A Month of Meatlessness

[thistlechaser]

(Before I get into this, I want to make sure everyone knows that I am writing this just about me. I'm not judging anyone who does or doesn't eat meat, eggs, or human flesh -- all this just relates to me, my experiences, and my goals. Go forth and do whatever makes you yourself feel best!)

Well, my first thought is that this is really easy. Tons easier than I had thought it would be. Would you believe I haven't had one serious craving for meat yet? (Not counting the times advertisers show juicy burgers on TV. If I let them, they'd pull me back in, but it's pretty easy not to let them make me fool myself into going back to eating meat. Oh, I guess that takes more explaining:

I figured out why I've eaten meat as long as I have. It's something I do in a pretty regular basis in my life: I knowingly fooled myself and suppressed certain feelings. When I look at a cut of meat now, with bones and white stuff and red meat on it, it makes me want to vomit or cry (or both). This isn't some reaction I've developed in the last month, this is something I've always felt but I couldn't let myself feel it or think about if I was going to eat meat, so I pushed it aside. All it takes to continue with this new lifestyle is to stop kidding myself. To be honest.

I like animals. The sight of one hurt or bleeding or dead makes me really sad, even if I didn't know the animal. Hunting makes me want to shoot the humans doing it. I do not want to cause pain to animals, I don't want to see their dead bodies. Heck, I don't want them to die. If their only purpose in life is to die to become meat, I'd rather they not be born. (I mean don't breed them, not go out and give cows abortions...)

So now when I see a burger ad on TV, my first reaction is 'mmm, looks good!', but a second later it kicks in that that was a cow, and then it was a big mound of poor bleeding flesh. That makes me sick and sad, not hungry.

As a side effect of not eating meat, I almost never go to fast food places anymore. (When I do, it's to get a salad.) This is a big, good side effect. No matter how sick I aways felt after eating fast food, I always kept going back because 1) it was fast and easy, and 2) it often tasted good at the time.

Things I still need to do: Eat more veggies, try more things. I've been a lot worse about this than I want to. Beans, beans, the musical fruit are at the top of my list. I need to get some and make some and try some. Eggplant would be an easy one (I can get it made at the Italian place I go to, they prepare it just like they do chicken), I just need to be brave enough to try it. (No, I don't know why eggplant scares me, it just seems really odd.) Peppers are on my list, too. Need to go to that Mongolian place and get stir-fry.

I suspect I need to eat less pasta. I tend to have it almost daily (as dinner), that's probably too often. (Breakfast is cereal, lunch is either a salad or a peanut butter sandwich or popcorn.) If I don't eat less pasta, I need to not add cheese to it. (In general this isn't a big problem, it's just that I have lots of cheese in the fridge at the moment so it's easy to add it.) Oh, and I'm trying to lessen cheese for fat/calorie reasons, not because of ethical reasons. I know eggs and cheese can be ... heck, I shouldn't fool myself with "can be", *are* just as bad, but cutting eggs and cheese right now would probably be too much. Maybe I can make that step later, once I have more things I can eat. (And I'm not sure if they're better or not, but the supermarket sells "cageless eggs", so I get those.)

Issues: At first I thought this was diet-related, then I remembered that it's really not new at all. I have zero energy and even less focus. Instead of blaming it on food, I think this most likely comes from me getting four to five and a half hours of sleep a night. I feel slightly better on weekends when I get eight hours, and wonderful on vacations when I get eight hours many nights in a row. Stress is a big issue, too.

I can't really say that this month went really fast or really slow. It doesn't feel like I've been eating this way only a month, it feels like years. The only thing I don't like about the change is that I have to put more thought and planning into food than I'd like to, but really, that's not too bad of a thing, is it?

Comments

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

Beans are a seriously good idea. You need protein to live. Nuts are also good for that...Nuts're somewhat fatty, but it's mostly unsaturated. Plus, the fat content makes you feel 'fuller.'

As far as beans go, though, there are probably hundreds of varieties, and nigh-infinite ways to prepare them. Just something to keep in mind if you find your first bean experience (man, that's so freaking hard to believe) lackluster.

Rice and beans are the vegetarian's friend. Rice combined with beans will give you most of the things you need to live. And because it's such an adaptable food (with varieties from all around the world), you can add all sorts of other stuff for flavor, vitamins, et cetera.

Eggplant is something of a 'meat subtitute.' It's a fairly 'meaty' vegetable, and often serves in its place. Very good stuff, too. Another item along those lines are portobello mushrooms...marinate and grill those puppies, and you'll wonder why you've been depriving yourself for so long.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

your first bean experience (man, that's so freaking hard to believe)

I so enjoy boggling you. :)

I might try some sort of bean soup or... salad or something. Heck, I think Alton Brown did an ep on beans, I should hunt that down.

Another item along those lines are portobello mushrooms...marinate and grill those puppies, and you'll wonder why you've been depriving yourself for so long.

Blech! Yuck! Won't ever eat a mushroom. No no no.

You need protein to live.

Yeah. I think cheese gives some? And I eat peanut butter a couple times a week. And, um. Cheese. Yeah, gotta get onto that beans thing...

Thanks!

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

So you say. But I can absolutely guarantee that I could give you a piece of portobello mushroom prepared as above, and you would not have any idea it was a mushroom if I didn't tell you. If all you've had is poorly prepared button mushrooms (which wouldn't surprise me), the difference is like that between a Big Wheel and a BMW. Seriously. Totally different animal.

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Agree 100%. Mushrooms are GOOD. I'd put mushrooms in every non-sweet thing I eat if I could, even button ones. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eeeehhh. Well. Maybe one day I'll try one, but I'll probably have to be pretty hungry first. Sorry, but I'm not giving in on this one!

(And hey, our icons fit together. That's cute!)

[shadowfey.livejournal.com]

Portabello mushrooms are indeed a different creation from what I think you're thinking of, though I don't know your other mushroom experiences. However, even button mushrooms can be good if properly prepared - assuming we're not talking right out of a tin or jar; such things are vile apostate imitators of what a true mushroom can be.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've never eaten a mushroom before in my life. (And don't ask me how I know I don't like them then, I just do! ;) ) I've lived my life pretty much on fast food and peanut butter and popcorn, there are tons of common foods that I've never tried once (anything from the sea, most vegetables, and such. I didn't try whipped cream for the first time until I was in my teens!) I was an odd child, and I haven't quite grown out of that yet.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Why is cheese bad? Cheese kills no animals in its creation.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not really sure how dairy cows are kept. What I am sure of is that it must be as cheaply as it can be, which seems unlikely that it would be good for the animal. They probably pack as many as they can into one space without reducing the milk. As cheap of feed as they can get away with. All that.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Well, while I've never been to a big dairy farm, the ones I've been to have kept their cows really well. Cows that aren't kept well won't give as much milk, so from my limited experience, this isn't something you need to worry about.

Like I said, though, I've only been to smaller dairy farms. Big ones in the midwest or wherever dairy farming is big might be different.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the info! I should do some research and check this out further...

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

Considering cattle have to be kept alive and relatively happy in order to give any real quantity and quality of milk, they're pretty well-off as stock animals go. Some folks will still complain about the treatment, but some folks will complain about anything. Dairy cattle have a better quality of life than a significant portion of the world's human population. There are worse things than standing around, eating, and getting milked. But hey, to each his own.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah. So long as they're happy and well taken care of, then I'm cool with it.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

The only dairy farms I've seen are small ones in the East where the cows are wandering around fields that have strategically placed bails of hay or sitting in more muddy-looking yards. It always looked like they had plenty of space. A cow is a pretty expensive animal to keep if it isn't earning its keep. I know someone whose mother has a pet cow. I think it costs $20,000/year. Her mother has ended up mating the cow and selling off the calves in order to pay for the pet cow.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a darned expensive pet! My experience has been the same as yours: Most of the cows I see are wandering out in fields and such. But a comment a few above yours says they need to be pretty happy and healthy to produce lots of milk, so that's cool with me.

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the veg thing! Don't want to be nosy, but you need to get more sleep. You could eat the most healthy food imaginable but lack of sleep will make you feel shitty.

I'm not sure if you should get your first bean experience from a restaurant. I like canned beans but all the dried bean recipes I see say that they taste crappy in comparison so canned beans might make you think you don't like beans when dried beans would be tasty - but dried beans always have insane long cooking directions so I've never made them.

D'you mind my asking if you're from the northeast US originally? After you mentioned Wise popcorn I realised that there are no Wise products anywhere in Houston and Greg had never heard of them despite his four years in Philly. But they were like direct competition with Lays back home! And they made the good onion rings, not crappy Funyuns.

(Apologies for the lengthy comment.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the veg thing! Don't want to be nosy, but you need to get more sleep.

Thank you! And no problem, I know I need more, it's just that life doesn't really give me any more free hours than the ones I already use for sleep. :}

Yeah, I'm really not sure about beans either. I did some Googling from work, but I need to look into it further...

D'you mind my asking if you're from the northeast US originally? After you mentioned Wise popcorn...

Good catch! Yep indeed. I fell in love with their popcorn back there, but went crazy when I couldn't find it out here in the west. So I hit their website (wisesnacks.com, I believe) and was happy to find that you could order it online! Not bad prices on postage, either.

[shadowfey.livejournal.com]

There are that I've found, two primary kinds of eggplant : the kind most people recognize, which is pretty large, with a purplish-black rind, and looks vaguely like some sort of gourd that's been left to rot (because of the colour, not texture or anything like that), and italian eggplant, which is smaller, a much lighter purple, and looks more like some sort of squash.

The former is edible with the rind on, but it's better if you peel it. Don't worry about the seeds, they're edible, and don't taste funny. A good way to make it is a sort of cheap and easy homemade eggplant parmesan, which uses matzoh meal or bread crumbs, salt and pepper, egg or if you're not eating eggs, you can substitute oil of some sort (corn oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, etc), and shredded cheese. Peel the eggplant, ditch the rind, and cut the eggplant into medium-sized pieces, about half an inch thick. Coat in the breading, and fry in olive oil, then top with the shredded cheese of your choice.

The italian eggplant does not need to be peeled, as its rind is quite thin. I chop it up and use it in stir-fries, usually with red cabbage and bok choy and lots of fresh garlic.

The thing to keep in mind with cheese is to keep an eye out for BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone). It's not cruel to the animals, but some people are leery of it for the same reasons some people're leery of irradiated foods, etc - and a very few people do have negative reactions to it. If you're not lactose-intolerant in the first place, you'll probably be okay, but you may want to read up on it - or at least check to see if the cheese you buy is BGH-free.

[fealu-bryne.livejournal.com]

Mmm, listen to the woman! While I've only had the Italian eggplant she mentioned (cut into slices, breaded, baked, then with tomato sauce and cheese on top), it's totally awesome.

Potatoes are good... I could eat tons of potatoes. And they're easy to make a bunch of different ways. Sweet potatoes/yams, too! Oh, and listen to Nemo, too. Mushrooms. The big ones. Seriously, give it a try. Grilled, those suckers are the best.

And, okay. I wasn't going to yammer like this, only wanted to agree with Shadowfey... so I'm shutting up now.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Potatoes! That's another thing I have to work with, especially the yellow ones (which I never tried before).

So many things to try, so few cooking skills! :)

[shadowfey.livejournal.com]

A lot of recipes can be very simple. The trick, really, is to keep it simple at first, and expand from there; and good god, are there plenty of varieties. Sweet potatos and yams are good if you wrap 'em in foil, put them in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes; the -best- way to do it is to put the foil-wrapped potato (loosely wrapped) in a baking dish with some water, or sprinkle some water into the bottom of the foil; a tablespoon in the foil is plenty. Then, when you can stick a fork in and have it go in and pull out reasonably easily, take it out, split it open, and add butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

I could go on at considerable length, here; cooking has always been one of my interests, and I'm an amateur gourmet. While not a vegetarian, I try to maintain a diet higher in vegetables than in animal proteins, as there's a history of heart disease in my husband's family. :) So ...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! You read my mind! I was just poking about looking for a way to make yams/sweet potatos! This way sounds easy enough for even me. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to go shopping and pick some up; if I do and I make them, I'll let you know how they came out!

Thank you!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

...eggplant parmesan...

That's exactly how I'm intending to try it, but instead of making it myself, I'm going to go to an Italian place that I like. (I cannot cook, and every time I try it, it comes out pretty darned sucky.) Might as well give my first experience the greatest chance of being a good one!

Thanks for all the info!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Various thoughts:

If you're going to do the vegetarian thing, you MUST include a source of protein. The reason why low-carb diets 'work' is because carbohydrates are not a dietary requirement; protein *is*. Part of the reason you may be tired is because you're eating way, way too many carbohydrates in a day, and not getting enough protein and other nutrients. In addition to shorting yourself on essential amino acids (y'know, those things you need to live), complex carbs like cereal, bread, and pasta trigger seritonin release in your brain. Seritonin induces the sleepies.

If it helps you with eggplant, consider that the flesh of it is white (not purple), and doesn't actually taste of anything. However, it is also absolutely devoid of any kind of nutritional content, so it's like the iceberg lettuce of the fruit (which it actually is) world.

Yes, I'm harping. But, I think a vegetarian diet can be somewhat dangerous, and people on it need to be even more careful about what they eat than us omnivores.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Just to throw another wrench into the works. My mother went complete vegetarian after ascending to a higher level of Buddhism. She actually put on 30+ lbs. According to other Buddhists at her temple, a pure vegetarian diet is actually very fattening in the long term. You only lose weight in the first month or so.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eek! That's terrible! I wonder why? Extra carbs?

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily extra carbs, but I think a pure Buddhist diet, which means you can't eat anything that was buried in the ground (like roots), and nothing from animals because all those things are related to execrement, means that they end up eating at least 50% rice with everything. 50% carbs is guaranteed to fatten you if you listen to people like Atkins.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense. Okay, thanks!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

However, it is also absolutely devoid of any kind of nutritional content, so it's like the iceberg lettuce of the fruit (which it actually is) world.

Oh, well that reduces the rush to try and make it a regular part of my diet then! I'm looking for things that actually add good stuff to my diet.

Right now I'm eating cheese on a nearly (if not totally) daily basis, so I should be okay on the protein. (Hm, and milk as well, since I have a couple glasses of that most days.) Once I can get going with beans, I'm going to phase muchly out (to reduce fat intake).

Thanks for the info!

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

If you really want to lose weight and be vegetarian, I would suggest looking at macrobiotics.

See this link of recommended foods: http://www.macrobiotics.co.uk/foodlist.htm

Macrobiotics is a health system (like Atkins) but focuses on avoiding meat because it destroys the yin/yang balance of your body. Everyone that I know on macrobiotics is extremely thin. Gwyneth Paltrow is amacrobiotic eater.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's really interesting. At this point in time, I don't think I'd have luck with that, but it is something I can use elements from and work towards. (I think the 'no white sugar' would be the hardest part, especially for me...)

And I could see how people would be skinny as heck following that!

Thanks again!

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Hey- regarding the juicy burger commercials, have you tried "fake" burgers yet? Boca Burgers (available at Whole Foods, sometimes Safeway, and uber-cheap at Costco) taste so much like real juicy burgers that several die-hard vegetarians I used to work with couldn't go near them because they "tasted too realistic". They're completely vegetarian, relatively low-calorie, lowfat, are a good source of protein, and you can cook them on the stovetop or in the microwave in about a minute- super easy.

Congratulations on your first month of vegetarianism! I applaud your initiative and your ability to stick to your guns, despite the fact that even here in granola-crunchin' California, it's a real challenge to eschew the meat-horkin' lifestyle. And I agree with those who commented that in addition to more sleep, more protein would make you feel better. We recently began cutting white flour and sugar from our diet 'round here, and it's made a big difference to our waistlines, sleep habits, and energy levels. With all the soy foods they have out there now, plus your being amenable to beans, it's possible to add more protein without having to resort to items of animal origin.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I was at Safeway just this afternoon eyeing those burgers! I was wary though, and kept to the other side of the aisle. I'm glad to hear that they taste, eh, "normal" (as opposed to some Super Vegetarian Taste or something, I guess), but I wasn't ready to try them yet. I had yams and sweet potatoes and, um, 'snap sugar beans' (I think that's the name? looked like fat green beans) in my cart, and my inner child balked at the thought of adding anything else totally new and different.

"No! No! No more! Back to the peanut butter aisle! Retreeeeeat!"