be vegetarian again

this was so easy before i met chris. i need to move in to my house and start cooking again. its so much better for your health, the environment (yes, i know), and for all the other animals that go through shit just so you can have a good dinner.

I’m just not ready. I AM committed to eating far less meat than I currently do, for both health and environmental reasons, so I’m not really giving up, but will post any progress on this goal under either of those two goals.

Yay! I started back being vegetarian today! July 23, 2007. :D

and I’ve already had my first “failure dream”! Last night I dreamt that I was chowing down an eggroll when somebody pointed out that there is pork in egg rolls. I looked down inside it and saw that it was loaded almost entirely with strips of medium rare beef. I immediately gave it to M to finish, but I was wracked with guilt.
I used to get those “oops! I forgot I wasn’t doing that anymore” dreams all the time when I was quitting smoking – I’d wake up feeling mad at myself for caving, only to realize that yay! it was just a dream! phew! :+)

Today is the first day of my First Cleanse… for the next 15 days I will be, among other things, meat-free. I’m really quite excited! I’ve been running through my mind all of my favorite veggie dishes – portobello ‘burger’; broccoli-feta bulgar; pita pizzas; cheesy squash-rice casserole; red lentil spaghetti sauce… ooo, so many good eats!! I have to keep it simple for the first week though – trying to take it easy on my poor gut while I detox, but even after the 15 days, I am making it my goal to work a whole lot more vegetarian choices into our menus. For so many wholesome reasons.

Going meat & poultry-free from May 18 to June 2 while on the First Cleanse program. I think I WILL eat fish during that time though, but will stick to wild-caught fish.

Apparently in a drunken fugue I agreed to support my SOs neice in her efforts to be vegetarian by also going meat-free, but I completely forgot about that promise!! Well, since I’m not ‘there yet’, I’m just not ready to commit to being veggie yet, I offered last night to at least support her by introducing her to tofu. She’s going to come over Friday for an early supper before M’s game; I’m making tofu fajitas – soooo delish. She’s gonna love ‘em (well, actually, she’s a pretty picky eater, and she might not love ‘em, but I’m okay with that too).

I was meat-free for a year before I met my SO. I love most meats – I think they’re really very yummy – but I decided to try a year without meat for health (including tainted-meat worries) and ethical reasons. Foolishly, I put both concerns aside when M cooked up a pot-roast (into our fourth month together) and I started salivating. From there, my discipline and will took a sharp nose-dive. That was 2 1/2 years ago, and I’ve gotten WAY off course – I’ve all but abandoned what was once a passionate pursuit and an ethical standard I was proud of. Lately, I’ve noticed an escalating want to try again. Especially since I just read this little tidbit in Grist (Feb 6):

“In late November [2006], the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN] issued a startling report claiming that livestock production emits fully 18 percent of global greenhouse gases—more than all the automobiles in the world.”