Just over two years ago I decided to make a big lifestyle change: I went vegetarian.

I don't even remember exactly what started it, but one day I woke up and decided I was no longer going to eat meat. Spoiler alert: it was a lot easier than it sounds.

I recently realized that I've never actually sat down and written about why I decided to change my diet, and one of the most frequent questions I get is "Why did you decide to be vegetarian?"

Most people probably expect some fact-based answer about the health consequences that come along with eating certain types of meat, or how it's bad for the environment, or that many of the mass producers of meat in our country are really, really disgusting.

While all those answers are legitimate and I can enthusiastically nod my head along to them, they aren't the real reason why I decided to go vegetarian.

Honestly...I just really love animals.

It might sound silly and ridiculous, but that's my reason. Once my eyes were open to the awful, terrible things that so many animals have to undergo in order to satisfy my hunger, I started feeling incredibly guilty about my diet. Thus, Mariah The Vegetarian was born.

Another response I hear a lot is "I don't think I have the willpower to give up meat. I mean....bacon!"

Yes, I know, you love bacon. You want to bathe in bacon. You want to eat bacon for every meal. Your life has no meaning without bacon. I've seen the memes. So many memes.

But I feel like saying you have no willpower is just a tired excuse. Willpower has never been one of my strong suits (just look at me whenever I'm near a Chipotle), but I committed myself to something I care about, and that's all there was to it.

(It also helps that my wonderful mom constantly makes me delicious vegetarian dishes!)

I'm not trying to change anyone's opinions or force anyone to go veg; becoming vegetarian is a decision that each individual has to make for themselves. If it's not for you, it's not for you. Just like eating meat is not for me.

Now please stop dissing salads. It hurts my soul. What did salads ever do to hurt you?!