Thursday, March 3, 2011

With deep grief, I say: "No meat please!"

Ok, I have decided to stop eating meat. I know, many would remind me of making such resolutions in the past and eventually breaking them. Well, for some reason I feel it is going to be different this time around. For people who do not know me so well, I love eating non-veg- chicken, pork, beef, seafood, anything that crawls, swims, runs and flies and this is a big decision and I would want to make it serious this time! This time around I think I have found enough good reasons to keep up this resolution and here are few of them:
* Eating Animals- This book I have been reading called 'Eating Animals' seems to have a big impact on my decision. The author did a whole lot of research about the origin of our meat products because he wants to ensure that he knows everything about what his new born kid should eat. His explorations were impactful not because I was not aware of the animal farming system of the modern age but just the reinforcement of this fact in my brain. (Digressing slightly, when I speak of reinforcement of known facts having an immediate influence, there was a study done by an MIT group that more people took stairs than the adjacent escalators when a banner speaking about risks of heart attack due to lack of exercise was added over the staircase.) I have seen the PETA videos about humanity issues with animal farming but that did not affect me as much this book did.
* Weight factor - I would not consider myself an obese person but it would be ideal if I lost a few pounds. There is no better way to do this by cutting off my meat intake and replace it with more veggies and pulses. I love veggies as well, so I should not have a problem with this replacement. However, I travel quite a bit for work and tend to eat meat as veggie options are minimum- I would say that was the biggest reason why I started eating meat in the first place (yes, I was vegetarian originally). So, that take me to the next reason...
* Self Control - I have always had low self control and I believe this has had some influence on certain decisions I take. I want to change that and I think my attempt at sticking to the new diet choice will give me an opportunity to make that change about myself.

Well, now those are some good reasons,  I guess, for parting form my beloved meat dishes. I have already hoisted the 'green' flag and it has been flying high for 4 days now....

Signing off with a paraphrase to Yoda's quote: "Meat, or no meat. There is no try".

PS: Going green is my decision and I do not intend to influence anyone else's diet choice. I think everyone has the right to make their own decisions and eat their own food. :)

Clips from the past (2010)- Location: New England area