Vegetarian - 3 Months On

Today marks the end of my third month as a vegetarian. No cheating. Except on the few occasions that I ordered a vegetarian dish without verifying first with the server that the dish didn't have any meat in it.

I must say I'm more successful now than my first attempt to go veg 2 years ago. Inspired by my mom who became visibly slimmer after turning vegetarian, I followed her footsteps and traded meat for salad. But after relapsing many, many times during the following months and eventually settling as a pesco-vegetarian (fish-eating vegetarian), I finally went back to my meat-eating habits. Looking back, I now know what had caused me to fail as a vegetarian then.

First, I plunged into the whole idea without doing some research first. Meat represents the protein and fat in my diet. Without meat, I was eating mostly carbs and fiber which caused me to constantly feel unsatisfied and hungry. Next, my reason for turning veg was not convincing enough to myself. While I wanted to slim down, I enjoyed eating more. Finally, my friends and family all seemed to have an opinion about being a vegetarian, and I allowed them (mostly old family friends) to convince me to eat meat when I ate out with them. In the end, I was simply not ready.

Now, I know that beans and nuts are a good source of protein and fat. I turned vegetarian without a lifelong promise. I first tried it again for a week to support Earth Day on April 22 and continued from there. Finally, I didn't announce my conversion to everyone to keep non-supporters at bay.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me what the advantages of being a vegetarian are. Unfortunately, I had never thought this question through and I'm afraid I didn't answer the question properly, which made me a poor advocate of a vegetarian lifestyle. (Don't worry, I don't preach about the advantages of being a vegetarian.)

So I will try to answer the question again. The first thing I noticed was my skin became glowing, and a friend who I hadn't seen for 2 months also told me so. My digestion and eating habits improved immensely. By eating natural foods like fruits and vegetables, I was finally able to let go of my addiction to salty junk food. I also discharged regularly and easily. Finally, I had been told by a few people that I looked slimmer. *big grin*