Vegetarianism is something I believe very strongly in and I'm very passionate about. If you told me as a freshman in high school that in the future I would give up eating meat, I probably would have laughed at you. I wouldn't have been able to imagine life without my dad's barbecue ribs, McDonald's chicken nuggets or a big, juicy cheeseburger. But now, I can't ever see me taking a bite of any of these things ever again.
I've written about why I've decided to go vegetarian before, but I've decided to write about how I did it. When I first began musing the idea of vegetarianism, of course I heard a lot of people's opinions about it--opinions I didn't ask for. And I believe that a lot that is spoken about going vegetarian is misleading.
I couldn't tell you how many people told me how hard it was going to be. And that alone, I believe, is very discouraging for someone that wants to commit to this sort of lifestyle change. I had so many people tell me that I should start with "meatless Mondays" (which, actually, is a great idea) and go from there, and slowly begin to cut meat out of my diet. Someone else told me I should cut down to eating meat once a week. Then once every two weeks. Then once a month. And then slowly phase it out of my diet completely.
Maybe it's because I'm big on instant gratification, but I didn't want to do it slowly. I wanted to give it all up and never look back. After all the research I had done and all the horrifying things I had learned, I never wanted to eat meat again.
So that's what I did.
I quit eating meat cold turkey--no pun intended. I remember my very last meal of eating meat: a fried chicken sandwich at Cheesecake Factory. Not the most ideal, but still good.
After that, I never had another bite of meat. And it's been two years. And for me, it was relatively easy.
How did I do it, you may ask?
Of course, it wasn't all sunshine and daisies. I did crave meat from time to time--like my dad's famous barbecue ribs, that I still dearly miss. But it was just that: from time to time. Probably once in a blue moon I would crave meat, which is a little shocking since I was such a big meat eater before. Maybe it was because I felt such a drastic change in my energy after I stopped eating meat: I didn't nap anymore, I felt much lighter and more energetic, and I did lose a few pounds.
How I did fight these cravings, however, was to eat other things. I know it sounds about too simple, but it really was just that. Simple. If I could, I would eat a meat substitute: like a veggie burger. But if something like that wasn't available to me, I would eat something else and focus on that. Once I was done eating and I was full, the craving was gone. Like a distant afterthought.
If you're thinking about going vegetarian, don't be scared: it really isn't as hard as you think.
