Today marks my first day of my second week as being a vegetarian (not completely raw, though). Ha! It sounds funny to say out loud. Honestly, I've always been annoyed at vegetarians/vegans, and now look who's trying to be one?! Alright, alright; this is my official apology for being an ass to all you plant people out there all these years.
Has it been difficult? Nope, not at all. Well, I take that back; Sunday presented a difficult moment. I usually go over to Steven and John's for Sunday night dinner. Steven was set on cooking chicken sour cream enchiladas. PANIC! I really don't want to be that pain in the ass person who says, "well, I'll just eat before hand since I don't eat meat." One, it's rude, and two, dinner is a time to be together. So, I decided to eat the chicken enchiladas, and not make a huge deal out of it. Therefore, I lied about being a veggie for a week; I had this one slip-up.
The hardest challenge has been simply telling people about this vegetarian experiment of mine. I feel like people are going to instantly judge, or label, me. I was dreading telling my parents the most. Ha! Like it's just as serious as if I were telling them I'm pregnant, or something! My dad is a big meat-eater, but he likes vegetables, too, AND he's a big hunter. In fact, it's his livelihood. I told them Friday in the midst of filling them with all my new raw food knowledge. Surprisingly, they took it great! Even my dad! *sigh of relief* I think it would have gone a little differently if I would have stated I was cutting out meat because of animal cruelty reasons, instead of health reasons. Isn't it interesting how much food/lifestyle can stress us out, or how many stereotypes run hand in hand with food?! I love food; it continues to intrigue me everyday.
I'm still waiting on my camera to arrive from Steven's mom. I've never jones'ed for my camera this bad before! I'm really excited to pot pics of my raw food creations! Anyway, switching the topic, my running has been great lately. The past two times I've run, I've been considerably faster with an almost 10 mm! I'm pumped :)
Happy fooding,
CC
7 comments:
you also need to apologize for making fun of me every time I suggested running instead of swimming!
Geeez, you're tough!
I once tried to be a veggie-woman but I found that it was hindering my running because I couldn't get enough protein to repair my achy-ness. Drink those protein shakes :). Great job on the running!!! Happy Weekend!
I have some friends who are "flexitarians" as they call it. They are vegetarian but won't refuse meat in a situation like that. Are you going to always do that, or is this just temporary as friends and family transition to thinking of you as a vegetarian?
Yeah Kate, I would definitely look at it as being a "flexitarian" at this point, for sure. You know, if I find myself totally craving some turkey on my sandwich, I don't want to stress out about it...I'll just eat it. Or, if I go over to someone's house for dinner, and they've prepared a caserole w/meat in it, I'll definitely eat it. I never want to be a pain in the ass to anyone, or myself, for that matter.
Now, while I'm "dining at home," I will prepare foods veggie style, or raw style, or whatever the trend of the moment is. I look at this as one big life experiment...not a rule :)
Jill, I haven't run into the problem of not getting enough protein, yet. I'm real anal about "balanced meals," even before the veggie phase. If I don't have protein in a meal, I always substitute the meat with a high protein whole grain, or cottage cheese.
We'll see, though! I might be eating meat in a week, or I might not be. Nothing's set in stone for me...
Claire/Kate - Right on to the "flexitarian" thing. There are times when you just can't avoid eating meat, and in the grand scheme of things it's a lot easier if you just worry about the things that you CAN control instead of being (as Claire put it) a giant pain in the ass to whoever is going to feed you.
My dad is a huge hunter as well, and was completely boggled when I told him I just wanted to eat vegetables (I had lots and LOTS of grilled portabellas at his house last year because that's all he could figure to make for me). Avoiding meat became more of a paranoia about all the yucky crap that is being put into the meat while the animal is alive and a little bit of that animal rights stuff, but with my dad (who asked questions like, "So...what do you eat at restaurants?") we found a compromise on eating a little bit of the deer meat that he would bring in. Seriously, venison chili.
Anyhoo, I've found that eating too much meat has a super negative effect on my system, and especially if it's red meat, but far be it from me to turn down a bite or two of brisket if someone's barbecuing.
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