be a vegetarian for a year

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So I’m making dinner for myself and my girlfriend’s son. I do this every Tuesday night while she is at class. He want’s Mini Bagel Pizza things. It’s an easy meal since they are basically just small frozen pizzas, so I throw enough for both of us in the oven. As I’m eating them I’m thinking to myself, “these are the BEST frozen pizzas I’ve every had!”. Even after dinner it persists. I’m fixated on how tasty they were, which is odd for me since I typically loath anything related to frozen pizzas. I’m so impressed that I go back into the kitchen so that I can look at the box, because I want to buy some to keep at my own house (so tasty they had been). Imagine my surprise when I see that they are PEPPERONI pizza bagel bites. ARGH!

I considered just looking past it as a mistake, but there were enough other factors that I decided to put this one on hold for a few months (possibly until the begining of next year).

And THAT, is the story of how a mini bagel pizza destroyed my hopes of being a vegetarian for 2006.

My girlfriend used to be a vegetarian (a few years back). This year we decided to BOTH go vegetarian (fish is OK). When we first decided to do it she (along with everyone else) was so certain that I would cave in fairly quickly, that she decided to give up caffiene while she was at it. Well, long story short, she still is off the caffiene (good on her!), but she has officially given up the vegetarian lifestyle. It’s not that big of a deal, because she doesn’t typically eat a lot of meat anyway. But it still makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something! Only 10 months and a few days to go! ;)

OK when I started this goal on Jan 1, I knew that there would be 2 exceptions. The exceptions are now officially out of the way. Which is good. I think the exceptions just make things harder. Just for the record I will not have been a vegetarian for a full year until Jan. 30, 2007. (assuming I can do it…)

17 days into being a vegetarian, and I finally tried something with “wheat meat”. So there is some process whereby wheat (and I’m assuming a number of other non-meat items) are transformed into something that closely resembles meat. I’m afraid of that process. I don’t know what exactly is involved in that process, nor do I want to. All I know is that in the end I can still be a vegetarian, even though I’m eating something that for all intents and purposes is sausage. I’m not necessarily a sausage fan, per se, but the meat cravings I’ve already had (I had to watch my family eat roasted chicken the other night :( ) might someday push me to the point where some wheat meat sausage is the only thing that will help to keep me on the vegetarian bandwagon.

So far so good… to be fair I’m still eating fish. My “ridiculously high cholesterol” is the main motivator for my pursuing this goal. Because of that I decided that my own personal interpretation of “vegetarianism” would allow eating fish. That being said, I don’t feel like I’m really a vegetarian yet. I feel like I’ve just eaten a lot of fish since the first of the year.

Well I’m going to give it a go. People who know me and know I’m trying this don’t think I’ll be able to make it past March. (say’s a lot about me… ;) )