born again vegetarian
i have seen the light. it took a long time...it's been about a year in the making. but i am done eating meat. which is an almost euphemistic way to say that i'm done eating the dead, rotting flesh of a creature. notice i don't say living, because plants are alive, and since we cannot photosynthesize, we are forced to get our energy and nutrients from living things. but as far as we know, plants are not conscious and do not feel pain. we could be wrong. but a plant doesn't bleed. a plant doesn't run away in fear. a plant doesn't wince or scream or gasp for air as its fluids and organs spill onto a dirty concrete floor.
i've known about the horrors of industrialized farming for a year now, but i wavered and faltered. this is mainly because i was very unhealthy, mentally and physically, and i wasn't really sure how to get myself on the right track. but after about 9 months of hard work, i got to a good place mentally, and beginning this year i started exercising regularly and finally, really, gave a shit about myself; living a good, healthy (for the most part) lifestyle. i was very successful at giving up cigarettes entirely. i've been diligent about going to the gym. so a healthier diet was naturally the next step. ok, limit processed foods. no desserts (which i might add i didn't eat much of anyway, as i often found them to taste terrible, but now i've cut them out completely). more fruits and vegetables and as much fresh food as possible. whole grains.
and then i was eating a hamburger and it occurred to me: how healthy can this really be? cholesterol warnings and heart health warnings almost always good hand in hand with a "limit red meat" warning.
then i had a conversation with my vegetarian coworker. i'm not sure how we got on the subject, but i confessed that i had felt continually guilty about eating meat.
let's backtrack for a second here. because this has actually been years in the making. it began one day when i was defrosting shrimp at my parents' house. they were headless, but still in their shells. as i poured them into the water, it dawned on me - these are the decapitated carcasses of an animal. this thing was swimming around the ocean minding its own business, and now it's dead. it's headless, dead fucking body. but, i let my human ego take over and managed to eat the shrimp anyway.
but it didn't end there. i used to love lobster, until i looked down at my plate one day and stared into those dead eyes. here was another carcass, a living thing boiled alive. it had probably been alive when i had walked in, and with a scream it was scalded to death and now sits on my plate.
fast forward to the times i have seen a whole chicken and a whole turkey. carcasses. "can i take the turkey carcass to make soup?" i cringed. and how about most recently, when i was chowing down on chicken wings and just happened to casually notice the tendon snapping from the muscle to the bone? funny how we call dead muscle tissue "meat". i just thought about how a complex set of nerves once allowed this thing to flap its wings - well, if it had any room to flap, seeing as how it was probably crammed in there with hundreds of other chickens.
then someone posted a picture with a caption about how gross chicken mcnuggets are. while it turns out it wasn't accurate, it got my thinking. "how can i justify my eating meat" i said. plus the picture, while a fake, looked very familiar. where had i seen something like that before? the movie smiley face; the scene where she's in the pork processing plant. while i knew industrialized farming was horrible, i still didn't quite have the full, dawning realization. i had that 3 weeks ago. i was out to dinner with a friend and decided to try the lentil burger at the restaurant i was at. i looked down at my burger and thought: "this isn't a dead cow." that's when it started dawning on me. two days later, i was perusing the sushi rolls at wegmans looking for something to eat. i looked at the tuna roll - and i saw the whole fish. i saw the fish squirming to get away from its untimely death. and i couldn't eat it. i got a veggie roll instead. and i haven't looked back.
so no chicken, no cow, no pig, no lamb, no turkey, no fish for three weeks. and i don't even miss it. even this veggie burger i'm eating seems little too much like the real thing. i have to keep reminding myself it's soy beans. how could i make such a drastic change overnight? i guess that when it finally hits you, it is, as they say, like seeing the light. but i'm no going to be an asshole about it. while i'm proud of my decision, i'm not going to tell people they should become vegetarian or they are going to hell. i will tell them what i know and what i've learned, but until you really, truly see it, you won't quit meat. just like drugs. until you see how horrible they really are, you won't be inclined to quit.
now one last thing i want to go over: i am not a vegan - yet. i have to completely switch around my eating habits and that's going to take some work. already i have found foods that won't be suitable once i finally make the switch. but it's coming. i already avoid eggs because of how horrifying the conditions or egg farms are. i already cringe when drinking milk because of the hormones in it. i need to really research my protein sources and become habitual at consuming those, then i'll be off animal completely. adding more vegetable, fruits and whole grains is very easy. it's finding bean sources of protein that are both easy and animal free that is the hard part. but i will get there. one step at a time. one choice after another. do i choose to put cream in my coffee? there's a huge step right there. can i find a protein shake without whey in it? i have to keep looking. but i will find these items. i am making progress.
i've known about the horrors of industrialized farming for a year now, but i wavered and faltered. this is mainly because i was very unhealthy, mentally and physically, and i wasn't really sure how to get myself on the right track. but after about 9 months of hard work, i got to a good place mentally, and beginning this year i started exercising regularly and finally, really, gave a shit about myself; living a good, healthy (for the most part) lifestyle. i was very successful at giving up cigarettes entirely. i've been diligent about going to the gym. so a healthier diet was naturally the next step. ok, limit processed foods. no desserts (which i might add i didn't eat much of anyway, as i often found them to taste terrible, but now i've cut them out completely). more fruits and vegetables and as much fresh food as possible. whole grains.
and then i was eating a hamburger and it occurred to me: how healthy can this really be? cholesterol warnings and heart health warnings almost always good hand in hand with a "limit red meat" warning.
then i had a conversation with my vegetarian coworker. i'm not sure how we got on the subject, but i confessed that i had felt continually guilty about eating meat.
let's backtrack for a second here. because this has actually been years in the making. it began one day when i was defrosting shrimp at my parents' house. they were headless, but still in their shells. as i poured them into the water, it dawned on me - these are the decapitated carcasses of an animal. this thing was swimming around the ocean minding its own business, and now it's dead. it's headless, dead fucking body. but, i let my human ego take over and managed to eat the shrimp anyway.
but it didn't end there. i used to love lobster, until i looked down at my plate one day and stared into those dead eyes. here was another carcass, a living thing boiled alive. it had probably been alive when i had walked in, and with a scream it was scalded to death and now sits on my plate.
fast forward to the times i have seen a whole chicken and a whole turkey. carcasses. "can i take the turkey carcass to make soup?" i cringed. and how about most recently, when i was chowing down on chicken wings and just happened to casually notice the tendon snapping from the muscle to the bone? funny how we call dead muscle tissue "meat". i just thought about how a complex set of nerves once allowed this thing to flap its wings - well, if it had any room to flap, seeing as how it was probably crammed in there with hundreds of other chickens.
then someone posted a picture with a caption about how gross chicken mcnuggets are. while it turns out it wasn't accurate, it got my thinking. "how can i justify my eating meat" i said. plus the picture, while a fake, looked very familiar. where had i seen something like that before? the movie smiley face; the scene where she's in the pork processing plant. while i knew industrialized farming was horrible, i still didn't quite have the full, dawning realization. i had that 3 weeks ago. i was out to dinner with a friend and decided to try the lentil burger at the restaurant i was at. i looked down at my burger and thought: "this isn't a dead cow." that's when it started dawning on me. two days later, i was perusing the sushi rolls at wegmans looking for something to eat. i looked at the tuna roll - and i saw the whole fish. i saw the fish squirming to get away from its untimely death. and i couldn't eat it. i got a veggie roll instead. and i haven't looked back.
so no chicken, no cow, no pig, no lamb, no turkey, no fish for three weeks. and i don't even miss it. even this veggie burger i'm eating seems little too much like the real thing. i have to keep reminding myself it's soy beans. how could i make such a drastic change overnight? i guess that when it finally hits you, it is, as they say, like seeing the light. but i'm no going to be an asshole about it. while i'm proud of my decision, i'm not going to tell people they should become vegetarian or they are going to hell. i will tell them what i know and what i've learned, but until you really, truly see it, you won't quit meat. just like drugs. until you see how horrible they really are, you won't be inclined to quit.
now one last thing i want to go over: i am not a vegan - yet. i have to completely switch around my eating habits and that's going to take some work. already i have found foods that won't be suitable once i finally make the switch. but it's coming. i already avoid eggs because of how horrifying the conditions or egg farms are. i already cringe when drinking milk because of the hormones in it. i need to really research my protein sources and become habitual at consuming those, then i'll be off animal completely. adding more vegetable, fruits and whole grains is very easy. it's finding bean sources of protein that are both easy and animal free that is the hard part. but i will get there. one step at a time. one choice after another. do i choose to put cream in my coffee? there's a huge step right there. can i find a protein shake without whey in it? i have to keep looking. but i will find these items. i am making progress.