Vegetarian By Proxy
One unintended side effect of packing my lunch is that we end up cooking for both of us, which means that it is vegetarian, because KF is veggie. Not really a problem, I've been an "at home" vegetarian since I moved in with him 6 months ago. I have cooked meat once in the apartment since moving and that was bacon Christmas morning. Otherwise when I've cooked here it's been vegetarian. (I have brought in meat based take-out, but not often.) So that mean that the majority of my meat eating was taking place when I was eating lunch at work. With that gone so are my carnivorous ways it seems.
I used to be a vegetarian, from about '95 to 2000 or so. I never really intended for it to happen, I just went through a period where meat was just... gross. It started when I realized that that thing in my chicken leg... was a big ol' vein. Gross right? Then it became about bones. I was still eating meat for a while but only highly processed stuff that no longer resembled something freshly butchered. Then I stopped that too. It took me about a year to wane out of it. Then at the other end I started eating meat again in pretty much the reverse pattern. It took me nearly 2 years to get back to the point of eating ribs, or fried chicken that still had bones, but these days it doesn't really phase me any longer.
So I'm left with the dilemma... continue as I am, about 80% vegetarian, with meat only coming from an ocassional resteraunt trip, or just go whole hog (so to speak) and stop eating meat altogether. I don't really have a motivation for that at the moment. I'm not finding meat gross anymore, and with my intake so drastically cut anyway there would only be a marginally greater health benefit. I'd have to choose to do it for political, or environmental reasons this time. There certainly are plenty of those. Though, I suppose I have the third option which is to start cooking meat at home, but I'm not sure how happy that would make certain other people in the house...
I used to be a vegetarian, from about '95 to 2000 or so. I never really intended for it to happen, I just went through a period where meat was just... gross. It started when I realized that that thing in my chicken leg... was a big ol' vein. Gross right? Then it became about bones. I was still eating meat for a while but only highly processed stuff that no longer resembled something freshly butchered. Then I stopped that too. It took me about a year to wane out of it. Then at the other end I started eating meat again in pretty much the reverse pattern. It took me nearly 2 years to get back to the point of eating ribs, or fried chicken that still had bones, but these days it doesn't really phase me any longer.
So I'm left with the dilemma... continue as I am, about 80% vegetarian, with meat only coming from an ocassional resteraunt trip, or just go whole hog (so to speak) and stop eating meat altogether. I don't really have a motivation for that at the moment. I'm not finding meat gross anymore, and with my intake so drastically cut anyway there would only be a marginally greater health benefit. I'd have to choose to do it for political, or environmental reasons this time. There certainly are plenty of those. Though, I suppose I have the third option which is to start cooking meat at home, but I'm not sure how happy that would make certain other people in the house...
Eating vegetarian is a bonus for the environment and energy use. Eating a little bit of meat seems to be beneficial to many people's health.
Did you know that the Dalai Lama eats sine meat on his physician's orders? The DL writes about his thinking on this.
So I'd say, eat vegetarian until you crave some meat, then have a little bit (not cooked at home), then go back to vegetables. Let your body be the guide, balanced with what your mind says.