Veggie Tales
In an effort to be as cliche a vegetarian as possible, I’m not shutting up about it! I’ve officially turned one in vegetarian years, and after a year of life without meat, I’ve collected some thoughts about the stereotype that vegetarians (and vegans) can’t stop talking about how they’re vegetarian (or vegan). I’d argue that other people are the ones who make a big deal about it. Our culture is so centered around meat — something you really don’t fully realize until you give it up — that being a vegetarian basically makes you an oddity of people’s amusement.
Meat is so commonplace, particularly in our social lives, that it’s become an unquestioned expectation. So when someone waltzes onto the scene declining to partake, it inevitably draws attention. To use a potentially bold metaphor, it’s similar to when everyone’s sitting around drinking and a sober person enters the picture. Their sobriety becomes a part of their identity mainly in response to the sense of otherness created by the people drinking the alcohol. “Oh, how long have you been sober?” “I was sober for a year and I actually really liked it.” “I get it, I grapple with my relationship to alcohol too.” “Gosh, I could never live without my tequila.” I feel that vegetarians get a lot of beef (teehee!) for how much they make their vegetarianism a part of their identity, but as someone who is fresh off a year of giving it a try, it often feels like that identity is forced onto me by the current I’ve chosen to swim against. Of course, the ego of a vegetarian is no different than the ego of a carnivore and there is a tendency on both sides to “other” one another. . Ah, our humanity. Regardless, I will say I feel proud of my ability to stick to the commitment I made to myself with vegetarianism. Ego-driven or not, it’s a cool feeling. And it’s not dissimilar to the feeling of distinction that comes with being a sexual minority, which can also become identity-defining, yet empowering in the face of a cultural majority.
A question I get asked a lot is “What made you become a vegetarian?”. I don’t always answer as honestly as I’m about to because of a fear that it will be judged as too *woo-ey* or perhaps too spiritual for some folks. Truth be told, I went on a five day meditation retreat in September of 2022 where they served us only vegetarian meals for five days. At first, I was hesitant about it because the thought , “Where will I get my protein??!” kept popping up, but I’ve found that many people share this concern (PSA: plants have protein). My hesitancy was short-lived and I quickly relaxed into what was, discovering that the meals were actually deliciously filling. I remember growing fond of the break from meat.
One day, I was sitting in a rather deep meditative state and I quite simply received a message from my internal Knowing that I wasn’t going to eat meat anymore. It wasn’t a question, it wasn’t a decision — it was just something I knew suddenly. It was probably the most powerful, clearest message I’ve ever received from my gut and it was a result of stillness. As someone who’s spent a lot of their life doubting themself but determined to live a life in authentic alignment with themself, this clarity was refreshing.
Most days, I really don’t miss meat. In fact, I recently decided I’d reward myself for a year off of it by allowing myself to indulge in a basket of the meat I missed the most: chicken fingers. However, once I was at the counter and it came time to order, I elected to order delicious looking impossible nuggets instead. The temptation to revisit the nostalgic pleasure of the comfort foods of my past has become a faint, inconsistent whisper. At that moment, it was overridden by my internal Knowing and I chose to listen to it. Other than fried chicken, the only instances I miss meat are in breakfast scenarios and when ordering take-out Chinese food. Replacing a Taylor Ham, egg, and cheese with a hashbrown, egg, and cheese is not nearly enough grease to placate my inner Jersey boy. I’ve basically had to change all my Chinese food orders because I didn’t realize how meat-centric those menus are. It’s like, “Hi. You ordered meat? Let’s give you a side of rice with that with more meat chopped up in it and just in case that wasn’t enough, here’s a fried roll with shredded meat inside of it!”
Location and circumstance tend to factor into how much I miss meat as well. I tend to frequent largely progressive areas (Los Angeles, New York City) so there are usually some options for me, but even a recent week spent in somewhere like Nashville, which I’d regard as rather progressive, left me with little to no options for food consumption that week when eating out. Unfortunately, this is an inconvenience I’ve had to embrace because of the culture we live in. I do make a concerted effort to not burden people to carry that inconvenience with me. The people pleaser in me was thrilled this past Fourth of July weekend when the matriarch of the lake house I was visiting called me an “easy vegetarian” at the trip’s conclusion. Mind you, being an “easy vegetarian” for my hosts meant a decent amount of forward thinking for me as I needed to be mindful of the meals they were planning and what I could contribute that would be sufficiently satisfying for me without me seeming ungracious. Most of my social circle still eats meat, so this is the nature of me attending social gatherings at this point and I genuinely don’t mind! Unlike my queer identity, this is a choice I’ve made and I’m happy to take responsibility for it.
I’m also not trying to change anyone else’s choice. At the same time, I try to stay mindful of old people-pleasing patterns from when I was younger so as not to grow bitter or resentful over being different. But I do get the frustrations I hear from fellow veggies; it shouldn’t be as hard as it is sometimes to find vegetarian options. Luckily, I’ve always said I have the taste buds of a five-year-old and am fairly easily satisfied as long as there’s a serving of French fries somewhere nearby. I went to an all-inclusive resort in the Spring where being a vegetarian was a very difficult choice to maintain because of the lack of options. Thus was born the dream to one day open an all-inclusive vegetarian resort, a short-lived dream considering I Googled the concept about an hour later and discovered it already existed.
Ultimately, I feel healthier! Though, it’s hard to verbalize the differences I notice. I definitely suffer from indigestion and other post-meal blues less frequently. Ironically, I gave up caffeine around the same time that I gave up meat so I don’t know if the meat deficiency is responsible for my occasionally lower energy levels or if it’s the drug withdrawal. Probably both, but I do need to take a nap now in the mid-afternoon fairly consistently, which I’m okay with since many other cultures do anyway. I’m also intermittent fasting, so my first meal at midday after 16 hours of not eating often puts me in a light food coma while my metabolism wakes up. They say vegetarianism is good for reducing inflammation in the body, and without fully knowing what that should feel like, I would say that checks. Other proposed benefits include lowering blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, homocysteine, triglycerides, and yes, inflammatory biomarkers, as well as weight loss.
I don’t have any logical evidence for this, but I feel it’s helped with the level of anxiety I experience on a daily basis. I recently read in Ram Dass’ “Be Here Now’’ that vegetarianism is an eventual step in one’s enlightenment journey, which would explain the seemingly awakened meditative calling I felt towards it. A common benefit of meditation is compassion and I’d been cultivating a good amount of it by the time the compassionate path of being a vegetarian presented itself to me. The book goes on to say,
“Any food which entails violence (killing) in its source is not to be taken. At one end of the continuum
is meat — the preparation of which obviously includes the killing of an animal which has a rudimentary self-consciousness. It thus experiences fear and releases into its system adrenalin and other chemicals from endocrine glands which are not helpful for meditation.”
So, I don’t know! Maybe by eliminating my meat intake I’ve also limited the amount of fear and adrenaline that I’m consuming by proxy. Again, I’ve no evidence on this and don’t recommend cutting out meat as a method for dealing with anxiety. Lucky for all of us, this is my blog and not a scientific journal.
Another nice benefit I’ve been enjoying is the sense of planetary contribution given the environmental benefits that have been researched and reported on vegetarianism, like:
- By eating vegetarian food for a year you could save the same amount of emissions as a family taking a small car off the road for 6 months. (I also live in NYC and don’t have a car so I’m doing double duty here!)
- A vegetarian diet requires two-and-a-half times less the amount of land needed to grow food, compared to a meat-based diet.
- Going veggie will help allow our oceans to be restored to their natural balance. Around 85% of fisheries are overfished or fully exploited causing a problem for our seas.
- A chicken breast takes over 735 liters of water to produce, that could fill up your bathtub 4.6 times.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ll go back to eating meat one day. I never said I’d do this forever, so who knows. I wanted to try it and a year feels like a strong trial period, but I’m genuinely happy to be doing it for now and will likely stick to it for the foreseeable future. My only goal is to continue listening to my inner Knowing and discover what’s right for me as time unfolds. I expect it would be challenging to not be more conscious about returning to a carnivore lifestyle if I did. For context, I used to eat a serving of chicken nuggets or a plate of pepperoni as a casual afternoon snack. Now that I’ve conquered the falsehood that giving up chicken is something I could never do, I think I will forever be more aware as to when I’m choosing to indulge. After all, if there’s one thing this year has shown me, it is that a vegetarian lifestyle is actually pretty compatible with me.
