Ok so, I've been working on this veg thing for a little over a week now. I have not gone one day without a meat product. I'm really starting to worry that I can't do it. Mostly, I eat the meat because it's my only option. That, cook for myself (which is extremely rude and if I did that at home I wouldn't be spoken to. We eat what my mother cooks out of respect... yah know!), or starve. Honestly, I don't want to starve. A coworker fixed hot dogs to sell today, he's raising money for his mission trip to Costa Rica, I asked if he had veggie dogs and he told me he would cook them if I bought them. I didn't have any money on me so I had to settle for a meat weiner! I'm getting really upset because I can't keep with it. I need some encouragement and ideas. I don't like the idea of eating meat and I want to quit, it's just not convenient! Please help and give some ideas. Especially about things I can take with me that will fill me up! I don't want to take fruit because I just end up hungry in a matter of minutes. Also, keep in mind that i WORK at a grocery store so, I can go pick stuff up off of the shelves as long as it dosne't have to be cooked. Microwaving is acceptable if I have time though!
http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/?v=06tips Changing your lifestyle is never going to be convient. Just have to choose which you're prepared to live with; betraying your principles, or short lived akwardness. That's not something anyone else can do for you. It took me a long time to psych myself up, but once the switch was made it was so much easier than anticipated. Surely your mother doesn't include meat in every single thing she cooks. I eat the veggie/starch element of the meal my mother makes but have a veg burger or whatever instead of the 'animal' part. Not a total snub, but a compromise. Offer to help out, or make something for everyone to share (to ease to burden on her). Can see why your family might be offended if you don't explain [ie their food isn't good enough], but should think they would be quite reasonable if you explain your choices and offer a solution. As it's a friend you can decline the food polietly but make a contribution anyway. Then they can make twice as much profit on the hotdog or whatever. There are so many other ways you can get involved in or suppourt fundraising without meat being a factor. This blog has so many neat ideas ... http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ (obviously it's vegan-centric, but you can adapt things to be vegetarian if you wish. Or just use it as a spring board) Off the top of my head ... A nice bean or pasta salad, nuts, sandwiches, [pre cooked] cheese pizza (as they're not bad cold), flapjacks Take it one step at a time, every veg choice will make a diffrence and get you closer to you goal. If you do fall off the wagon just dust yourself off and get back on, tomorrow is another day. Hope that helps, good luck
when i was becoming a vegetarian, i gave up one animal a week until i was animal-free! i starded with beef, then pork, then chicken, then fish, then other seafood, and voila! vegetarian! and be sure to read ALL ingrediants, meat by-products can sneak up on you!
That is an amazing idea. I thought about gradually coming off, which IS what I'm doing, but that just makes it easier to slip. "Well, I CAN have this but no more today" If I eliminated say "steak" then I could eat around it. I don't like steak anyway. That is great.
I switched gradually too... by the time I was ready to go vegetarian, I was already 95% lactose-free and down to only eating turkey or fish twice a month. It made the actual switch MUCH easier!
I tried that, but didn't have the right motivation to keep going at the eliminating. Would slip up in the way you mentioned. Just needed to make a good clean break, three years on and yup it's worked. Ultimatly it doesn't matter how you tackle it, just find what suits best. Everyone is an individual and the end result is the same whichever way.
You can bring nuts, salad, fuirt (although you don't like it), make a sandwich to bring with you (veggie), theres tons of things. If you don;t want to cook for your self go out and get a veggie cook book and ask your mom to make it for you.
it sounds like your mom is proud of either her cooking, her care for the family or both (or she could see this as her role and be attatched to it and that's a rteallyrocky issue) so try this tack: cook with your mom. Have her show you all your fave non-critter (or easily decrittered) dishes. start with desserts if you have to. While you are working together, chat about what interested you in the CONCEPT of vegetarianism. Focus on "I don't want to change anyone else but me, but I'd like to give this a go and see how I feel." The more parents are communicated with the better we feel about our children growing into their own people! [tangent] I've had to settle that my son does not wish to be veg. He respects that I am, and does not ask me to make critter food (I actually do it once/ twice a year. It's my "compromise"). He does any and all meat dishes as that's where the real gross-out comes for me. {tangent off} now, as for "had to settle for a meat weiner": Next time, donate the cash and wish him luck. Or donate a dessert he could sell. Just because someone made it does not mean you have to eat it.
Going veggie shouldn't be a chore. I tried once when I was very young and was unsuccessful. But that was exactly it. I had to try. Then, one day, it clicked and I could never eat meat again. It's been about 6 years now. Maybe you need something to 'click.' Try educating yourself further as to why you want to become a vegetarian in the first place. Ex: the horrors of the slaughterhouse, the horrors of your health as a meateater, the horrors of nature's price to pay for meat, etc. Good luck!
