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| me in front of a vegetarian restaurant in Paris |
It all started 15 or 16 years ago when my uncle came from Seattle to visit us in NJ. He brought with him his then girlfriend. I was 8 or 9, impressionable, and totally smitten by this hippy-ish woman and her diet. I don't know now if I even knew before meeting her what a vegetarian was. However, she could have said she was a nudist and I, too, would have taken on that role. No one was too happy with my decision to be a vegetarian, but look on the bright side, it could have been waaaay more interesting!! So, anyway, I declared that very day that I was going to be a vegetarian, too. I'm sure my parents thought this was some phase and the next week (or day) I would be eating meat again, but that was never the case. In fact, the situation only developed into a more dedicated form of vegetarianism years later - I became a vegan.
The truth is, I didn't fully grasp the concept of vegetarianism at first. I was merely eating around meat... for years. All the while, however, I began to read teen guides to vegetarianism, watching documentaries and reading articles on animal cruelty and hormone treatment in animals, and so on and so forth. Pair this with the fact that I really do just love vegetables. I was never crying at the table about eating my brussel sprouts or lima beans, I was crying about drinking my milk. And, I was taking the cheese off my pizza since I was little. I know this is hard for people to believe, but I don't like cheese. People say, "How can you give up cheese?" It smells!!!!! I don't want to eat anything that stinks.
In middle school, I started to develop anemia (low iron levels), because I obviously wasn't doing the whole vegetarian thing correctly. I knew I had to start doing more than eating around meat. However, tofu creeped me out (still does but I've learned to use it creatively - i.e. you will never see me biting into a chunk of tofu but you might see me mashing it into a filling for vegan lasagna). I started eating cruelty-free meat... the fake kind. I developed a love for veggie burgers, faux chicken patties and nuggets, nuts, beans, etc.
**Side Bar - I think that being a vegetarian has actually made me much more conscience about what I am putting into my body. On a daily basis, I am thinking, "Did I get my protein? Did I get my iron? Did I get my calcium?" The first question most people ask me is, "How do you get your protein?" My usual response is, "Are you getting too much protein?" Protein isn't usually the problem with vegetarians as protein is found naturally in many items I love - peanut butter, nuts, beans, etc. However, I have spent so much time researching ways to get calcium and iron and have even taken supplements.
After 10 years of vegetarianism, I was getting bored. I couldn't imagine (at that time) eating meat again so I decided to take the next step and become a vegan. So on the first day of my junior year of high school (2002), I started. It was an easy transition. I hadn't voluntarily had butter or milk in years. The only things I was giving up were unhealthy sweets - ice cream, cookies, cake, donuts.
I accumulated a collection of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. I learned how to adapt other recipes to fit my diet. I developed a love for being inventive in the kitchen (especially in college when we often had few items to work with in the pantry!). Coincidentally, I seemed to meet other vegetarians very easily. At any given time in our house in college, we had other vegetarians living there. I was content, healthy, and feeling good about the food I was eating.
All the while though, my parents were wishing I would start eating meat. My mom would say, "Come on, Kay. Do you have to be vegan?" And then, I met a guy (I'm sure you've heard about him on this blog) that opened my eyes to a new idea... an idea that I could enjoy eating meat if it's not injected with hormones or if it's not killed in a cruel way.*** Here in France, my new French family purchase their Halal meat from the butcher. They know the guy; they know where he got his meat; they know how he killed it, blah blah blah... you get it.
***Vegetarians argue that there is no cruelty-free way of eating meat. It's cruel to kill animals. Meat eaters argue that animals were put on this earth for us to eat. And, I, after much debating, contrasting, and reading, do respectfully believe that the omnivores (the lovers of the meat and the veggies) are correct.
So after reasoning with this logic and making my decision to eat meat, I knew it would be a long road ahead of me... and it has been. I started eating fish a year ago, after what... 8 years (!!??) of being vegan and another 8 more of being a vegetarian. Just in the past few months, I have started eating cheese. I don't really go out of my way to put it on anything, but if it's on my food, I'll eat it (I'm so happy I waited until after college to start being less difficult when it comes to ordering a pizza because I would probably have 20 extra pounds on me if ordering pizza in college was effort-less).
I tried meat for the first time in 16 years when my love's Mom made it upon the first time I met her (AHHHHH - Holy Welcome to France). In her defense, I'm sure he did not enlighten her on the fact that I didn't eat meat. I'm sure it was good, but I was 1) under a ton of stress 2) nervous about meeting my French family for the first time 3) jet lagged after having just arrived from the United States and 4) did I already say under a ton of stress? let me reiterate... I was on an emotional roller coaster ride that was upside down the whole time 5) I didn't totally know if I was cool with eating meat yet and I certainly hadn't intended on my first experience being a massive plate of Moroccan meatballs... maybe 1 meatball? However, I graciously ate the entire serving (it wasn't easy) because I did not want to make a bad impression! (I should add that since it was brought to his Mom's knowledge that I didn't eat meat, she has been A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and has prepared every delicious vegetarian and fish dish she knows and I am so grateful.)
I ate chicken that my guy's father made last Friday night in an equally similar situation. I will admit that it was good. However, he was sitting there counting how much I was eating and urging me to eat more and asking why I wasn't eating faster while my
I know there are stories out there about people who didn't eat meat for 16 years and then one day just decided to go to McDonald's and get a hamburger. It is not that easy for me. Although, I do dream of it being that simple! I am no longer accustomed to the texture of meat; and you have to understand, it's very different than that of the texture of vegetables. This won't be an easy transition for me, and I don't know if I even want to eat red meat. It's not even good for you! However, I will eat my fish and my chicken (for now!). Can't we call that a compromise?
I think I need to add a special shout out to my mother (and father) who have endured the unpleasant task of preparing dinner for two very peculiar young ladies - me, the former vegan and my sister, the one that doesn't eat anything with "fins or feathers." How ironic now that I have decided to eat only that which has "fins and feathers." Because nothing is ever simple in the Reabold house :)
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