It's been a whole month, and I still haven't eaten the flesh of anything other than fish or shellfish...
In fact, I've even found myself seeking to avoid fish and shellfish. I think in the last month, I've had more meatless days than the rest of my entire life put together. At one point, I went an entire week without eating any flesh.
Probably my biggest temptation so far was a week ago, when someone brought some deer sausage to the Sunday coffee at the airport. A couple of pancakes proved to be a satisfying substitute. I also have found myself thinking about those wonderful ribs and beans I had in the Memphis airport, but, as with many things, I think that the memory might now have more appeal than were I to actually be sitting face to face with a half rack.
I can't say that this change in eating habits has resulted in any drastic mystical change in how I feel physically. It's not like all of a sudden I have boundless energy or a new spring in my step. It is nice however, to not have reason to think about the miserable life and horrible death that the poor cow, pig, chicken, etc. suffered on its way to my dinner plate. It has also been nice stepping on the scale each week. Over the last month, I have lost a total of almost eight pounds.
Before you get too worried, no, I am not on my way to becoming some foaming at the mouth radical animal rights activist. Just because, at the moment, I am choosing to not eat meat, does not mean that I have a problem with others doing so. Might I at some point consider switching to free range eggs and milk to further reduce the animal suffering that I contribute to? I might, but at the moment, I can live with consuming eggs and dairy products produced in factory farm environments. Do I think about the environmental impact of factory fishing? Yes, but at the moment, I feel that I am at least somewhat contributing to the solution by limiting how much seafood I consume. Last week when I was at the SAR EVAL, I was given a box lunch that consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich on a croissant. I was fortunate that I had packed a PB&J sandwich so it wasn't an issue, but had I not had an alternative, I would have just pulled the ham off and eaten a cheese sandwich - although I probably would have thought that the sandwich had been "tainted" by its contact with the ham.
As with many things in my life, I still expect that at some point I will go back to eating meat, and this period will just become another "phase" I went through. But, who knows?
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Posted by David at May 24, 2009 06:22 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life