Being Vegetarian

Per request of my sister, how is my choice of being a vegetarian going? Well first I’m not a strict vegetarian. Apparently I’m a pescatarian, which is to say I still eat fish, which is also know as a Semi-vegetarian. So I’m not really that hard core. Just cut out beef, poultry, lamb, etc. My husband and I decided to try this out for 2 weeks about a month ago. We decided to do it mainly because we are trying to be as eco-friendly as possible and cattle is the number one producer of carbon, even more than all the cars in the world combined. I think Time wrote an article on it. The second and more obvious reason is health.

Health is really the only one we, as individuals, can measure. There really isn’t a good way for me to measure the demand for meat. Overall not much has changed in our health other than having more energy. We were already pretty healthy.

Now you are wondering, I bet, doesn’t it suck not to eat meat. The answer is not really. Yeah you miss out on all the good BBQ and you can’t have that foot long hot dog at the ball game, but overall it hasn’t been that big of a shift. Now I will say it is tougher when you are out especially if you are looking for a quick bite, i.e. Wendy’s. If you don’t like salad there really isn’t much there. Although I’m okay with fries and frosty as lunch. But making your own dinners and eating out at sit down restaurants there are still plenty of options.

Do I still crave meat? Only if I’m extremely hungry. Like stomach is clawing up through my chest cavity hungry. Other than that most of what I like about meat seems to be the salt content. Nothing some chips and salsa can’t solve. Speaking of which…

Another benefit is our grocery bill is, on average, less. Some weeks we buy fish and some we don’t, but we are still saving money overall. I mean think about it, chicken runs about 8 or 9 dollars for 4 boneless skinless breasts. You could save some money and get the whole chicken but that requires a lot of work. Ribs? Depending on the type could cost you $11 a pound. Now add that up for at least 4 of your 7 dinners (including going out twice) that is quite a bit.

So overall I endorse it! The only really sad thing about it is no more taylor ham, sigh.