Ha.
Okay, that thing about limiting my calories was just me talking out of the wrong orifice again. However, I have recently been working on a change, with some degree of success. I'm trying to stop eating meat. This isn't for my health or as a way to lose weight. I think this is because I finally got enough messages, in a short enough period of time, that told me that eating meat requires me to pretend it is unrelated to the mistreatment (or we could call it torture) and then deaths of animals. Some points that came up over the space of a few days:
--One day, while driving past a green field of cattle with tags punched into their ears, I thought, these days, I always slow down, or even turn around and go back, to make sure whether an animal on the road is "roadkill" or if it is only injured and could be gotten to a rehabber. In effect, when I see an animal, I feel compelled to help it. If I met a cow in my travels, my instinct would be to look into its eyes, talk softly to it and pet it. If I were asked to take care of a cow for a farmer, I'd probably begin to see it as my buddy and would never let it go back and get slaughtered.
--You may laugh at this, but I think this story contributed too. It's about a goose, in a park, who loves a person.
--Headline News host Jane Velez Mitchell covered proposed Ag-gag legislation which, to varying extents in different states, makes it a crime to make or possess recordings of what happens on a farm without the owners' permission. The link for this point contains upsetting descriptions, by the way, just as the HLN report contained upsetting video. Also, a desire to hide what they're doing makes me think there really is a lot of awful stuff going on.
Seems like I'm leaving something out from that week. There are all kinds of things I think of from time to time, though. What makes people think it's okay to eat another species? The fact that we're more technologically advanced than they are? My cats and dogs can't post on LJ (yet) but I would never eat them, no matter how hungry I was. The idea that we "need" that kind of protein? I don't know that we do anymore. There's quinoa and other protein sources, there's food combination (the specifics of which I don't even really know) and there's still dairy and eggs (still not a good situation for the animals, who often live in horrible conditions and die after they're no longer productive--I definitely have to figure out how to cut these things out of my diet later on). The idea that "God gave us the animals to 'use'"? That's bullshit, like so much other bullshit in that book. Y'know, I can remember one of my grandmothers making soup from a turtle when I was little. Even before I started trying to make this change, I would never have eaten a turtle or its eggs. What's so different, in my mind, between a turtle and a chicken? Big, brown doggie eyes and big, brown cow eyes? My lithe and graceful cats and a slickly swimming salmon? They all want to live out their lives, unmolested.
I can't even help but think about whether it's really good to eat a meat substitute. How would I explain, if a chicken could ask me, why I want a seitan recipe that really tastes like chicken? "I'm just really used to something that tastes like--well--like you, Clucky." Thankfully, that conversation will probably never happen. I am going to keep experimenting with the substitutes, to try and succeed at this.
Since starting this, I've broken down and eaten meat, I think, three times. Once twelve days in, then two weeks later, then about three days later. Now, I think it's been either one or two weeks? I'm trying to do it gradually, as was advised on a website I found by googling "how to stop eating meat" or "how can I stop eating meat" or something similar. If my stomach literally feels painfully empty, I get some kind of meat and then get right back on the wagon that day. I try to make sure I'm eating some kind of protein. Beans. Nuts. Dairy (I know). Eggs (I know).
Some months back, my mom was talking about someone hunting, or someone raising and slaughtering their own food, or something. My bf said, 'Hearing about that stuff really bothers me.' Mom said, 'Well, how is it any different from y'all eating a hamburger?' Our answer was that 'we are disconnected from the knowledge of where our food comes from and,' my bf added, 'we want to stay that way.' I don't think staying that way works for me anymore. Thanks for reading.
--One day, while driving past a green field of cattle with tags punched into their ears, I thought, these days, I always slow down, or even turn around and go back, to make sure whether an animal on the road is "roadkill" or if it is only injured and could be gotten to a rehabber. In effect, when I see an animal, I feel compelled to help it. If I met a cow in my travels, my instinct would be to look into its eyes, talk softly to it and pet it. If I were asked to take care of a cow for a farmer, I'd probably begin to see it as my buddy and would never let it go back and get slaughtered.
--You may laugh at this, but I think this story contributed too. It's about a goose, in a park, who loves a person.
--Headline News host Jane Velez Mitchell covered proposed Ag-gag legislation which, to varying extents in different states, makes it a crime to make or possess recordings of what happens on a farm without the owners' permission. The link for this point contains upsetting descriptions, by the way, just as the HLN report contained upsetting video. Also, a desire to hide what they're doing makes me think there really is a lot of awful stuff going on.
Seems like I'm leaving something out from that week. There are all kinds of things I think of from time to time, though. What makes people think it's okay to eat another species? The fact that we're more technologically advanced than they are? My cats and dogs can't post on LJ (yet) but I would never eat them, no matter how hungry I was. The idea that we "need" that kind of protein? I don't know that we do anymore. There's quinoa and other protein sources, there's food combination (the specifics of which I don't even really know) and there's still dairy and eggs (still not a good situation for the animals, who often live in horrible conditions and die after they're no longer productive--I definitely have to figure out how to cut these things out of my diet later on). The idea that "God gave us the animals to 'use'"? That's bullshit, like so much other bullshit in that book. Y'know, I can remember one of my grandmothers making soup from a turtle when I was little. Even before I started trying to make this change, I would never have eaten a turtle or its eggs. What's so different, in my mind, between a turtle and a chicken? Big, brown doggie eyes and big, brown cow eyes? My lithe and graceful cats and a slickly swimming salmon? They all want to live out their lives, unmolested.
I can't even help but think about whether it's really good to eat a meat substitute. How would I explain, if a chicken could ask me, why I want a seitan recipe that really tastes like chicken? "I'm just really used to something that tastes like--well--like you, Clucky." Thankfully, that conversation will probably never happen. I am going to keep experimenting with the substitutes, to try and succeed at this.
Since starting this, I've broken down and eaten meat, I think, three times. Once twelve days in, then two weeks later, then about three days later. Now, I think it's been either one or two weeks? I'm trying to do it gradually, as was advised on a website I found by googling "how to stop eating meat" or "how can I stop eating meat" or something similar. If my stomach literally feels painfully empty, I get some kind of meat and then get right back on the wagon that day. I try to make sure I'm eating some kind of protein. Beans. Nuts. Dairy (I know). Eggs (I know).
Some months back, my mom was talking about someone hunting, or someone raising and slaughtering their own food, or something. My bf said, 'Hearing about that stuff really bothers me.' Mom said, 'Well, how is it any different from y'all eating a hamburger?' Our answer was that 'we are disconnected from the knowledge of where our food comes from and,' my bf added, 'we want to stay that way.' I don't think staying that way works for me anymore. Thanks for reading.