Going Vegetarian

Over the past 20-some-odd years, I've been asked why I became a vegetarian too many times to count.  For me, it's always been about the animals.

When I was living alone in my 20s I did all my cooking for myself.  And I was pretty good at it.  I'd always liked being able to make something tasty -- I went through a cake-baking phase when I was a senior in high school, I baked a cake a week, and my family enjoyed that phase as much (or more) than I did -- so I'd learned how to make things my mom used to make, and I liked trying new recipes.

One day I was at the market in the meat aisle, and I thought to myself, "This is pretty gross."  I don't remember what I was looking at at the time, probably a cut of beef.  I thought about the fact that some cow had been killed, and then someone else whacked the carcass up into pieces, and them some butcher had whacked it up some more, and here it sat, on a piece of styrofoam, wrapped in plastic.  It wasn't the first time I'd thought it was pretty gross, so I thought to myself, "You'd better either stop buying it, or stop thinking about it."  So I stopped buying it.

It basically came down to the fact that I wasn't interested in another creature getting killed just so I could have a meal.  That's really all it's ever been about for me.  The farther I went down that path, the more I learned about the potential health benefits of a plant-based diet; but I also recognized that with all things in moderation and a healthy dose of exercise, it's just as likely that someone who eats meat will live as long and healthy a life as someone who doesn't, so it's never been about the health aspects.  I've always been willing to discuss my thoughts on the subject, but, as far as I know, I've never been preachy about it.  I realized early on that if I was only going to have meals with vegetarians I was going to be eating alone a lot -- and if I got in people's faces about it, the end result would be the same.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it on a vegetarian diet after eating some amount of meat at almost every meal for 20 years, so I eased into it.  I stopped buying meat at the market, but continued to order anything off the menu when I went out, and didn't mention it when someone invited me over, I'd just eat whatever was being served.  But after a short period of time I realized it really wasn't a problem, so I stopped eating meat at restaurants, and I started letting friends know.  Most restaurants have something that a vegetarian can eat, and my friends were all happy to accommodate me; at first I tried to make sure nobody went to any trouble -- "Just cook whatever you were planning on, I'll just eat everything but the meat" -- but everyone seemed happy to make a meatless main dish or extra sides, so I never had any problems.

As I mentioned before, going vegetarian didn't seem to have much, if any, of a positive impact on my wonky gut.  But it certainly didn't have a negative impact, so I was happy with my choice.  If this current attempt at correcting my gut problems works, I hope to be able to get back to a vegetarian diet.  And if it doesn't work, I'll definitely be switching back!