Vegetarianism

Posted December 24th, 2009 by Chris Gurney

So, it’s almost been a full year since I became a vegetarian.

(Technically, January 2nd, 2009 was my first full day, because I slipped up on New Year’s Day by partaking in a single, tasty shrimp!)

Here’s a look back at my first year as a vegetarian.

But… Why?

Everybody seems to have a different reason for doing the veggie thing.

For me, the idea was first planted last year upon reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Michael Pollan’s book started to open my eyes to what I was eating, and made me start to ask a few questions, namely: Where does my food come from, and how is it produced?

The latter question, in particular, made me think more about environmental sustainability, and whether avoiding eating animals would help in that regard. I believe the answer is yes.

I think that most of us just take our food for granted, without giving these sorts of questions a second thought. We really should.

Frankly, it was relatively easy to stop eating meat. It was a gradual process, where I went from only eating chicken a couple times a week, to no meat at all.

So What Do I Eat?

Becoming vegetarian forced me to learn more about cooking. Unless I wanted to continue to endure sandwiches and mediocre dishes, I had to learn the way of spices, and what exactly I could do with tofu. While I still have a long way to go, I’m happy about the dishes and baked goods I’ve experimented with.

I’ve become accustomed to soy milk, cheese, while only very occasionally having dairy. Unfortunately, as a result, I think I’ve become lactose intolerant, which sucks as I still enjoy me some good cheese. Luckily the condition hasn’t been intolerable, which is good as I’ve already started indulging over the holidays!

Travel

Restaurant-wise, there are a lot of great options for vegetarians in Toronto. If in doubt, I’m picking things on the menu and asking them to leave off the meat.

As I’ve been doing a lot of travel for work this past year, however, it can be challenging, though not impossible to find a decent vegetarian dish at any given restaurant.

Staying vegan, however, is another matter. Finding soy milk at a Holday Inn is not an easy task.

Nutrition

Lucky for me I had an opportunity to see a nutritionist about eight months into my vegetarian diet.

At first, I was nervous about this because I was concerned I hadn’t done the whole vegetarianism thing right, destroyed something in my body, and was about to be told I would have to be hospitalized and force-fed meat.

Fortunately, my blood work told a different story; it looked like I was good shape! The nutritionist did made some vitamin recommendations, so I’m now basically taking a concoction of B12, calcium, vitamin D, and omega-3.

I don’t like the idea of taking supplements, though. Ideally, most of this stuff should come from what I eat, if I were truly cooking things right for myself. The other concern I have around vitamins is that I’m not sure where they themselves come from.

There’s definitely more research here for me to do here.

Onwards?

Lately, I’ve been wondering if I’m going to keep this up in the new year (well, past January 2nd, anyway).

I’ll admit that my energy levels over the past year haven’t been where I’ve wanted them to be. I have to wonder if starting to maintain a good exercise regimen would help compensate for that, or if eating meat might be the only way to get back.

I’m hopeful, though, it’s really just about learning more about what I’m eating, and I can stay the veggie man that I am!

Update 1/29: As I’ve started exercising regularly, and taking vegetarian protein supplements, it’s made a world of difference. Thus, I shall continue to be a vegetarian for the foreseeable future!

Thank you for reading! Please sign-up for email updates, or subscribe via RSS.
 
See more posts tagged with: Sustainability