my foray into vegetarianism

[Whatchamacallit]

You should check out The China Study sometime Coolio-- it's a layperson-level 'translation' of a 20 years of comparative studies of traditional Chinese diets to the North American average diet. In short: North Americans eat too much protein, and calories in general for their activity level. Way too much.

Excellent read! It's a must for people that are considering eliminating animal-based protein from their diet. It will change the way you look at the S-H-I-T we eat.

 

[Changed]

First off, kudos to you for taking a leap towards something you believe in. I'm glad it was being a veg head, but taking a stand on anything you feel is worth changing for builds character.

I imagine the disgust with meat is very common to newly initiated veg heads. I remember my family going to a steak house and it was like finding out about the matrix. You just feel so ignorant; yes you know where the meat you were eating came from, but you never really thought about it. I mean, sat down and really understood the big picture. My moment of revelation came from my GF in college. We were at the beach and a jellyfish had been swept ashore. I took a stick and started poking holes in it. I mean it was a fucking jellyfish, it is about as low as it goes on the totem pole of life. Who knows if it even feels pain. The point she made though is, it doesn't matter. Do you respect life or don't you? If you don't have to kill another living thing to survive, why do it? Smart girl, I ended up marrying her. And yes, if I didn't have to kill the cute little fucking broccoli sprout to survive I wouldn't do that either.

I'm curious about the heckling you have received. So far I haven't met any that I haven't been able to deal with. More often than not it is from someone who never thought about it and is prone to needing to be part of the mainstream. Generally I can call them out by asking them what takes more courage? Falling into line or taking a stand for what you believe in and beating back the inevitable criticism that comes with stepping out of line. Most women don't give you shit for being a veg head. As for guys, even if they don't understand it most guys can respect the viewpoint of taking a stand even if they don't understand why you are doing it.

One piece of advice, do what you like, but my personal preference is to never talk about it to anyone who doesn't expressly ask for detailed reasons for doing what you do. We get a bad name from people who try to preach the vegetarianism like it was a religion.

Anyway, if it wasn't painfully obvious I'm a veg head for moral, not health reasons. Although, with the amount of drugs I have run though my system I'm sure it only helps. Anyway, be glad you are doing it now rather than 14 years ago when I made the switch. Back then it was fairly rare in the US. I remember going to burger king and ordering a burger with no meat. The girl at the register looked at me like I was insane. "You want the bun, the cheese, the ketchup, the tomato, the onion, BUT NOT THE BURGER?!?!" If I wasn't so god damn hungry I would have waited until I was home, but I patiently explained it to her again. Hell, now you can go to restaurants and actually have choices for what to eat! Anyway, congrats I think it is a healthly lifestyle to choose both morally and physically.

Cheers,
Jason

I think I already mentioned it, but I'm doing it for the health reasons.

The people that I got the most heckling from were my close friends. This has stopped as a few months have gone by. I don't bring my diet up to anybody that doesn't ask. When they do ask, the question is usually: "Why are you a vegetarian." They are typically dumb-struck when I answer, truthfully, "I was reading Gandhi's Wikipedia page and had a flash of inspiration." People don't really want to hear why you don't eat meat; they are simply looking to start an argument.

 

[Mr_Fluffykins]

I tried being a vegetarian once for lent when i was a child, because i didnt like steak because my parents always gave it to me well done to make sure i owuldnt get sick as a child,

then i tried rare steak, now i truthfully couldnt go without red meat, i get intense cravigns its my primal urge,

on the other hand my sister is a vegetarian, just because she doesnt like the way meat tastes

me personally i could go without pork, but fully fatty beef i could not

but each to his own, as longas your substituting your protien well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5vSia_tLeI