Serena the Wanna-Be Vegetarian– Is No Longer A Holier-Than-Thou Vegetarian
I’m struggling.
Since the “In ‘N Out cheeseburger” incident I can’t shake this feeling of failure. I think I got into this for the right reasons. I’m concerned about my family’s health and the health of the planet. Since my confession, my oldest also confessed to eating meat “every time he left the house.” This is to be expected right? Yes?
I’ve been thinking about what Dangel wrote in the comments section earlier this month:
“I can’t agree that cutting out meat all together to live a life of supplements is a way to ‘eat healthier’.
I fully encourage being more conscious about the food you eat but do remember, humans are carnivores. The moment you take something out of your diet, something we evolved eating, is the moment you throw your digestive system into a pattern that it’s not familiar or best suited for. Our brain can easily adapt with little consequence, our bodies are not so gifted.
Showing restraint over the food you eat is mentally and physically strengthening. Rejecting a whole section of your diet may make you feel stronger mentally but just because you can’t see what it’s doing to you on the inside doesn’t mean all is well.”
This part especially rang true, “Rejecting a whole section of your diet may make you feel stronger mentally…”
It did. I loved telling people that I was a vegetarian, even though I am still in the process of cutting meat out of my diet. I felt stronger… and dare I say it? I felt better than them, the inklings of the “holier-than-thou” attitude that people seem to hate about vegetarians.
Nothing like a slip-up to bring you right back down to earth.
- Serena
I have to say you’re a very brave person, or maybe not so brave as courageous (if that makes sense). You’re going about this in a way not many people seem able to, as in you’re watching yourself as you go, noticing your mistakes and more so sharing them with the online community, if anything I think that shows you haven’t failed here at all or that you’re weak or arrogant, but that you’re very calculated and honest.
It takes a strong person to admit where they went wrong or that they may be wrong and what you’re going through is very natural.
You’re taking on a change that is extremely big for your body and mind even if it doesn’t seem like it at first and so it’s more than acceptable to ‘fail’ at it. Sometimes these things take more than one or two falls to get it right.
I’ll be honest with you I wouldn’t recommend becoming a vegetarian. My friends family were vegetarian and she still remains so even though her father (who had been vegetarian since he was 10) fell seriously ill and was told that his immune system had been damaged from malnourishment and if he didn’t eat meat he’d die (that’s just one of three cases I know personally where people have come out the worse-for-wear thanks to their diet).
I tried being a vegetarian when I was ten from seeing pigs getting slaughtered horribly on T.V but my father told me that not eating meat will not stop these pigs being killed, but eating the right meat will make sure they have a life worth living. That not only made me a meat lover but an animal lover.
Frankly you’re the only trying vegetarian I have met so far that I can truly say I respect and I wouldn’t lose any respect for you if you did succeed in becoming a vegetarian but I do implore you this, give your children then option to become vegetarian rather than making them. Even if they seem keen let them reach 16 before actually trying to encourage them to give up meat. This way they can get all the nourishment nature intends for them and they can come to the decision on their own accord and if the need be you’d be there to support them.
Sorry this went on a bit, I just think this is very touching. I hope whatever you choose goes well for you. *hugs*