Live Consciously

I’ve been vegetarian for about a month now. So far its been one of the best decisions I’ve made this year, although its kind of funny how it all happened…

We were driving up to a convention in Las Vegas with my coworkers, and I was chatting with our bosses. (They were along for the ride as well.)

He had mentioned that he has been vegetarian for about 10 years now.

I thought wow, a real live vegetarian, and he looks abundantly healthy! I had in my mind that vegetarians are all emaciated and look sickly, but no no, my boss was completely healthy.

I asked him about the transition he made from eating things with faces to a veggie diet, and over the course of time, the meat cravings became less and less, until after a while you don’t even crave meat at all…

Now, I had been on the fence with vegetarianism, for about 2 years. I had always thought it was something that I would love to do someday, but never really committed to when I would go for it.

I had been eating primarily soy products for a year (ironically because I had switched to an almost total organic diet, and they didn’t have organic meat at the store I shopped at). Gradually, I decreased the amount of animal products that I ate because of the organic thing as well.

So for about a year I had been eating lots of soy products, organic foods, and yogurts, with the occasional face food. But I didn’t feel like I wanted to give up my meat, just yet.

After speaking with my boss about it, I became inspired to take the final plunge and go head into vegetarianism…for a month.

In all honesty, I’m not one for big commitments right away! I wanted to give it a try and make sure that this was something I really wanted to do. I figured a month would be sufficient time to give it a try and see if I really did like it.

During my month, I did some research, so I could remain healthy and happy during my experiment. To my amazement, I found out a lot I didn’t know!

As it turns out, vegetarians eat a lot more than just salads. They eat beans, protein, carbs, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains, you name it. And with a little bit of supplementing for the B vitamins, I felt confident that I would be just fine.

After about a week, I had lost the cravings for meat, and fish. Fish was the big worry for me because I love sushi. Beef wasn’t such an ordeal, I rarely eat that. All the poultry too, surprisingly, was a breeze to cook without.

About 3 weeks into it and I begin to develop an aversion to meat. To my absolute shock. It just didn’t look all that tasty after all. And the smell, blah not something I wanted to consume.

After about 6 weeks total of total vegetarianism, I couldn’t be happier with the experiment. I feel great, my body feels cleaner, I feel more energized, I’ve learned to cook a bit too, and I have no cravings for meat. Amazing!

I must say I’m very satisfied with the results, and I’m glad to keep on the vegetarian diet. I feel more comfortable knowing I’m actively contributing to my healthy lifestyle. So I’m going to stick with it. And eventually I’ll go vegan. But that’s down the road.

If you’ve thought about going vegetarian, try it for a month. You might be surprised by the results.