Becoming Vegetarian: My Experience

Hello BumbleBeas!

Before I start let me make it clear: I am NOT trying to persuade you to become vegetarian nor am I criticising you for eating meat. I respect people's choices whether they love eating meat, vegetarian or vegan etc. I decided to make this post simply to be a read for people who may be interested in how I went vegetarian. That is all.

Nobody in my family are vegetarian. Everybody eats meat, especially my sister and step sister who LOVE meat. Yet I was never much a fan of meat. Yes I'd eat it, my favourite was chicken, but you'd never find me eating a huge steak or a big slice of bacon.

I always found it a problem eating meat that looked like it came from an animal. I never liked eating meat off the bone and I would only eat it when it just looked like food, rather than an animal. This way I could pretend it wasn't a dead animal and didn't feel guilty for it.

About 2 and a half years ago, nearly 3, I started to think more about how the meat gets on to our plate and the whole process of killing the animals. The more I thought about it the more it disgusted me. Then I thought: why don't I just stop eating meat?

This was a big decision for me that I wanted to think about and do my research on before I made any decisions. Firstly I watched some documentaries and did some research on how animals get from the farm to our plates. I then did research on vegetarianism and if it was healthy for you, how to eat the proper foods etc. 

I didn't make the decision lightly to go vegetarian. It took me about 6 months/year for me to weigh up the pros and cons of becoming vegetarian to finally say that I was going to do it.

My family were surprised but they accepted it. My Nan was totally disgusted with it but she dealt with it. I told them I wasn't going to immediately stop eating meat as I wanted to cut it out my diet slowly so over the course of a week and a half I slowly cut out meat and started adding various other foods. It took me a while to get used to no meat and I did miss it but I was determined. 

At first I found meals so damn boring and bland as all I was doing was eating quorn but then my Mum bought a vegetarian cookbook to try other stuff. Thanks to becoming vegetarian I have now discovered so many foods and meals I would have never have tried before or even imagined existed. This has also affected my family as ALL of them have also discovered new foods because of me that they like and now eat a more variety of meals. For example, my sisters will now choose quorn mince meat over real meat now and my Mum loves lentil cottage pie! It has been good for all of us.

It has now been exactly two years since I went vegetarian and I don't regret it. Many people thought I wouldn't last longer than a month but I surprised them all. What has surprised me as that I don't miss meat at all now. Sometimes I find it difficult when there is only one vegetarian option at a restaurant or find it difficult at Christmas when I can't eat the same as my family but personally for me it is worth it. I also feel so much better in myself and I know I am doing something I truly believe in.

I can understand people's point when they say eating meat is our nature etc but it just isn't right for me personally. Everybody has different opinions and mine is that I cannot justify to myself eating a dead animal when I can eat numerous of other foods.

If you are thinking about stopping eating meat or becoming vegan etc I strongly recommend you do your research first rather than deciding on a whim. There are both advantages and disadvantages to it all and you just need to be fully rounded in knowledge before making a reasonable decision. 

So that is it! What are your opinions? Let me know!