The fact just kind of snuck up on me. Today marks one year total of being vegetarian! The strange Thing is though, I remember thinking just the scent of meat was unholy for the longest time. But recently I have had cravings for a burger or a Korean dish I love with meat.. :/ So I'm here to ask, what keeps you to stay a vegetarian? Do you ever have cravings?
arty: May you have many rewarding years on the journey. Usually, in the first few years your original motivation does wear thinner. We learn all the other reasons to stay. For me, giving in to a craving was uncomfortable (as in nothing was...ah...moving as it should), and that was negative reinforcement. Now it is habit. I have a dear friend who uses her over association with the label as her motivation. It works for her in a healthy way, as she sees herself as an ambassador for vegetarianism. If she slips, it makes us all look bad, she thinks. Kind of like the do you wear pregan wool/leather/silk/what have you. I don't agree, but it works for her. As for the burger craving, get a veggie burger with ALL the topping you love. You might be craving barbecue sauce! I used to put A1 on a bagel. (hey, it was the 80s)
Congratulations on your one-year anniversary! I missed meat when I initially went veg., but I think that lasted only a few months. I can't say exactly because it was 27 years ago and I can't remember it so well. Then I went through a stage where I didn't miss it, but neither did it seem gross. Then a few years after going veg., meat started seeming really nauseating to me, and it's been that way to me ever since. It would be as hard for me to eat meat now as it would be to eat a bowl of cockroaches. I guess it's easy for me because I don't feel deprived in any way. I like what I eat, and my diet is a lot more varied now as a vegan that it was as a meat-eater. If I were craving meat, man, that would be uncomfortable. So this might sound like heresy, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if you gave in to a craving on occasion if it's really bothering you, especially if that gives you the ability to stick with an otherwise vegetarian diet that you might abandon because it's too hard to do 100%. Oh, and make sure your craving for meat isn't really a craving for Vitamin B12.
Michael, thanks for that comment. So many times we get caught up in purity arguments. It's about walking the road.
