I started to become a vegetarian in my 2nd semester of my freshman year of college (roughly). Back then, I think I slowly stopped eating meat because I didn't find it appealing. I remember filling up my plate with chicken or some other meat at my school's dining hall and not finishing it. I've continued to eat a mostly vegetarian diet since then. There have been a few times where I've eaten meat (December 2005, for example, with the strong side effects from the pegasys and ribavirin), and I've probably had it here or there by accident when it was already in a dish I was eating, and I picked it out. I don't ever see myself going back to eating meat again regularly. And even more so now. I recently watched three documentaries, and they are as follows (in the order I watched them): 1) Forks Over Knives 2) Food, Inc. 3) Vegucated They were quite eye-opening. Not that I needed more convincing to stay a vegetarian (it's been very easy for me), but they reinforced my reasons for staying one. I didn't originally become a vegetarian because of ethical issues, but now that I've seen a little bit of how the animals are treated, I've now added ethical issues as a reason for staying a vegetarian. I'm considering becoming a vegan (not 100%, as I'll explain below). A year or so ago, I would have thought this would be hard, as I couldn't give up honey, dairy yogurt (and low-fat/fat-free cheese), and of course there are foods with gelatin in them. But I have since cut down on my cheese intake, traded in honey for agave nectar, and well, I guess I just need to let go of the dairy yogurt (I like eating it with my home-made granola). I tried soy yogurt a while back and wasn't that fond of it, but I'm willing to try it again, as long as it's USDA organic - trying to avoid GMOs. I know it will be hard to be 100% vegan, as my omega-3 vitamins have fish in them (and I kind of want to keep taking those). But I'm excited to make further changes, for myself. |