Hello! This is where I'm going to channel all of my fascination with the transition to possible vegetarianism (and maybe veganism?). I might post these on my regular blog, but this isn't about writing -- just chatting and discussing about health/food/etc. Also a place to write about various fails and wins regarding meat substitutes and the nights I am ambitious enough to go all-raw!
I am currently a pesco-ovo-lacto-tarian, or whatever it would be officially called. It annoys me when people eat fish but unequivocally call themselves vegetarians. I am not a full vegetarian yet.
I'd tried to be vegetarian a bunch of times throughout my life. I've gone vegan for a few weeks once or twice. I did it to lose weight, and also I am a huge bleeding heart when it comes to animals. I can't even kill a bug for the most part. So I felt hypocritical eating animals.
But it never stuck. I'd get tempted by pepperoni pizza after a night of drinking, or in the case of my last venture, I was eating fish but no meat, and felt sick to my stomach for a month. This unease that made me think maybe I was pregnant even. I didn't know what it was, but one night my mother made roast beef and my body craved it something fierce. I ate it, and felt
instantly better. Later that summer, I learned that Type O blood needs meat, especially red meat, to thrive.
So I figured it wasn't in the cards, and for the next five and a half years was a happy meat eater, enjoying red meat the most, but never too crazy about chicken. Really, I mostly just liked either steak, ground beef, and/or unhealthy meat -- cold cuts, chicken fingers...I
hated meat that resembled its original form -- chops, chicken on the bone, even steaks on the bone freaked me out. To quote Lorelai Gilmore, "I don't like behind-the-scenes food *stuff.*"
But more and more, my beloved meat dishes were grossing me out. I was excited to get a filet mignon one night, but it smelled wrong to me. I ate a few pieces and my boyfriend ate the rest, said it was great. Then I got KFC awhile later and same as with the steak, it was like I could smell the animal's history. I tried just eating burgers, which I always loved and ate totally rare. Same thing. I just kept feeling like I was smelling the animal.
So I stopped eating land meat for a few weeks, feeling it out as I went. I had bacon a couple of times and pepperoni a couple of times, because they basically just taste and smell like salt and seasoning to me, and aren't "meaty" (I liked crispy bacon).
Then I did The Master Cleanse, and it changed me even more. Despite my resolution to have chicken enchiladas one more time when I was starving and my boyfriend (who is a stellar cook) made some for himself, I didn't want meat at all; it wasn't even tempting. I still ate fish, and am eating fish, but that is way fewer and far between.
It was that I found myself craving like, peppers and hummus and lettuce and all sorts of stuff like that. I thought people on the message threads for the cleanse were full of it when they'd be like, "I plan to go all-raw eventually!" But I could really see it, with my cravings. I craved a hardboiled egg big-time, and a slice of pizza another, and of course, the aforementioned chicken enchiladas. But mainly I craved raw, whole, vegan food.
When I went off the cleanse, like I said, meat didn't tempt me at all anymore. And little by little, animal products are losing their appeal. A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend cooked tuna and I cooked salmon. After I managed to crash my salmon to the ground and shatter the dish it was in, rendering it useless, I had some of his tuna. And like I said, he is a great cook, and tuna steak was my FAVORITE. But this time it tasted like the last time I ate lamb long ago -- like, my brain could remember why I'd liked it, but now it just felt like grease and fat lingering in my mouth. So I think I'm done with tuna steak. Eggs haven't appealed to me either, since the cleanse, though I do enjoy Morningstar and other products with egg in them still. Cheese is still cool, but feels much richer now and I don't always like it.
So we'll see. In the meantime, cutting out meat and doing the cleanse has lost me 10 more net pounds, and I just feel healthier and happier.
Have a great day!
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