VEGETARIANISM: DAY TWELVE

I feel as if the pattern of vegetarianism has fell into place and has adapted itself to my life.  I’m sure that this blog would be a lot more interesting if I had huge cravings for meat, and, was possessed by the meat sweats as they say, but I can’t say that has been an issue for me. 

For my main meal yesterday, I choose Taco Bell.  Valerie was tired and wanted me to pick something up on the way home.  Again, I had to think creatively, and I came up with Taco Bell, where I purchased a potato taco, two bean burritos, and a tostado.  Easy peasy. 

The reality is that a habit seems to be much easier to accept or to graft onto your schedule when you don’t really think about it.  The difficult part is that, to a certain extent, you do.  You have to be conscious of your diet or the new habit or else you will slip because old diets and old habits are so engrained.  How many of us during Lent have eaten meat on Friday, not because we want to ignore our Lenten obligation, but because we simply failed to realize that it was a Friday in Lent and that our diets are restricted?  (And then again, maybe that’s a major point of Lent, to remember the sacrifice of Our Lord over the daily humdrum of living.)

I think vegetarianism has been easy for me because, in reality, my diet has not changed that much.  My breakfast didn’t really change at all: banana, yogurt, blueberries, coffee, and oatmeal.  Lunch did change a little, but the change effected without much thought: soup without meat now instead of with meat.  Dinner is the big change, but, then again, not really, since I wasn’t eating a lot of meat before, maybe just smaler portions of it or only occasionally.

The other thing as I write this blog is that this, this blog, serves as a constant reminder to me of my call to refrain from eating meat.  The idea that each day I will have to come here and account to myself about my eating habits, to explain my choices, whether bad or good, to bring that which is unconscious, to the forefront and conscious.

I am not half way through the month and I feel as if this challenge has been conquered.