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Going completely vegetarian for vegetarian awareness month: Can she do it?
What happens when you take one die-hard meat eater and watch her go meat-less for Vegetarian Awareness Month? Will she make it? What problems will she have? And, most importantly, what will happen to her when Vegetarian Awareness Month is over? Will she go back to eating meat?
It’s the classic battle of wills: Will her conscience win over her insatiable yearning for beef? Or will she succumb and dig into a heaping plate of pork?
In today’s guest post, Lauren, our beautiful and brainy heroine, will tell us why she decided to go vegetarian for the month. Then, in Monday’s post, she will look back on a long, long month of longing and tell us if she will go back to meat or stay on this new, vegetarian path she fought so hard to forge.
Going vegetarian
by Lauren Harb of HarbKnockLife
A few Fridays ago, driving to meet some friends for dinner, I passed a giant truck packed tightly with what looked like Foster Farms impostor chickens—filthy, sad, animals. I was all dressed up to enjoy my evening, and here they were, right alongside me, having a totally different Friday night. Typically I am able to skillfully ignore the connection between sweet, live animals and the food I eat. Maybe I was wrong to assume these chickens were on death row, but they sure looked like they were. I couldn’t shake their image once at the restaurant, so I ordered tofu for dinner
A week later, on October 1st, I realized it was World Vegetarian Day. Since I enjoy meat often I thought it would be a nice gesture to skip it for a day. Not only was it a salute to those poor chickens, but to vegetarians, especially those that actually like meat, who make the sacrifice to live without it. The minute I found that October is actually Vegetarian Awareness Month, I posted my commitment to (temporarily) stop eating animal products on Twitter, knowing if I didn’t go public with my intention it’d be too easy to quit.
Four years ago I stopped eating dairy because it insisted on giving me a semi-permanent sinus infection. Meat, however, I’ve never really wanted to give up. I was raised eating an animal protein with every meal and I’ve never been one to turn down steak. Besides, quitting cheese was hard enough—why would I want to deprive myself further?
Maybe I don’t. Maybe come November I’ll revert to my old ways. I certainly fantasized I would for the first ten days of veganism. I was exhausted, hungry and unsatisfied until, somewhere in the middle of week two, I began to adjust. Watching other people eat chicken, meat, and to some extent fish and eggs, stopped tempting me and started repulsing me. I also started to enjoy a diet of grains, legumes, fruits, veggies and nuts.
Today is my 19th day eating like a vegan, and it’s all starting to feel worth it. I thought the hardest part about my new diet would be navigating menus that cater to carnivores or getting sufficient nutrients. But that stuff’s easy compared to my biggest challenge: avoiding dinner with my old-fashioned, Middle Eastern parents, who, if they realize what I am up to will no doubt build a spit in our own backyard, cook some poor animal on it, and force me to eat it lest I die of vegetarianism.
… What will happen to our gorgeous guest poster? Will the lovely Lauren run home to harbknocklife.com, forgetting about her meatless month? Or will she stay the path, ordering off the vegetarian menu of life? Stay tuned for answers to these questions, and more, this Monday!
Comments
9 Responses to “Going completely vegetarian for vegetarian awareness month: Can she do it?”
Leave a Reply
October 28th, 2009 @ 8:23 am
i am so amused. i can imagine your mom, exactly as my own family would do – “ya aib as-shoom! ya haraam! shoo maalak? ahmed, go dig a pit. yallah, ali, go grab a goat from the lahham.” *starts chopping parsley and onions and cooking rice and potatoes for the filling*
good luck for your month of health and aware eating! sahtain!
October 28th, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
shukran! good to know i’m not alone!
October 29th, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
shukran for a great blog
Mi,
Vegetarian for 12 years
October 30th, 2009 @ 3:13 pm
I think it’s admirable to take a principled stand. There are so many good reasons to not eat meat, foremost amongst them, the ethical responsibilities we have to other sentient creatures and the environmental impact that meat eating has on our fragile ecosystem. I am a meat eater and I wish Mr. Harb the best outcome to her month long journey into veganism.
October 30th, 2009 @ 11:23 pm
thanks for your feedback (and for calling me mr. harb!). I appreciate all the kind words and support.
November 8th, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
i am so amused. i can imagine your mom, exactly as my own family would do – “ya aib as-shoom! ya haraam! shoo maalak? ahmed, go dig a pit. yallah, ali, go grab a goat from the lahham.” *starts chopping parsley and onions and cooking rice and potatoes for the filling*
good luck for your month of health and aware eating! sahtain!
January 11th, 2010 @ 6:45 am
[...] meat eater was our very own Lauren and she wrote all about her experience as a new vegetarian here. Then, when her month as a vegetarian was over, and Lauren decided to stay vegetarian, she told us [...]
January 30th, 2010 @ 7:06 am
Well done Lauren. Sounds like you are enjoying being a vegetarian!! I have not eaten meat for 12 years. occassionally I eat fish. I often get asked why dont you eat meat? I have to ask in return why DO you eat meat? Really Why. what are the benifits? What do you get from meat that you cant get from another source. Eating dead flesh is not good for your body or your mind. More importantley not good for the poor animal that had to die and suffer doing it just to fill your belly. I find more reasons not to eat meat than to eat it. You will get answers like ‘oh but I wasnt the one that killed the animal’ OK but if it was you the one who had to go and cut of the chickens head with an axe and watch its body squirming around in pain and confusion would those chiken legs still taste as good?? Or if you watched the cattle get stunned by electric shock and cut apart while they are still alive would you still like the taste of that bloodied steak? Yeah well, I have made my desicion and it is only up to the individual to realize what is best for us. GOOD LUCK LAUREN. Wishing you lots of delicious vegetarian meals xxx
March 8th, 2010 @ 6:39 am
[...] months ago, the supple and brilliant Lauren of harbknocklife decided to go vegan. For a whole month. Vegetarian Awareness Month, to be [...]