Meat

It's been a month of vegetarianism.   I wanted to see what it was like, not eating meat.   I was interested in how much of my diet had meat as a component.  I wanted to know if I would crave meat and if it was difficult to find options to eat that didn't include meat.  I wanted to give it a month and see.   Overall, I have to say it was a fairly uneventful month.

It wasn't that hard, although I did miss the ham in the ham biscuit I sometimes got and shared with the dog in the mornings.   A plain biscuit is just as good albeit less salty and the dog was quite happy eating the ham and letting me have the biscuit.  We didn't go out to eat often, but when we did there were things I liked and wanted to eat on the menu that didn't include meat.

Pizza was fine with cheese or mushrooms.  I typically have cheese pizza when we order it at home although I also like to have a slice of pepperoni as well, which I missed but not overly so.   Fast food was the one area I didn't have a good substitute for.   I don't do a lot of fast food but when I was getting my son something after school the only thing I could come up with for a snack was french fries and while that's fine for a snack, it wouldn't be a good choice for a full meal.

There was only one situation in which I didn't have a good alternative without meat and that was restaurant-specific.   For the board retreat, we had to place orders in advance for lunch.   I went over the menu and there were only a few things that had no meat.  All of their soups even had meat.   I got a wrap that was vegetarian that I ordered days before the retreat.   When my food arrived on the day I had no idea what some of the ingredients were but the wrap tasted good and I ate it all; I just wouldn't have ordered it under normal circumstances.

I have to thank my husband for making sure there were multiple sides to the meals he made so I could have a full plate for dinner.   This has been something he's already been doing in part because my daughter seems to not like most meats.  In contrast, my husband and son love all kinds of meat so there was a good amount of everything to make sure we were all well fed.

I had a few lapses during the month, all accidental.   In the first few days, I ate a few of my daughter's nuggets, finishing her leftovers like lots of parents do.  I didn't even realize until later that I'd eaten the meat.   The same went for the time I ate a ham biscuit on the way to a meeting in a hurry.

The one time I wasn't sure I was going to do well on was the state fair.   My husband and I love going to the fair and eating all kinds of things.   We had talked about it on the way in and I had vegetarianism in mind and yet I completely forgot about it once I saw the sign for frog legs.   I had eaten them, finished off the fries and was moving towards my favorite lime rickey stand when it hit me that frogs were animals.  

I mean, duh, I knew that I just wasn't thinking about it.  For forty-nine years I haven't thought about if there is or isn't meat in my food and I just blanked and forgot.   On the upside, the frog legs were delicious and I was able to eat non-meat items the remainder of our time at the fair.

And that about sums it up.   I don't feel a great desire to eat meat anymore so than any other time.  This morning I even questioned whether I wanted meat on the biscuit I was getting and ended up just eating a biscuit plain.   Maybe I wasn't ready to jump back into eating meat.

One thing I did notice was a terrible decline (or increase) in the amount of sugar I ate.   If there is anything I need to moderate after last month, it's sugar.   I blame Halloween candy in large part, but I have to take responsibility for what I eat, regardless of what's around the house.   I'm going to try to eat less sugar this month, even though we have buckets of candy in our kitchen calling out my name.

The Big Boy Update:  Post-Halloween my son was angry and cranky this morning.   They weren't up that late last night but he was mad when it was time to get up and refused to get dressed, go to school or communicate with us in anything less than a scream.   We got some chocolate milk in him and he was able to get in the car to go get a biscuit with me.   He was happy and chatty by the time we got to school

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a new bike.   Technically I think it's her Christmas present, given early because she's obsessed with biking (she biked for over two hours today).   We wanted to take advantage of the weather being warmer before Christmas.   She was mad though because the bike wasn't as big as her brother's.   Explaining that his was too big wasn't making her happy.   Bigger is better I suppose she thought.  She was mean, saying she hated the bike and her father.   That, not getting traction, along with a few other things that were said and she insulted Claire and had to stay in her room for a while.   Attidude adjusted she came downstairs and was a much more friendly child.   She had a similar time at school today, including an email sent home from the teacher because she was very rude and said mean things.   My daughter informed me she hated her teacher and was changing tracks next quarter because she didn't want to be in Mrs. Baker's class any more.   Tonight I hear giggling as she is playing with Connor, who is fifteen.   I just heard her say to Connor, "you're a very agreeable person."   Connor is great, playing with my daughter.   Connor is defnitely a very agreeable person.