My Life Without Meat...

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." Dalai Lama

For as long as I can remember I have considered myself an "animal lover" always having animals in my house taught me the joys of their companionship at an early age, and I'm totally that girl that won't kill the spider, I save it. Which is where I began to notice irony in my life. I won't kill a spider, yet I had no issues with eating a nice In and Out burger? Something began not sitting right with me, my conscious began nagging and when it starts to nag, it's nearly impossible to ignore. Now, I had done the whole "vegetarian" thing before in Junior High, however, I'll admit that I did it more to be "cool" and "different" rather than because it was something that I actually wanted to implement into my life. That's how I knew that this time I was in trouble...I was really considering whether or not this dietary change was something that I really NEEDED to undertake.  You see, I enjoyed eating meat. The tastes and sensations that it created were delightful, not to mention that it's everywhere and in everything which makes it a pain to try and avoid. So I put the decision off.

I did a really great job at ignoring my own inner Jiminy Cricket for a good couple months by just "cutting back" on the meat that I ate or offering up special prayers of thanks that I wanted to go directly to the animal that I was eating before I dug in. Then I started researching food and where it came from. I started having conversations with friends about our food industry and our eating habits as a whole. That's where it all started to change. It turned into a soul search for me. My morals and my ethics started coming into play, I began questioning every single morsel of food that I put into my body. I started reading books and magazines and essentially weighing all of my options very carefully.

I read a book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, which is essentially a run down of factory farming and a theme of his book really hit me-essentially that the compassion that is within us is like a muscle, it needs to be used in order to be strengthened. Now, compassion was not a new word for my vocabulary, but it was one that I had casually overlooked for many years. All of a sudden, almost overnight, it took a front seat in my thoughts. I started evaluating my compassion as a sister, daughter, neighbor, friend, human and spirit. In what ways was I exercising my compassion? In what ways could I aim to incorporate it into my life more? What IS compassion? I was pondering, meditating and praying about it. With it always in the forefront of my mind, how could I possibly continue to blindly justify the food industry that promotes inhumane treatment of ANY living creature, just because it was more convenient for me? The answer was obvious to me. I couldn't have a part in it anymore.

So, I decided to stop eating meat. The first couple of weeks were rough, meat is in EVERYTHING! But as I started learning which foods I could or could not eat, it started becoming easier and easier. When I went vegetarian for 6 months back as a teenager, every single day was a list of foods that I COULDN'T eat, I was always craving some cut of meat or another. This time was different. Because it has become something of a moral thing to me, I don't find it a burden to go without meat.

You see, companies that deal in meat spend lots of money separating the image of the cow from the hamburger, because then it's less of a deal to eat meat for their customers. But now my food has a face again. I hear the argument all of the time, "the animal is already dead, so you may as well eat it now.." but it's come down to the fact that I couldn't live with myself knowing that I played any part in the horrible life and death of that animal. Now that's not to say that sometimes I don't crave dishes with meat in them. I spent the better part of 22 years enjoying those meals and often times celebrating with those meals. So I imagine biting into a hamburger again, through the bun and the lettuce and the tomato....and then I get to the patty, and the desire is gone. I would rather go without eating something in the moment than to have to live knowing that I put my desires above the welfare of another living creature.

I have discovered an entire new world of tastes and flavors since giving up meat as well. Vegetables that never really appealed to me before and now delicious! And trying an array of different food items now allows me to enjoy more dishes. I feel lighter, and healthier since cutting flesh out as well, it really is a great feeling, not to mention that I feel better about myself for living something that I really believe in. I've found a new level of myself and my spirit through doing what I feel is right. I have a new sense of spirituality that has allowed me to delve deeper into my beliefs and my thoughts.

As I continue on this journey with the nourishment that I take into my body, I find that eating consciously is more rewarding than anything that may be considered a draw back. When people ask me what I classify myself as these days, I tend to say a hybrid of a vegetarian, a vegan and a raw food-ist. My diet is now under a constant state of scrutiny on my part, and you know what? I love it. As I sit on the brink of phasing animal products out of my life completely it doesn't seem like a chore, it is more of an opportunity to be true to myself as well as show my gratitude to mother Earth for the bounty of plant food choices that I have been given. I know there are some people out there who feel like I'm missing out on some of life's greatest joys by trying to avoid ALL animal products, not just meat. But rest assured, I'm not missing out on anything! All in all my life with meat was great, but having lived this new life without it, I'll never go back :)

Aroha everyone!