Vegetarian Dreams

I’m two days away from turning one as a vegetarian! (Or a pesco-vegetarian if you want to be specific hehe.) One of the common tips given to people who plan to become one is to take it slow. That is, to take their time and let their bodies get used to a diet that slowly does away with meat. That wasn’t my case though — I decided to do it overnight.

Often I’ve been asked why I chose this lifestyle. Actually, I’d considered it it since college. I guess a major influence on me was one of my best friends, Roanna, who turned vegetarian in 2002 and lasted around seven years. But I guess “the tipping point” was when I ordered Wendy’s sinful (and quite pricey) Baconator. From the moment I saw the poster I knew I simply had to have one and when I did all I felt was… guilt? Sure it was delicious as hell but halfway into the burger I found myself staring at the thick, chunky patty and thought, you killed a cow for this? That was a Friday. Two days later I came across an interview with PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk on Time magazine and the article really sealed the deal for me. My last taste of meat was Boston Cafe’s pasta arrabiata, which I had for dinner that night. The following day I became vegetarian.

Unfortunately, I decided to stop eating meat on the day we threw a pizza party for Aldrich. So while the Web Team members were bathing themselves in pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and ham pizzas I was half-heartedly, pathetically eating garden fresh pizza. See that’s the thing: I LOVE MEAT. I LOVE BACON, FRANKFURTERS, FRIED CHICKEN, STEAK, LECHON, YOU NAME IT… I LOVE MEAT. And I’ve never denied that as a vegetarian.

I have a friend who’s been a solid vegetarian since 1991. But the difference is, she doesn’t crave for meat at all. I wish it were that easy because it is TORTURE to eat out with friends who delightfully order sisig and you find yourself having to pick the (limp) salad off the menu. Looking back, in my first three months as an ovo-lacto vegetarian (I turned pesco in April), there were moments that I honestly felt I was going crazy, that my brain was wasting away. (Which is why I do agree that you shouldn’t do it abruptly.)

The funny thing is, the meat lover that I am (or rather, used to be), I never attempted to cheat the past year. But I always comforted myself with the idea that I would start eating meat again, once a week, once I hit my first year. And I always knew what I would have first: a bucket of KFC original recipe fried chicken. Then after, I would have shawarma rice. Then barbecue (oh yes). I imagined calling myself a “disciplined vegetarian,” if that makes sense. But now that I am two days away from my first year, I find that I am not so sure if I can really do it.

In fact, lately I’ve been dreaming about dining scenarios with meat. And the funny thing is, even if my dream I am vegetarian. I figured if I did want to cheat I could always do it in my dream but apparently even my subconscious has amazing willpower.

I’m still undecided if I’m going to start eating meat again. Or if I’m going to re-introduce just one type of meat, say poultry, to my diet. Lord knows how much I crave for fried chicken and isaw and proven and Jamaican patties and siomai (oh yes) and tapa and pretty much everything else that I’ve missed over the past year. But that’s the thing: maybe the craving is all cognitive to make up for the lack of meat — and consequently, protein — in my system; maybe it isn’t something I can translate into action… for now.

So these are my vegetarian thoughts. When Roanna and I had dinner last month, we talked about pretty much everything here and all she could do was laugh at me, especially at the part where I thought I was losing it.

If laughing at my hardships wasn’t enough, this former vegetarian ordered a BLT (which I resisted the sight of) and went on about her recent addiction to liempo, saying that meat is gooood.