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Thursday, April 24, 2014

"Green" Life #1: Why I Became a Vegetarian

Before I begin, I want to emphasize that I am in no way trying to tell anyone that my lifestyle is healthier than yours, that meat-eaters are horrible people, or that you should follow in my footsteps. I will, however, tell you guys my story and why I've chosen to pursue this new path.

It sounds cliché and cheesy, but my reasoning for completely cutting out meat in my diet dates back to when I was about 10 or 11. I had a teacher who was obsessed with food production - I really have no idea why - and this whole 'clean lifestyle living,' which is totally fine (and I even now agree with). But instead of keeping her personal preferences to herself, she thrusted here opinions about meat and fast food at us, and I was completely appalled. 

She even read us a book (this book, to be precise) all about how meat companies get such cheap product and how they treat animals, etc. So at the ripe young age of 10 years old, I vowed never to eat fast food meat again. To this day, I don't even eat fast food in general because I was so shocked by that book. 

That teacher and her lifestyle have resonated with me all these years, though. It started with fast food, and it just kind of grew. Ever since then, I've always been really picky about what types of meat I'll eat (frozen meat, fast food meat, school meat became really difficult for me to consume) and it even started to gross me out to even think about where my meat was coming from when I was eating it. 

I've always wanted to quit - or cut back on - eating meat for as long as I could remember. But finally one day I just told myself I don't need this and at the start of the following month, I quit cold turkey. 

At this point I want to say that I did a ton of research before I actually cut meat out from my diet. There are a ton of health benefits, but if you substitute meat for junk food, then you're not helping anyone. 

Side Note: I also want to say that many "vegetarians" consume fish as their source of protein (these people are actually called "pescatarians.") I don't eat a ton of seafood, but I do like the occasional seafood chowder or baked fish, so I guess technically I'm not full-blown vegetarian. It's just easier to refer to yourself as a vegetarian rather than a pescatarian. Okay, that was long. End side note.

It's been a little over 3 weeks, but I kinda wanted to ramble to you all about why I've started this new lifestyle. I get questions about it all the time, and I find it a billion times easier to explain my thoughts rather than say them aloud. I guess I should work on that, huh?

Anyway, I'm thinking about writing some more of these types of posts about this change. What do you guys think?

xx Jenna

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