Perhaps We'll Meat Again

Recently I read an article on Slate that made me rethink being a carnivore. I realized that instead of thinking about the ethical issues surrounding meat, I preferred to table the discussion and just enjoy the hamburger. After thinking about it, I decided to try life without meat. I still eat eggs, milk, and cheese. I was also able to convince myself that eating fish was still okay (They don’t have complex nervous systems). In the three or so weeks that I’ve been doing this, I’ve met with quite a few discoveries.

It turns out that there are a ton of great soy products that mimic meat. Products like Gimmelean are tasty enough to dull the pain of meat loss, allowing me to remember that I broke up with her, and not visa-versa.

Meals are a bigger deal. I only weigh a little over a buck fifty, and really don’t want my diet restrictions to impact my health negatively/lose weight. This means I have to think a lot more about what I eat, a double edged sword. I cook more now and have gotten pretty creative when it comes to spicing up a veggie meal. On the negative side, hunger is very immediate—if I don’t feed myself extremely regularly, I get headaches. Veggies and soy don’t seem to keep me satisfied as long as meat does, which means I’ve got to get organized when it comes to feeding times.

Overall, I feel a lot healthier. A veggie diet not only seems to have effected my physical system in a positive way (I won’t get detailed on that), but it also appears to have effected me mentally—I’ve never heard of this happening, but I feel a lot more upbeat.

And the last thing. It turns out that when I get really tired, I forget that I’m a vegetarian. I recently worked a fourteen hour day and had a meat relapse. Hot dogs were being barbequed, I was starving, and I inhaled one. I didn’t even savor the forbidden treat. It took me an hour to realize what I’d done.

I can only assume that if I keep this up, being a vegetarian will become a more permanent part of my identity and I won’t forget that hot-dogs are a no-no.

Have I eaten my last hamburger? I doubt it, but only time will tell.