Flexitarian for life

In my last post I described the challenges of being a vegetarian surrounded by carnivores. By now I’ve decided that I just don’t care what they think(!) and instead have taken to reverse shaming my friends by telling them how bad meat is. Much to the chagrin of everyone with me I have described in detail to people what happens to the animals in productivitist meat facilities, and needless to say this has made me quite an unpopular person to go out to eat with. The strategies I’ve employed to reduce barriers to my newly found vegetarianism have been quite simple. I’ve still been eating the same tasty , (and sometimes unhealthy) food. For instance, instead of getting bacon and chicken on my BBQ flatbread pizza at Simon’s, I’ll get chopped portobello mushrooms. Instead of getting a ham sandwich at lower with chips I’ll get a roasted veggie sandwich with chips. In this way, I can reduce barriers by still eating the yummy food that I like, and adhere to the sustainability challenge.

I think that the “benefits” aspect of the challenge is pretty apparent to me at this point. I have noticed that I’ve been feeling more energetic than usual and I credit my vegetarianism with that. I also feel a lot better about myself when I go out to eat. I honestly used to feel guilty eating meat sometimes because I’ve known all the negative impacts that are associated with meat-eating. I think vegetarianism is an inherently rewarding and positive practice. Not only does it contribute to your personal well-being, but it also its incredibly nice to know that by eating a sandwich I’m not contributing to the suffering of an animal.

I’ve decided that in the future I’m going to carry on with my vegetarianism except for when I have the opportunity to eat grass-fed, locally raised and well treated meat. My philosophy will be if I haven’t met the farmer, or don’t know who he/she is, than I can’t eat the meat. I’ve researched various types of vegetarians and I think this new post-EVST 100 behavior will be closest to “flexitarianism.” I’m really happy that I chose this behavioral change because I’ve proven to myself that I can be a vegetarian, and in the future a flexitarian.