On Becoming a Vegetarian...
As I mentioned on Facebook, my experiment with a vegetarian diet has been very successful. So successful, in fact, that I've decided to stick with it, instead of reintroducing selected meats into my diet at this point.
I haven't found it difficult to cook cow's milk-free vegetarian food at home. Even before I started this experiment, we didn't eat beef or pork at home (no mammals), and we ate vegetarian food at least a few nights a week. So, this hasn't been a huge adjustment on the home front.
Eating vegetarian in restaurants is a special challenge for me, because I'm allergic to cow's milk and sesame, and I can't tolerate more than small amounts of soy (tofu), bran, oats, legumes (beans, lentils, etc.) or chocolate. So, many restaurants, even some with excellent vegetarian options, don't have anything on their menu I can eat as-is. When I've asked for help, though, all of the restaurants I've visited have been very accommodating.
I thought that it would be a lot harder for me to follow a vegetarian diet than it has turned out to be, so my original plan had been to start adding meat back into my diet about now, choosing meats that I felt comfortable eating. I'm not particularly anxious to do that, though...
When I stick to a vegetarian diet, I feel good about what I'm eating from a moral/ethical perspective. I still don't feel like it's inherently wrong to humanely raise and kill animals for food, but I'm very uncomfortable with the way that animals are treated in the commercial meat industry, and I'm glad that my money isn't going to fund that industry anymore. I know there are more humane alternatives, but I haven't been entirely satisfied with the ones I've found, and it just seems easier not to eat meat than to constantly negotiate those choices.
Eating vegetarian has been good for me from a health perspective, too, if only because it's a lot easier to eat 6+ servings of fruits and vegetables a day if I don't eat meat. In the last month, I've lost 5 pounds without really trying, bringing my total up to 8 pounds so far this year.
Kevin and I have agreed to eat a vegetarian diet at home, going forward. I don't want to force my choices on other people, so Kevin and the kids may choose to eat meat elsewhere if they like, but I'm going to stick to a vegetarian diet full-time, perhaps with some exceptions in special circumstances.
In other words, I'm a vegetarian now, and I plan to be one for the foreseeable future.
I know that this is inconvenient for some of my friends, especially the ones that I eat with regularly. The potential negative impacts on my friends and family were a major consideration that lead me to look for alternatives and delayed my conclusions in this area, but in the end I had to do what I thought was right for me. I greatly appreciate the tolerance and support I've received so far, and I will continue to appreciate your support going forward.
I haven't found it difficult to cook cow's milk-free vegetarian food at home. Even before I started this experiment, we didn't eat beef or pork at home (no mammals), and we ate vegetarian food at least a few nights a week. So, this hasn't been a huge adjustment on the home front.
Eating vegetarian in restaurants is a special challenge for me, because I'm allergic to cow's milk and sesame, and I can't tolerate more than small amounts of soy (tofu), bran, oats, legumes (beans, lentils, etc.) or chocolate. So, many restaurants, even some with excellent vegetarian options, don't have anything on their menu I can eat as-is. When I've asked for help, though, all of the restaurants I've visited have been very accommodating.
I thought that it would be a lot harder for me to follow a vegetarian diet than it has turned out to be, so my original plan had been to start adding meat back into my diet about now, choosing meats that I felt comfortable eating. I'm not particularly anxious to do that, though...
When I stick to a vegetarian diet, I feel good about what I'm eating from a moral/ethical perspective. I still don't feel like it's inherently wrong to humanely raise and kill animals for food, but I'm very uncomfortable with the way that animals are treated in the commercial meat industry, and I'm glad that my money isn't going to fund that industry anymore. I know there are more humane alternatives, but I haven't been entirely satisfied with the ones I've found, and it just seems easier not to eat meat than to constantly negotiate those choices.
Eating vegetarian has been good for me from a health perspective, too, if only because it's a lot easier to eat 6+ servings of fruits and vegetables a day if I don't eat meat. In the last month, I've lost 5 pounds without really trying, bringing my total up to 8 pounds so far this year.
Kevin and I have agreed to eat a vegetarian diet at home, going forward. I don't want to force my choices on other people, so Kevin and the kids may choose to eat meat elsewhere if they like, but I'm going to stick to a vegetarian diet full-time, perhaps with some exceptions in special circumstances.
In other words, I'm a vegetarian now, and I plan to be one for the foreseeable future.
I know that this is inconvenient for some of my friends, especially the ones that I eat with regularly. The potential negative impacts on my friends and family were a major consideration that lead me to look for alternatives and delayed my conclusions in this area, but in the end I had to do what I thought was right for me. I greatly appreciate the tolerance and support I've received so far, and I will continue to appreciate your support going forward.