I Am a Flexitarian
I would love to be vegetarian, but it's simply not realistic, so I work to strongly limit my meat intake to a few times per month, and still take vitamins like a full vegetarian should.
For me, the largest obstacles are family and food allergies.
My husband wants to be supportive but he's really bad at it. Additionally, visiting in-laws means either I eat meat or I starve and wait for later. :/ not very courteous hosts... My daughter is a toddler, and I regularly eat her leftovers rather than have them go bad. When your toddler is impossible to feed, you practically throw every type of food imaginable at them in the hopes they eat SOMEthing. She likes chicken, and eats it almost daily. I probably eat a serving worth of leftover chicken every other week.
Food allergies make things extra challenging. I'm allergic to wheat. I have a mild anaphylactic response to contamination, life french fries cooked in the same grease as onion rings. Most commercial vegetarian patties, like black bean burgers, contain wheat as a bonding agent to hold the ingredients together. So my options are chicken, salad, or starve, and I really hate spending $8+ on a salad I could make at home for 75cent.
Sometimes my daughter makes me proud. I found a vegetarian burger patty a year ago that's wheat free, and she loves it, steals my whole burger so I have to make another. :) At least the girl likes her veggies, most of the time.
I originally endeavored to be vegetarian because of a mixture of the animal rights and conservationist perspective, in addition to family health concerns. My father has a rare genetic disorder that is hereditary, and my risk of experiencing the illness myself are multiplied by consuming red meat. For most sufferers, his illness is usually just painful, but his travelled to his brain, and between the natural effects of the illness, and the narcotic pain medications, the guy is impossible to be around. He has been pushing everyone out of his life for the last few years. His memory suffers. He has significant mood swings. He's a shell of himself. And I refuse to end up like him.
For me, the largest obstacles are family and food allergies.
My husband wants to be supportive but he's really bad at it. Additionally, visiting in-laws means either I eat meat or I starve and wait for later. :/ not very courteous hosts... My daughter is a toddler, and I regularly eat her leftovers rather than have them go bad. When your toddler is impossible to feed, you practically throw every type of food imaginable at them in the hopes they eat SOMEthing. She likes chicken, and eats it almost daily. I probably eat a serving worth of leftover chicken every other week.
Food allergies make things extra challenging. I'm allergic to wheat. I have a mild anaphylactic response to contamination, life french fries cooked in the same grease as onion rings. Most commercial vegetarian patties, like black bean burgers, contain wheat as a bonding agent to hold the ingredients together. So my options are chicken, salad, or starve, and I really hate spending $8+ on a salad I could make at home for 75cent.
Sometimes my daughter makes me proud. I found a vegetarian burger patty a year ago that's wheat free, and she loves it, steals my whole burger so I have to make another. :) At least the girl likes her veggies, most of the time.
I originally endeavored to be vegetarian because of a mixture of the animal rights and conservationist perspective, in addition to family health concerns. My father has a rare genetic disorder that is hereditary, and my risk of experiencing the illness myself are multiplied by consuming red meat. For most sufferers, his illness is usually just painful, but his travelled to his brain, and between the natural effects of the illness, and the narcotic pain medications, the guy is impossible to be around. He has been pushing everyone out of his life for the last few years. His memory suffers. He has significant mood swings. He's a shell of himself. And I refuse to end up like him.
36-40, F
