This is a question I get asked A LOT. This blog post isn’t to convince you to become vegetarian or vegan (although I do recommend it) and doesn’t include any facts or figures although I will be writing some posts in the future including them. This is just a simple and personal answer as to why I made the decision to go vegetarian.
I was in year 7 at school when I decided to go vegetarian. It wasn’t planned, but was something I’d wanted to do one day. My mum (who is now vegan) was vegetarian so in a way I guess that influenced my decision. I’m a huge animal lover and I grew up around several pets from dogs to guinea pigs to horses and was always taught not to hurt any kind of life form.
From a young age, I wanted to become vegetarian but I saw it as an adult decision and my parents wanted me to wait until I was older. Joining secondary school was a leap into adulthood and I suddenly felt a lot older. A few weeks before deciding to go vegetarian, I ordered the vegetarian meal from the dining centre at school, to see what kind of food vegetarians ate, which was some sort of ravioli and I hated it. I wasn’t educated on what vegetarians ate, I didn’t know quorn and other alternatives to meat existed but I wanted to become vegetarian and was determined. It wasn’t something I was fixated on or obsessed with, I didn’t actually give it a huge amount of thought, but it was something I was building up to do.
One day, we were lining up for morning tutor and I was day dreaming and it suddenly came to my mind that I wanted to be vegetarian and I wanted to start tomorrow. It was a thought which I wanted to make reality. I hadn’t researched into it, I hadn’t actually thought about it as much as it seems, but for some reason I knew this was the right time. People would describe me as a random person and to be honest this was definitely one of my most random and best decisions. When we went into morning tutor, I discussed with a few friends what I was thinking and I remember some saying I wouldn’t be able to keep it up, some saying it was a bad idea and some supporting it. At first, I wanted to become a pescatarian (meaning that you don’t eat meat but you still eat fish) because I was a fussy eater and I thought cutting meat out of my diet would be difficult and could result in a lack of Vitamins (which hasn’t been the case).
The next day after school, my mum picked me and my siblings up from school and decided to take us to the local fish and chip shop. As we stepped into the small red coloured shop, the smell of battered fish filled my nose and I remember not feeling okay. Normally the smell of fish would make my stomach beg for food, but for some reason this time it didn’t. Anyway, we ordered myself a portion of fish and chips and bought it home with us.
I sat on the sofa with the fish and chips still wrapped in white paper, and again after unwrapping it and smelling it I felt wrong. I put the first mouthful of fish in my mouth and it tasted delicious, but I felt like I wasn’t doing the right thing. I only finished half of the fish and decided I was going to be a full vegetarian. Some school friends and some family didn’t think I’d stay vegetarian, but it definitely wasn’t as hard as it seemed. I missed bacon for a while (they say this is the meat that turns vegetarians back to meat eaters) but as someone who used to love chicken nuggets from McDonalds and a burger when out for a meal, it wasn’t a hard task to stop eating meat.
When people ask me now ‘why are you a vegetarian?’ I give them the simple answer; “because I love animals.” That’s the reason I used when I first stopped eating meat. But as more and more people have become vegetarian as I’ve grown up, I’ve been educated on the subject a lot more such as how it’s eco friendly, and how slaughter houses really are awful places (my great uncle used to work in an abattoir and became vegetarian). The way I see it now, is that I wouldn’t hurt an animal because it’s against my morals. If I wouldn’t kill that animal, why should I eat that animal? Others would say well someone else is killing the animal so it doesn’t matter. To me it does matter, because that’s against my personal belief as I would never hurt an animal so why should I let someone else do it for me? The animal is still dying for me…
Some people would also ask why I’m not vegan. I would say that ‘I like eating meat’ or ‘I like eating dairy’ is a bad excuse for not changing your diet but honestly, I’m a really fussy eater. I’m not a fussy eater because I don’t eat meat, I replace when I normally would be eating meat with quorn, I just really am a fussy eater. Without dairy in my diet, I’d be eating the same foods everyday. I want to become vegan one day, but like when I was younger, it’s not the top thing on my list at the moment and the day I decide to be vegan will be the right day. Lots of days, I am actually vegan because lots of vegetarian alternative food is vegan, but I know I do need to try some more foods and be more varied with my eating.
This ramble filled blog post isn’t to convince you to become vegan or vegetarian. I wrote this blog post because everything now a days is about facts and figures and I wanted to show people that sometimes it can just be a personal journey and I get asked often why I’m vegetarian so people are interested in the subject. I also love writing and sometimes just want to get something down (although I did do a couple of drafts of this post) and I thought this would be a nice second post on my blog because I’m always happy to talk and ramble about being vegetarian if someone asks. We see online and on the news lots of vegans and vegetarians out protesting against meat eaters daily. I respect them, but personally I believe it’s all down to choice and people can eat whatever they want to eat, although I do encourage you to research more into being vegetarian and vegan if you wish because it is a promising life style.
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