So I have a secret that I’ve been carrying around with me for a little while now. Well, it’s not really all that secret because I’ve told a bunch of people, but I can’t remember who I’ve told and who I haven’t, so I figured I may as well just blog it and that’s kind of like telling everyone. As you may have guessed from this blog posting’s title, I decided to stop being a vegetarian.
The reactions I’ve had when I’ve told people has ranged from grave disappointment to I-couldn’t-care-less to complete glee. On the glee end of the spectrum, I’ve had offers from many a friend to take me out for pho, sushi, things wrapped in bacon, steak, and, of course, marshmallows. And I have recently realized that the next time I’m in Montreal, I’m totally going to have a Montreal smoked meat sandwich!
You are probably wondering how I came to this decision. Well, it’s as simple as this: meat started to look appetizing to me. Which is somewhat odd, as meat has been very unappetizing to me for the last 15 years and I’m really not sure why or how that switch occurred. But it did. At first I thought, “Hmm, that’s odd. But I’m sure it will pass.” But then it didn’t. As time went on, meat continued to look appetizing and, since my primary reason for not eating meat was that I didn’t like eating meat, it only made sense to eat some meat. The whole process took about six months and I figured if, after six months, meat still looks appetizing, well, maybe I wanted to eat some meat. It was actually quite interesting to reflect on the process as it was occurring – I absolutely went through the “stages of change” from the transtheoretical model of behaviour change, with the “contemplation stage” (“meat looks yummy now”) turning into the “preparation stage” (telling some friends that I was thinking of eating meat) to action (“I’ll have the BLT, please!”). </nerdery>
So, as it stands, I’m no longer a vegetarian. I still eat a lot of vegetarian meals, in part because I like vegetarian foods, in part because it’s a habit after a decade and a half of not eating meat and in part because I prefer to eat good quality meat that comes from animals that have been treated decently while they were alive, so I don’t want to eat just any meat. But if you see me ordering the salmon the next time we are out for dinner, you’ll know why.
Image Credit: Posted by Tambako The Jaguar on Flickr.
My classmates and I are working on a marketing project that requires us to do some market research and I just *know* that you want to help me out with this, right? (If you already saw my tweet about this, feel free to ignore!)
