresee myself incorporating meat for special occasions, when my grandma makes brisket (my favorite meal of all time), Christmas ham, a St. Patrick's Day Reuben. But as far as my typical daily diet goes I will have plenty of other options and won't have to rely on my meat as my only source of protein.
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