I have considered going vegetarian several times in my life. The first time I remember clearly, I had told my mum that I didn’t want to eat animals anymore. She gave me a look, and promptly put chicken strew in front on me, that was the end of that conversation.
I tried again when I was in uni and lasted about 7 days until I was drunk and ate a ham and pineapple pizza. Through my 20’s I have dabbled with it and often reduced my red meat intake and had vegetarian days. I have just never managed to cross over to full blown veggie.
A few months ago however I watched a documentary that changed the way I saw meat altogether. It was called Vegutacted. 20 minutes in I was in floods of tears and my boyfriend had to calm me down, it took me days before I could even look at meat.
I have been a meat eater born and bred; my family weren’t open to the idea that meat could be a bad thing. My dad’s family had been farmers once up on a time, and as a working class unit we ate what was put in front of us no questions asked. Now that I am in my 30’s however my meals are planned by me, I shop; I choose what goes into my body. I have to take responsibility for what effect my eating habits have.
As a lover of animals (I am a crazy cat lady and I talked to dogs in the street) how can I reconcile eating meat with having pets? True I don’t have a pet cow or pig; although it’s not for want of trying (I love pigs). I do however cuddle up at night with my cat, I love him, I kiss him, I talk to him….yes I know I sound a bit loopy. But I genuinely believe he has feelings and thoughts of his own, I believe he loves me back, and I wouldn’t eat a cat. What makes other animals different?
The thing is I do love eating meat, and as someone who does a LOT of exercise protein is very important to me. I do by free range meat as much as I can and try to keep to at least 2 meat free days a week. With this in mind however I am going to embark on a ‘meat free adventure’.
This time next week I am heading to a yoga retreat with Adventure Yogi, there I was have some yummy veggie food and have a full weekend of rejuvenation. Where better to start a month with no meat!
As part of my journey I will be blogging about this experience and sharing hopefully my food triumphs!