I am trying to eat healthy, and I want to quit eating meat too.
Kudos to you for wanting to stop eating meat!
However, if you're only doing it for its health benefits--and there are many, and they're well documented--you may not have the inner drive to sustain it for long.
When I went vegetarian in 1988--while living in
Texas, no less!--my reasons were solely compassion-based. I had learned the facts about the
heinous cruelty to animals in the meat industry, and as a self-labelled "animal lover" all my life, I simply couldn't reconcile continuing to passively participate in animal cruelty on the one hand [eating meat, wearing leather, etc.], while pampering and loving my pets on the other hand. I realized that a sentient being is a sentient being is a sentient being....
Did you know that pigs are smarter than dogs? It's true.
Today, I'm vegan. That transition happened naturally over a course of time. Bit by bit, I found myself buying less dairy and using cruelty-free plant-based alternatives instead. Along the way, I had learned about the cruelty in the dairy industry. My original reason for going vegetarian, not vegan, was that animals were
killed in order to produce meat, leather, etc., while dairy products didn't involve killing. But once my eyes were opened to the facts about factory farming as it applies to dairy, I was done with that, too!
My long-winded point is that if you're going vegetarian for reasons other than the cruelty to animals inherent in the meat industry, you simply may not have the drive to continue for long. On the other hand, if you read up on, and watch undercover videos of, the horrendous animal cruelty involved in the meat industry, that might give you the impetus to stick with it.
And there's no need to feel deprived! I NEVER do. I eat everything I love, from Lays potato chips and Double Stuf Oreos, to ice cream to chocolate--the only difference is they're cruelty-free. For example, my 'fake ice cream' [as a buddy here calls it] is actually scrumptious, decadent, creamy vegan ice cream. My nightly chocolate--and I'm a lifelong chocoholic!--is dark chocolate, containing no dairy products. Even my 'fried chicken' is vegan--and it won
FIRST PLACE at the
National Fried Chicken Festival in New Orleans! It went up against 35
real chicken entries and won. When I saw it on
Shark Tank, and all of the Sharks deemed it the 'best fried chicken they'd ever eaten'--before they knew it was vegan!--I immediately went to their site,
AtlasMonroe.com, and ordered some.
Do you take some vitamins and supplements, by the way?
Normally, no, I do not. However, due to a very serious illness awhile back, I'm taking certain vitamins and minerals that I just can't get enough of because I'm not eating enough. But they're all vegan.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
nah, just kidding lol
