6 Months as a Vegetarian

23 June 2017


I made it one of my new year's resolutions this year to finally become a full and proper vegetarian. I rarely ate meat as it was and I've always been a lover of animals, so it just made sense to finally make the commitment and give up meat for good.

Now I'm vegetarian, and not vegan so I still eat milk, cheese, eggs and other "animal products". That said I always drink soy milk, and only have that in the house. I believe every little bit counts.
I just wanted to share my experience so far on going meat free.

Because I never ate very much meat to begin with, it wasn't that big of a change to my diet and lifestyle overall. So I didn't really have to make that many changes. But I wanted to talk about a few things that I've noted over the past 6 months.

It's Easy being Vegetarian but it's Easier to be an Omnivore

Being vegetarian is not hard. At all. I'm also not a picky eater, I'll give any kind of vegetarian dish a try and I have always been like that.

Almost everywhere nowadays has vegetarian options. They'd be stupid not to. More and more people are choosing to go meat free for at least one day a week, as they realise not every meal needs to have a dead animal in it.

What I've noticed though is often there will only be one or two vegetarian options at a food place, and if there is they will probably be garbage. Plus say goodbye to eating greasy takeout food, unless you only want to eat hot chips as that is often the only option you will have available.

While I mostly eat healthy on the regular, on occasion I would have nuggets from McDonalds or a twister from KFC. I have probably eaten at each place once since the start of the year, seeing as the only thing on the menu I can have is chips. 


People think they have to Accommodate for You

I hate feeling like I'm putting someone out. I don't want anyone to go out of their way to make sure I have food. But people continually seem to feel like this, which is not what I want! I haven't yet attended a lunch or dinner where the only thing being served is three plates of meat. There is almost always some kind of vegetarian side dish that I will gladly have.

I don't want to feel like you had to make this dish just for me. I can honestly just eat when I get home. I didn't choose this lifestyle so I could force it upon anyone else. 

Obviously I thoroughly appreciate when people go out of their way to make something separate for me, I just feel bad! Like you didn't have to do that! I would have just eaten a bowl of mashed potato.

I'm not Malnourished, I'm Fine

I've gone my whole life not eating red meat, I don't think now suddenly that I've stated that I'm a vegetarian am I going to curl up and die. I've had all my levels tested, and no deficiencies! Not even in iron, I'm all good. I eat a lot of veggies and good stuff. Because I've been trying to tone up and get fit, I drink my protein shakes, and I try to always keep on top of it with my macros as well.

Getting the vegetarian boxes weekly from Hello Fresh have really helped a lot too. I have learnt how to cook a lot of different vegetarian dishes and tried a much larger variety of food. You can read about my experience with it, and see one of the dishes over here.

Can I keep it up?

Definitely!
There's literally nothing about meat that I miss. I used to feel like a hypocrite with my love of animals and meat eating. I felt like I wasn't allowed to have an opinion on animal cruelty because I ate chicken nuggets.

Another thing that I used to face a lot was people not knowing how to label me. I only rarely ate meat "So you're a vegetarian?" but I did eat some chicken on occasion... Does everything need to have a label anyway? It's easier this way. Now I just need more places to have better vegetarian options, and I'll be set!



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11 comments

  1. My New Years resolution was to become vegan and it's something I've definitely stuck to. Eating out is super super hard. Well done sticking to it, every bit counts!

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  2. I definitely love my animals, and I study conservation, so I'm fairly well versed on the subject, but I still can't give up meat, I don't need meat all the time, but I couldn't cut it out all together... I commend you on your efforts!

    Kez | acaciasdreams.com

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  3. Found this really interesting to read because I'm not sure if I could go vegan but I have been thinking about trying out vegetarianism for a while now, if not just to see how my body would react to it.

    Julia // The Sunday Mode

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  4. So proud of you! It is always a struggle explaining that you aren't iron deficient, or protein deficient, or deficient in anything haha.

    Kate | themintedblog.com

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  5. So proud of you! It is always a struggle explaining that you aren't iron deficient, or protein deficient, or deficient in anything haha.

    Kate | themintedblog.com

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  6. woo! You go girl! I have been vegetarian for about 3 to 4 months now and I'm loving it!

    x
    Ironic Minimalist / www.ironicminimalist.com

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  7. Congrats on 6 months! I've been vego for about 5 years now and my boyfriend has been for about 2 and when I first stopped eating meat it didn't take long for me to realise how easy it was. Sure, you can't really eat anything at McDonalds or KFC but as it was I hardly ate from them anyway personally, because I'm more inclined to order a pizza which is really easy to make vegetarian. I'm no stranger to junk food and these days there are tonnes of vego/vegan burger places, and even more chains have at least one thing on the menu. I think it's pretty ridiculous in this day and age for Maccas & KFC to still not have anything, but Hungry Jacks & Oporto both do, and Ogalo do the best veggie burger of all the super greasy takeaway places in Australia in my opinion.

    I don't like people making a big deal out if either though. Luckily a lot of my friends are vego or vegan as well so when going out with them it's never been an issue, it's more when going out with family or going over for a meal it gets a little awkward, but what can you do? I also thought Hello Fresh was awesome for learning new vego recipes. When my boyfriend and I moved in together about a year ago we got Hello Fresh boxes for about 8 months and when we moved to Toronto a few weeks ago we brought a stack of them with us because they're so easy and delicious.

    littlehenrylee.net

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  8. I enjoyed this! Thank you for sharing your perspective :)

    xoxo,
    stylebaus.com

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  9. Thanks for this post! I've been interested in going vegetarian for a while but can't do much about it because of my fatigue. Thanks for sharing your side <3

    Hannah | Stories Of A Telescope

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  10. Yay! Well done. Keep it up. I've been veggie for 16 years but time has flown by. Pretty soon you'll be losing track of the years too. Well Done! :)

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  11. Apart from being a huge lover of chicken, I've never really been a bit meat or animal product eater. I still say I have a meat-eater diet, but I always pick up soy milk now and often find myself choosing vegetarian options when cooking or eating out, because it does tend to make me feel better and their such easy meals to cook because you don't have to worry about making sure the meat is cooked right so its not overdone or underdone and makes you sick - haha. I should probably just take it that extra step and go vegetarian , you may have inspired me to in the coming months.

    Amy // www.thenoiseinwonderland.com

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Thanks so much for commenting everyone! I read and appreciate every single one of your comments! xx