Vegetarianism. Admittedly I have only been a vegetarian for about three weeks. At this point the validity of this post depends on whether or not I eat meat tomorrow. I for one happen to think this is permanent, with the only danger of my vegetarianism being my visit to my parents next month. I can’t even help it. Meat is so delicious, so filling, so appetizing, but I can’t bring myself to eat it. It has become visceral. I can’t even put it into words or rationalize it to myself.
This is all due to a documentary I stumbled upon. Earthlings. You can view it for free online here, I mean, if you want your life changed forever. The documentary isn’t necessarily just about veganism, just the human animal relationship.
There are a few arguments I can formulate on why this documentary is completely off base, but the goal of the documentary isn’t necessarily to convince you, but to show you. It shows us suffering and makes us commiserate as if the suffering belongs to one of our own. Regardless of whether or not humans need amino acids from animal meat that we can’t produce our own and animals eat other animals in the wild. I just can’t un-see it.
Gluten intolerance. I am not celiac. It just doesn’t agree with me. Growing up I had a diet that consisted of beans, steak, and rice. I just didn’t have a very adventurous diet. Going off to college really opened my eyes. I was plagued by stomach problems. I tried the raman thing, the pasta thing, but I could never rest easy. Especially when I started exercise, my training and sleeping were random, and I always felt nauseous. I have a memory of my first 5k. I ran 3 and 4 miles regularly every night beforehand, and I had a planned finishing time of 20 minutes. I was given a muffin that morning from the race hands… and I barely made it a mile before I was vomiting into a trash can. After one unfortunate trip to a bakery one of my friends suggested that I may be gluten intolerant. I’ve been practicing self restraint ever since.
It is hard to restrain. The punishment is put off quite a bit, and I associate bread and pasta as treats from my childhood. Cheating for me is having a slice of pizza… some pasta for christs sake. And don’t get me started on beer. I think I’ve only had one beer in my life.
I try to get creative, but there are a lot of salads and beans in my future.