One of my goals before I turn 26 was to eat vegetarian for a week. I’ve never gone without meat for that long, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I figured if I could go without Facebook for a week and drink only water for a week, I could do this! For about two and a half years, I stopped eating red meat, but I still ate the crap out of chicken and turkey.
I knew I wanted to do this challenge in October, as it’s Vegetarian Month! I started the day I got back from Utah, and it wasn’t hard at all. As long as I can eat cheese, I still have lots of options. My dad bought me a grilled cheese sandwich, and they chopped up bacon and put it in the cheese. I didn’t realize at first, so that was a slip up. I also went to Taco Bell (one of the only fast food places you can go when you don’t want only fries on a vegetarian diet), but they put meat on everything. I was really sad because I was starving, but I was proud of myself for not eating it!
Lots of people close to me have been vegetarian and vegan for large portions of time, so I’m used to the challenges that these kinds of dietary restrictions place. This is going to come in handy, because, get this: Meat Is Gross To Me Now. I’ve tried four different types of meats since my week long restrictions were lifted, and each one was awful. I couldn’t get through any of the food and the idea of meat is really unappealing right now. It’s so weird! I didn’t think that a week would change my lifestyle, but apparently it has. At least for now.
Have you ever eaten vegetarian? Did you face any challenges?
Isn’t it weird how you can just like click and realize meat is fleshy chewy living things? I still like the taste and texture of meat, but I get a kick out of saying the word MEAT in a really dramatic way, which helps to remind me that it was previously some cute blinking animal with the ability to feel things. So, I keep trying and can manage a vegan diet about, maybe 80% of the time.
My main challenges are just being lazy and being surrounded by meat and wanting a simple meal solution, and remembering that I like the taste of meaty things. Also, doing it alone is really hard because I will gobble meat leftovers like nobody’s business if given the offer. And sometimes I will splurge and buy a chicken sandwich. But then I stick my lip out in sadness thinking about the scared chickens and I feel guilty and gross. So I have to keep pushing myself to try new recipes and remind myself that I enjoy cooking. It’s rewarding, I just have to remember why I keep at it.
You’re super cool for trying it out, and Taco Bell has a seven layer meatless burrito that’s pretty tasty. I prefer it grilled and with clever sexual hot sauces.
I first starting eating mostly vegetarian (I eat seafood occasionally) when I was in my 20s, about 30 years ago. The hardest thing for me to give up was McDonald hamburgers. I would smell them from the inside of a closed car when I drove past. It was so hard to not turn into that drive-up.
I hit a bump in my vegetarian diet in March when I discovered and can’t stomach soy products anymore. It is very hard to find quick meals that don’t have soy. I’ve only found one pre-made veggie burger I like … Annie’s California Burger. Mark Bittman has a recipe for burgers made with oatmeal and nuts that is very good, but usually I don’t want to make from scratch. I have to try making those and freezing to see if that works. Mostly I live on grains these days, particularly quinoa. And raw veggies and I don’t like cooked. And I also don’t like mushrooms. I’m a very bad vegetarian 🙂
I pretty much stopped eating meat a few years ago, and it was a total non-event. I’ve tried the vegan thing very briefly…I made it a week once, as part of my ‘goals for 2010’. I’ve tried many times to find alternates to dairy. I’m fine without eggs, but dairy…wow. Yogurt and ice cream are nice with coconut milk substitutes, but cereal and milk is a staple, and I just can’t find a milk substitute that fills the craving for milk. Rice milk comes the closest for me, almond, hemp and coconut are ok, soy is wretched. Also, CHEESE. Haven’t even bothered trying for substitutes there, I’ve never even heard of a vegan cheese that anyone thought was cheesy.
I shouldn’t pretend that dairy is my only vegan hangup though, because I will give up sushi when I die. 😀
Wow! That’s really interesting that meat is gross to you now. And I bet it was hard to pass up Taco Bell. Good for you for completing your challenge. 🙂
As soon as I moved out on my room, meat stopped being much of a staple of my diet. But mainly because it was so expensive. I only eat it once in a while now. Have you gone back to eating it?