Throughout my life, I have enjoyed Pat’s cheese steaks, Shake Shack’s Shackburgers, and some of the best meat and poultry – without thinking twice about the food I was putting into my mouth. I have always had vegetarian friends and never quite understood why they would choose to abstain from meat.
This week, I’m celebrating my one-year veggie-versary, which astounds me. I could never have imagined that I would one day change my diet so drastically.
Around this time last year, I kept a brief diary, which chronicles some of my ideas about becoming a vegetarian. I wrote:
I’m currently reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I feel like this book is going to profoundly change my life. Never, in my 25 years, have I seriously considered becoming a vegetarian. But I think I want to try, taking it one meal at a time and testing the waters.
I was right – that book did profoundly change my life. Reading it was just the push I needed to challenge myself. In the beginning, the vegetarianism was purely an experiment. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to sustain a vegetarian diet, but I promised myself that I would continue as long as it remained a positive thing.
I can count on one hand the number of times that I have eaten meat this past year, and none of those times was the result of an absolute need to have meat. I ate meat because I wasn’t aware of what I was eating or because I didn’t want to insult the person who was serving it to me.
Though I haven’t been a perfect vegetarian, those moments of “failure” have helped me better understand why I choose to abstain from meat and what it means to me.
Reflecting on the past year, I have decided that a vegetarian diet has truly enhanced my life. Abstaining from meat is a practice in discipline and compassion. I can count two major paradigm-shifting experiences in my lifetime – one was deciding to become a vegetarian and the other was realizing that tragedy and terror can happen close to home (after 9/11). I’m not saying that the two events are of equal gravity, but both have pushed me to think outside the box.
Abstaining from meat has also inspired me to be a more creative person. Living in a society that consumes lots of meat, I’ve had to go out of my way to make sure I nourish myself and also come up with meal options that won’t bore me or leave me feeling hungry.
While I did initially become a vegetarian for (un-selfish) animal rights reasons, I must confess that the reason I continue to be a vegetarian is for selfish reasons. Since becoming a vegetarian, I feel better than I have in my whole life. I’m sleeping better than I have in years, my skin looks great, and I feel like my body works more efficiently. I’m not sure that everyone would experience the same effects, but I have experienced only positive results.
In addition, abstaining from meat allows me to feel like I have some control over myself and my life. As a sufferer of panic and anxiety, I often seek (sometimes unhealthy) ways to gain control. I know that control is an illusion and a lie, but vegetarianism allows me to have just enough control, in a way that isn’t harmful to me.
I will never try to force anyone to become a vegetarian, though I’m happy to talk about it if you ask. I do not feel offended if my friends eat meat in front of me. I can only hope that they feel truly grateful for the food they consume and that they understand the implications of eating it.
Most of us are so disconnected from what we put into our mouths. For me, food has always been and always will be serious business – I think about it way too much, and I believe it means more than just nourishment. I will always keep exploring food and paying attention to how it makes me feel.
Abstaining from meat is just another way to experience how we are, in fact, what we eat and how tied we are to the world around us.
(Photo by augapfel)
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This is something I’ve always wanted to try. To be honest, I’ve tried several times, but gave up for childish reasons. I cannot cook tofu to save my life, for instance. I’d love it if you would expound more on the effect the diet has had on your anxiety.
Also, I’m sure you have a plethora of “quick and easy” recipes collected by now, please share.
Last but not least, is the book guilt based? Although if it where up to me to kill what I eat, I’d never eat animals, but I must confess I’d have to start my journey for selfish reasons.