Vegetarian

I had an idea a week or two ago.   It's been an idea I've had before, I just haven't done anything about it.   This time I thought I'd do a test.  If you know me, or my mother, or my father, you know we like to quantify things.

My mother has longitudinal studies of things going back decades with her and my father.   I bet if you asked my mother on average, year over year, their water bill increased since 1979, she could get you the data you're looking for faster than you could call the water company to find out they didn't keep records back that far.

My mother is exceptional in her record-keeping, data tracking, and information mining.   She is an organized mathematician with a penchant for statistics.   I have some of her inclinations, but only on certain subjects.   The subject has to strike me as interesting.  Or worthwhile.

In this case, because the title of the blog post gave it away, I've been thinking about vegetarianism versus, well not being a vegetarian.  People become vegetarians for different reasons.   My husband has been talking a good bit lately about the carbon footprint and negative impact eating red meat has on greenhouse gasses and the environment.

We had a friend ask about what they could do to help the environment.   I think they were expecting my husband to say put solar on their house or get an electric car or keep your house hot in the summer and cool in the winter.  What my husband said was, "don't eat red meat.   It is the single most impactful thing you can do when it comes to the environmental impact on greenhouse gasses."

My husband would like to stop eating red meat only he really likes steaks and hamburgers.   But he's cutting back.   I don't particularly crave any meat.  Well, I don't think I do, I could find out that's incorrect.   What I thought I'd do is try going for a month as a vegetarian and see how much meat I would have eaten without thinking about it, and see if I miss it at all or if a bean burrito is just as good as a beef and bean burrito.

Last night we had my parents over for dinner and we ordered pizza.   The month of October hadn't started yet, but my husband decided to get a pizza with cheese on one half and mushrooms on the other half.   My son, an avid pepperoni eater, suddenly doesn't like pepperoni.   My daughter insists on cheese pizza, so getting a meat-free pizza last night was an easy decision

My parents are always flexible, but I noticed my father looking longingly at the pizza box as he asked, "is there any with pepperoni?"   Next time we'll get some Pepperoni for you, Gramps, I promise.

I'm going to mess up this month and eat meat, which is sort of the point—to realize I'm eating meat without even thinking about it.   I'm looking to build more awareness of what meat I eat, prefer, don't care about, miss, etc.   I almost ate the ravioli this evening my son left in his bowl when my husband reminded me I'd gotten chicken and cheese ravioli.   My daughter very sweetly left me one shrimp from her hibachi meal, having no idea I wasn't eating meat and since it was such a kind gesture, I ate it and thanked her.

I'll report at the end of the month on how it goes and what I discovered about me and the meat in the food around me.   Thanks in advance to my husband who has already tried to figure out what he's going to do for meals he cooks at home—a good percentage of them—as he usually centers them around a meat-based protein.   I told him to not coordinate around me, I'll just eat the other things.   Besides, it'll be a good test to see if I care about meat more than I think I might.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has finished reading an entire book on his Mystery History notable person.   He'll be working on writing a paper in the next week or two and then he'll practice saying what he wrote, memorizing it, so he can present it on Halloween to other parents of the students in his class.   The paper will be written in the first person so when my son speaks it, he'll also be dressed up as the person and will end the presentation with, "Who am I?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had a good eye update today.   Her pressure is maintaining with the one-drop and pressure valve in her eye.   She was happy about it and she and her father went to a hibachi restaurant for an early lunch.   They were under renovations and the two of them had a private meal with the chef all to themselves.   My daughter came home and finished up her leftovers for dinner.