Just popping in with a quick update. Yours truly has decided to make the move and become completely meat-free.

Yup!

I’m doing it.

Many of you might remember me sharing that I’ve actually been a vegetarian before. For mostly ethical reasons, I decided on February 6, 2006 that I would go plant-based. I had learned a lot about the environmental impact of the meat industry and the way factory animals are treated and no longer wanted to support it. I had just turned 18-years-old. I tried my best, but my best wasn’t very good. I was still a kid and really didn’t have control over my food or the willpower to make healthy eating choices, and when I went off to college in the fall of 2006 I found myself eating nothing but french fries and salad. So I quit. I went back to eating meat in the spring of 2007 and have been eating it since.

I was never entirely happy with my decision to quit vegetarianism in the first place. My mind was made up seven years ago about why I didn’t want to eat animal meat, and to be honest my mind never changed. I mentally forced myself to separate what I knew about meat from the “substance” I was preparing and eating for food. I’ve tried to buy “organic” and “grass-fed” and “free-range” and “humane” whenever I could to ease my conscience. And mostly, I enjoyed being the 100% foodie that I am and being able to eat anything I wanted wherever I went.

I also remember very distinctly having one big problem as a veggie teen. I had NO clue what to say to people when they asked me “So, why are you a vegetarian?”. I knew my reasons in my heart, but would always get nervous or flustered. I would give some of the weirdest answers like “Well, I just eat too much meat and thought I should cut back…” or “I don’t really like meat much anyways so I’m just testing it out…” It freaked me out to have people question the decision that I made that goes contrary to so much of American food culture.

It doesn’t freak me out anymore.

So, without preaching or trying to convince anyone, but without hiding the truth, here’s my answer.

Why the heck are you becoming vegetarian?

• The meat industry takes a huge toll on the environment and the world’s resources, and I want to protect the environment.
• Animals in our country are tortured, abused, neglected, and exploited in unspeakable ways all for the purposes of profit and food. Our government does an absolutely terrible job of protecting the animals and protecting us. The standards are almost non-existant, and I have standards.
• I believe that every animal on this Earth, including humans, was made by God and is precious. I will not take the life of another living thing when it’s not necessary.
• Vegetarians live longer and enjoy much lower rates of chronic disease, and I like to be healthy!
• I was afraid to defy our food culture and be judged by others because of what I eat, and I am not letting myself be afraid anymore.

So today marks the first day of my “new” life, and I’m really pumped about it. I’m going to try my best to avoid the mistakes I made the first time around and give this lifestyle my very best effort. To be honest, I’m really freaking excited. I feel free and gloriously happy. A huge weight has been lifted from my conscious, and it almost feels like the decision made itself for me.

And since I already eat a lot of plant-based foods, I can still enjoy the things I really love!

I hope that you carnivores out there aren’t going to abandon me! Jason is still a meat-eater and therefore it’s possible that a meat recipe might surface here every now and again (maybe as guest posts from him). But the bottom line is that this blog will be focusing on plant-based foods from now on.

Hooray!

Live long and prosper eat vegetables! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren