Why?

Big Step #1: Deciding to actually give up meat.

Big Step #2: Telling others. 

We all have our reasons for giving up meat, and I'm no exception. I do not want to dwell on this right now, tonight I want to talk a bit about telling people you have decided that Bessie will no longer find her way onto your dinner plate.

I have to admit, for the first few days, I didn't feel the need to tell anyone. I know my heading on this page says my start date was 4/25/11, but that was the first day I went officially meat free. I started seriously considering doing this 100% about a week earlier. I slipped up a whole bunch of times that first awkward week. I guess knew deep down that would most likely be the case. For this reason, I told no one of my plans, not even my fiance for fear of having to admit failure if I decided not to continue on. 

Now that I have had very minimal meat in the past 2 weeks and have been officially meat FREE for a whopping 7 days, (high five to myself!) I have started to let people know of my plans to stay on this path. Here are some of the reactions I got. Be prepared for anything, because people come up with some odd responses...

My Parents: My Fiance and I went to visit my parents on Easter weekend, and at this point I told my mom I was doing my best to give up meat for good. This is something her and I had talked about in the past, so it was not a huge shock to her. Once the 4 of us sat down for dinner, she was totally shocked that I was not going to eat salmon. Yes, I realize that some people will still eat fish, however A: It's still the flesh of an animal even if it lives in the ocean and B: The way factory fisheries and major fishing operations are run totally destroy entire ecosystems. They were pretty supportive, however as with all things that happen in my family, it was definitely the new go to thing to poke fun at. 

My Coworkers: One of the girls at work decided to go veggie about a month before I officially committed to it. Let me tell you, having another vegetarian in your life is key. It provides a different kind of support that other people just can not provide on the topic. I am so thankful to have her around to help not only keep me on track, but also to share the burden of dealing with our loving, sarcastic, very male coworkers. It isn't the coworkers that was difficult so much, but the customers we see on a daily basis. We see a lot of restaurant managers from the area, and by default, most of them now know that I've gone meatless. They seem to have much more to say about it, and they certainly not people I would consider close enough to pick on me or make comments. Like I said earlier, everyone has their own beliefs...

My Fiance: Man was I all worried for nothing. I thought I would get the typical "I'm a man and meat and potatoes and fast cars" response I would be getting from some of my other friends over the next few days. While not having a ton to say about it, he simply told me to be careful (I'm super hypoglycemic) and that he supported me 100%. What a peach :) When I told him tonight was my one week mark, he gave me a hug and told me he was very proud of me for sticking with something I believe in. 

So far, I have yet to encounter the angry person, but I'm sure in time they will come barging in uninvited and piss me off.    :)

Coming Soon!!

What brought me over to the veggie side.

The book that everyone should read. (Hint: see bright green book on left)

Easy substitutions for people that don't have time to cook 9 hours a day!

<3 J

Help get the word out there and lets get this support group going!

@HowToGoVeggie on Twitter! 

I also think dinos are RaD!