Sunday, November 8, 2009

To Eat Meat?-That is the Question

I've never really liked meat, even when I was a child. I can remember ordering meals like fettuccine alfredo with grilled chicken and picking all of the meat out of it and maybe eating one or two small pieces. During Thanksgiving, Christmas or other holidays, I always loaded up on everything else besides the turkey or ham. And I never, ever, ever ate fish until just recently when I started trying to live a more healthy lifestyle.

So why do I keep eating meat if I really don't like it that much?

Well, because it is easier to find and eat quickly. And over the years I've bought into the myth that everyone always tells me about how I will waste away from lack of protein or iron if I don't eat meat.

Now I am starting to get grossed out about the prospect of eating meat for some strange reason. I can't exactly understand why, but lately I have been feeling like meat is so icky and gross. I'm not knocking anyone who wants to eat meat, but it is just not something that seems very appealing to me at the moment. Over the past couple of months, I have been eating mainly salmon and other fish, but then the other day this thought popped into my mind, "If pregnant women really aren't supposed to eat fish because of the mercury in fish, why the hell am I eating it?"

Then I started looking at the signs at the fish counter that were warning signs about mercury, those signs that had been there all along yet I just hadn't noticed until recently.

It seems that the more and more organic fruit and veggies that I eat, I feel better and I am more concerned about the things that I am putting into my body. The other day I went for drinks with a friend and I couldn't even drink half of my drink because I was so concerned that it would mess up my blood sugar and make me feel like crap.

So I've taken the next step about learning to live a meat free life and bought a book about vegetarianism and another about veganism. I would like to learn about the nutritional requirements, substitutes for meat and maybe even dairy, and learn to live without meat for a while in order to see if this is just a phase of mine or whether it will be a lifestyle change.

Who knows what path I will take. I suppose it will all boil down to how my body feels with or without having eaten meat for a while. Wish me luck on my new adventure!

5 comments:

  1. Come over to the veggie side!
    Its much nicer than carnivoreland :D

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  2. Well, I just might do that, the more I learn about it!

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  3. I went through the same thing, in a way. When I was a kid and realized where those burgers came from, I started questioning eating meat. Over the years, I started eliminating it, because the thought of eating flesh became more and more disturbing. I can't even remember when I quit eating it, all together. It's been a few years now.

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  4. Good point about why pregnant women will avoid certain fish due to the mercury! That advice SHOULD go to EVERYONE! Also, I've learned that being a vegetarian is better for the environment...maybe that is reason enough for me to change. I am not a vegetarian but I think about it a lot too! My husband is the only one amongst his blood siblings that isn't vegetarian or vegan!!! It tried to be a vegetarian in 8th grade...it didn't last long.

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  5. Good luck with your new adventure. I look forward to seeing how this will turn out for you.

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