Well at the risk of sounding all “woe is me”, there hasn’t really been much to write about in the last “little” while. In all fairness, what I should say, I guess there hasn’t been anything worth updating more than of my one-too-many-statuses.
That being said, this past weekend I made the big decision to go vegetarian.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time now — I actually gave it pathetically half-ass clichéd effort back in art college — but have really only recently thought seriously about it. Thankfully, my wife is and boys are pretty much already vegetarian — my boys prefer the veggie version of most anything meat-based I eat.
Why? Well, for a number of reasons… reasons which I plan to research more as to be more informed about my decision but reasons enough (for me) to go veggie all the same.
Money…
*sigh* I honestly wish I could say this weren’t the catalyst for the decision but it was the big (recent) thing that made me go, “Huh… do I really need to eat meat?” Believe me, I know it’s possible to find great deals on meat depending on at which stores you shop but I’ve been trying to consume only free range and/or organic meats and they’re not cheap.
I had my last big meat meal Saturday evening. We (the boys and I) had chicken fajitas made with two boneless chicken breasts… that was almost $15 worth of chicken.
See?
I know I could get meat cheaper but I, personally, am terrified by how these larger farms/companies can sell so much volume for so little. I’ll skip the antibiotics unless I’m sick, thanks.
Environment…
This is one of the areas which I would definitely like to research more. I’ve read a number of different sources recently, that trumpet going vegetarian as a way to help the environment:
Times Online UK,
David Suzuki Foundation, and numerous other vegetarian sites that are, of course, all for the cause (peta.org, vegsoc.org …).
Going vegetarian is supposed to help in a number of ways but mostly in how little energy and water is used to produce it compared to meat. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, it takes almost 85 times more water to produce 10 ounces of beef than potatoes.
But, yeah… like I said, this is the area I definitely want/need to research more.
Not having to kill animals for my meals…
I know this one might seem old to some people but I’ve always enjoyed eating meat but have never liked associating eating meat with eating a dead animal — always boneless chicken, always ground beef, always sliced ham. For the longest time I could never bring myself to eat a full chicken breast or wings because it looked… so… dead-bird-like.
I dunno… maybe it is weird but I figure if I can’t stand the idea of actually eating other living things, what better reason to stop eating them?
Health…
I have far too many food sensitivities right now and I reeeeeeally just want to be able to go through a day without feeling like I’ve got a mild stomach flu. Which I don’t.
I’m hoping going vegetarian will help me pay more attention to what goes into various foods so that I might only have the rarest of days where “
Betty” is upset.
SO, there you have it… that’s what’s new with me. I’ll try to keep the post more frequent now… this foray into vegetarianism should give me plenty to complain update about over the next little while.
Peace. :^)
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