It's not as hard as I thought it would be.

I had tried to go vegetarian several times preceding my most recent (more successful) endeavor, and I couldn't figure out why it was so hard for me. The longest I'd ever been able to avoid meat for was a week; I thought my life relied on my consumption of meat, but it really doesn't. We don't realize that many of the dishes we prepare don't lose much in terms of taste if you take out the meat and/or put in a meat substitute.

Not only that, but more and more restaurants are building their vegetarian and vegan portions of their menus, so there are even more options for us when it comes to places to eat. I've been vegetarian now since November 1, 2018, and it has been so much easier than it was for me in the past. It hasn't even been four months yet but I can't picture myself giving up this lifestyle any time soon.

When it comes to cooking, I'm not completely naive.

When I was younger, my parents were always telling me to watch them while they're cooking so that I would know how to cook in the future. Of course, I was a bratty child so I was always scoffing at such suggestions and turning on my heel to look the opposite direction.

Now I'm vegetarian and both my parents are meat eaters (who also don't understand why I'm choosing this diet over theirs). My parents make dinner several nights a week, 90% of which I cannot eat because everything seems to include meat. Because of this, I've been having to cook my own meals.

Now, I'm not an expert in cooking. I couldn't even compete on Chopped Jr. However, I've learned I'm not entirely useless. I can throw together a delicious stir fry in 20 minutes. I can make a worrying amount of pasta dishes. Granted, I'm not at the point where I'm creating my own recipes, but I'm not starving or spending all my money eating out, either.

It's not inherently healthier than other diets.

Yes, there is a con.

Plenty of people believe that vegetarianism is the perfect path for weight-loss, and it can be, but if you don't really know much about eating healthy as a vegetarian, it's hard. Like, really hard.

For the first month or so that I was eating vegetarian, I was eating mostly burgers and fries from my job, or chip bags and fruit cups. If it wasn't a burger and fries, I wasn't really eating a meal. I wasn't getting much protein, a lot of what I was eating was heavy on the oil, and for a while, I didn't realize there was anything wrong with that.

Being vegetarian takes research. If you're committed enough, doing the research isn't a big deal; but the research is necessary if you don't want your health to plummet.

It has helped me feel a lot better, both mentally and physically.

I will openly admit that I have no problems with the way that meat tastes (although I could definitely make the argument that meat really doesn't have much flavor at all without any type of seasoning on it). If I had a problem with the taste of meat, I wouldn't have kept eating it until I'd surpassed the age of 19.

For me, it's all about my moral responsibility. As the future of our planet grows wearier, I've sort of taken it upon myself to do whatever I can to preserve the earth. Going meatless is one of those things.

Not just that, but when you've seen a certain amount of slaughterhouse videos, it gets to be quite a bit much.

The point is that I'm doing something successfully that I'd failed at in the past multiple times, and it has put me in a healthier mindset, and the way I look at the world is different (strangely enough). I've stopped being an optimist and started being a realist, which, in my opinion, is the healthier route.

After I stopped eating like crap and started making actual vegetarian meals and eating the way I'm supposed to, I could feel the changes in my body, too. I noticed I was less tired, more high energy, more sociable, more motivation, and less lazy.

Going vegetarian has definitely changed my life in the short period of time that I've been dedicated to it,