Food again
I am considering adding chicken and turkey to my diet. This is terrifying.
I gave up eating meat at age 17, when I was dating a Hare Krishna guy who had been raised vegetarian. He would get rather offended when I'd eat meat in front of him, so I quit doing it and in the process lost about 15 lbs (which really needed to happen, I was quite the chubby teenager).
Looking back, I realize it wasn't because I was suddenly eating healthier stuff - it was because I had no idea how to eat vegetarian and so wasn't really eating much of anything. I would look in the cupboards at my mom's house and not find any good veggie snacks so I would just give up and have some water.
I also kept it a secret for the first 6 months.. I didn't tell my mom or my friends or anyone at all. That means that family dinners were smaller too - I would just not take any of the "main course" each night, relying on salad for the most part.
I was 100% vegetarian (ovo-lacto) for about 12 years. During that time I ran marathons, climbed
mountains, and generally became the overly active exercise nut that I am now, on very little protein.
As I got into weight lifting, I started craving more protein. I added fish to my diet in 2006, just before my 2+ month trip to Japan. Now I eat fish maybe 2-3x/week and I eat a LOT of protein powder.
Darrell was vegetarian for years and years too, and started eating fish along with me in 2006. He just added chicken and turkey back about 8 months ago and it's making him really really happy. He regularly cooks chicken just for our cat Biskit, who also appears to be incredibly happy with chicken. :)
So. Do I jump on this bandwagon?
Pros: Chicken breast is super healthy. Poultry in general is really good for humans. There are a million restaurants I don't visit because I don't eat anything on their menu, and those restaurants would suddenly become open to me. Also, many of the restaurants I do visit have healthy chicken entrees, and right now I have to order the cheesy tuna melt or the eggplant parmesan.. meaning I can't order the healthiest thing on the menu. This goes against the grain for me. Also, right now Darrell and I never cook for one another, ever, since we really don't ever eat the same thing. Could save on a lot of work..
Cons: Well.. it's .. chicken. It's meat. I could no longer label myself "vegetarian". I would feel like I spent the last 20 years of my life striving for an ideal, and it would feel like giving up. Factory farms blah blah blah. (I eat eggs all the time, am I just in denial?) Would my family make fun of me? Would my friends make fun of me? Could I chop the head off a chicken and gut it and pluck its feathers and am I OK with the truth of this bird, dying so I can eat dinner? I have no idea.
I was at whole foods, making a salad at the salad bar yesterday, and I stood there for probably 10 minutes, staring at the shredded tuna and the shredded chicken breast. I stared and stared.. and then went for the tuna. I couldn't do it yesterday.. but it's starting to feel a bit inevitable.
Any recovered vegetarians out there who have some advice for me?
I gave up eating meat at age 17, when I was dating a Hare Krishna guy who had been raised vegetarian. He would get rather offended when I'd eat meat in front of him, so I quit doing it and in the process lost about 15 lbs (which really needed to happen, I was quite the chubby teenager).
Looking back, I realize it wasn't because I was suddenly eating healthier stuff - it was because I had no idea how to eat vegetarian and so wasn't really eating much of anything. I would look in the cupboards at my mom's house and not find any good veggie snacks so I would just give up and have some water.
I also kept it a secret for the first 6 months.. I didn't tell my mom or my friends or anyone at all. That means that family dinners were smaller too - I would just not take any of the "main course" each night, relying on salad for the most part.
I was 100% vegetarian (ovo-lacto) for about 12 years. During that time I ran marathons, climbed
mountains, and generally became the overly active exercise nut that I am now, on very little protein.
As I got into weight lifting, I started craving more protein. I added fish to my diet in 2006, just before my 2+ month trip to Japan. Now I eat fish maybe 2-3x/week and I eat a LOT of protein powder.
Darrell was vegetarian for years and years too, and started eating fish along with me in 2006. He just added chicken and turkey back about 8 months ago and it's making him really really happy. He regularly cooks chicken just for our cat Biskit, who also appears to be incredibly happy with chicken. :)
So. Do I jump on this bandwagon?
Pros: Chicken breast is super healthy. Poultry in general is really good for humans. There are a million restaurants I don't visit because I don't eat anything on their menu, and those restaurants would suddenly become open to me. Also, many of the restaurants I do visit have healthy chicken entrees, and right now I have to order the cheesy tuna melt or the eggplant parmesan.. meaning I can't order the healthiest thing on the menu. This goes against the grain for me. Also, right now Darrell and I never cook for one another, ever, since we really don't ever eat the same thing. Could save on a lot of work..
Cons: Well.. it's .. chicken. It's meat. I could no longer label myself "vegetarian". I would feel like I spent the last 20 years of my life striving for an ideal, and it would feel like giving up. Factory farms blah blah blah. (I eat eggs all the time, am I just in denial?) Would my family make fun of me? Would my friends make fun of me? Could I chop the head off a chicken and gut it and pluck its feathers and am I OK with the truth of this bird, dying so I can eat dinner? I have no idea.
I was at whole foods, making a salad at the salad bar yesterday, and I stood there for probably 10 minutes, staring at the shredded tuna and the shredded chicken breast. I stared and stared.. and then went for the tuna. I couldn't do it yesterday.. but it's starting to feel a bit inevitable.
Any recovered vegetarians out there who have some advice for me?