Year #2

Today’s January 26, 2011, which means I’ve managed to get by two years as a vegetarian/pescetarian.

The first year was almost torture. Like I wrote in a past entry, I felt like I was going insane in my first months. My mistake was that I went cold turkey overnight. I decided I was going to be a vegetarian tomorrow and I just stuck to the plan, one day at a time. Year two wasn’t as difficult though. Sure I never stopped craving meat, especially when dining out with my meat-lover friends, but I slowly found that I could manage without poultry, beef, and pork, after all.

The big question is: did I cheat? The simple answer is: nope! But if you want to know if I’ve been totally meat-free the past two years, then hell no. Take this Monday for instance. We had a lunch meeting and I was promised the Vietnamese rolls we had catered were all-tofu and veggies. So I dug in, only to find out it the rolls had ground beef/pork mixed in. Thankfully I’d had only one forkful. And then a couple months back, I accidentally had a spoonful of potato salad with chicken. I thought the salad tasted too yummy to be meat-free and then I recognized the distantly familiar taste of poultry.

Speaking of poultry, god I’ve missed fried chicken. I still crave burgers but I do get my burger fix with Boca vegan burgers (so good). I still miss barbecue but grilled veggie meat makes a fine substitute. But there simply is no replacement for fried chicken, especially my favorite KFC. I hate how KFC releases something new and delicious every now and then — BBQ Rods, Shakin Shots, Chililime chicken, Double Down, etc. There’s a KFC I pass by on my way to work and I never fail to glimpse at the posters of the new products.

Last year, on this day, I told myself I was going to get myself a bucket of KFC original recipe as a reward for having lasted a year as a vegetarian/pescetarian. But pathetic ol’ me couldn’t do it.

Last week I decided I was going to give in this time, this year — today. I didn’t have a proper breakfast (Tofiluk + Nova) and lunch (one banana) so by 6pm I was FAMISHED and having hallucinations of KFC Chililime and chicken steak and unlimited gravy. So I left work, withdrew money from the nearby ATM, and walked toward KFC.

But then I chickened out.

Again.

So yeah, ze bucket is still empty.