I’m the kind of vegetarian that gives strict vegetarians fits. I don’t really stress about from where the gelatin in my food may be sourced, and I don’t freak out if I find out something I’m eating contains meat broth, although I’ll generally avoid it once I know.

I’m pesco-vegetarian in that I’ll eat fish, but because it just feels so unethical with the way the ocean’s being destroyed by overfishing, I eat fish so rarely I have trouble digesting even that.

I did it as a New Year’s resolution because at the time I was staying for three weeks with a pesco-veg friend and had just been ordering whatever she got at restaurants since I’d never been much out of the Midwest to see what there was to eat in the rest of the U.S., and had so much more energy that I just kept it up. I haven’t lost weight or anything, but it just feels good, and it’s a great motivation for me to keep trying new foods and doing my own health-conscious cooking.