Happy 4th
of July everyone! Or as I see it, ‘let’s eat really unhealthy food and drink a lot
in celebration of our country’. I am sure in my younger years I had a turkey
burger or two to celebrate and more than enough beer to intoxicate a horse but
truly times have changed and so have I. I
came to realize 2 years ago that meat was just not a sustainable thing to
consume. It was mostly about what I’d read that is truly in our food and in our
nation’s meat. I couldn’t handle it; it had to stop for me. A couple of weeks before
July 4th 2010 I stopped eating meat. I never felt better! I was skinnier,
happier and excited for my new journey as a vegetarian! Apparently I had never
ate that much meat to begin with, a fact I would realize later when people
asked me, ‘don’t I miss it?’ well no I don’t because I really didn’t have that
much of it to begin with, some grilled chicken here or there but nothing crazy.
I had always been weight conscious and knew that eating ‘heavy’ meats would
cause me to gain weight, something I did NOT want to do. The amount of times I
have had a cow burger I could most likely count on one hand, it just wasn’t for
me. I will never forget the 4th of July BBQ I went to at my
boyfriend’s family’s house, a beautiful pool and buckets of meat. There were of
course other things but I was proud of my choice and excited for the next step,
learning more about meatless recipes!
Anyway this
blog is mostly to commemorate my choice to go vegetarian, to stop eating the
animals I loved. At first it never was about the animal cruelty or the environment;
I started purely for selfish reasons, to be skinny! In fact Skinny Bitch was
the book that finally pushed me over the edge into vegetarianism, and for good
reason! It is a fantastic, skinny (hehe) book that outlines what’s really in
the food we eat every day! I had read it a couple years before this and thought,
‘f this, I still want my splenda and chicken, who cares about this stuff! The
government endorses it, it can’t be that bad’. Oh how silly a thought process
that was! However, the second time around reading my Skinny Bitch book I
realized what I needed to do, give up meat. As I said it was a pretty easy
thing for me to do, every once and awhile I’d notice it but nothing I didn’t
combat with, ‘I’m skinnier, happier and saving myself and the animals!’ People
did not understand my choice and many still don’t (to be vegan). For me this is
hard, something I struggle with every day when there is SO MUCH evidence out
there as to why America needs to cut its meat consumption. Even the UN
suggested meatless Mondays would prevent a whole host of global warming
problems! But let’s not get political right now, I hate confrontation and people
will come to their own choices in their own time, just like I did. No vegan or
vegetarian was breathing down my neck about my choices and I try SO HARD not to
do that to others. So in the spirit of freedom, which we do have quite a bit of
in this country, enjoy your 4th of July! (maybe meat free?! J)
