Veggie Vent No. 1

I've cooled down about this a bit but I wanted to blog about it anyways. As you all know, I've been eating mostly vegan and sometimes vegetarian for the past two weeks. I feel really good about it. I'm trying new things. I've had a lot more energy. I've been losing weight. I've just overall been happier.

I've slowly been coming out about being vegan to all my friends and family because I am kind of scared about what they will say to me. For the most part, I've been met with little to no resistance. Mostly, I get, "Why are you doing that, Samantha? Is meat not wonderful?" The past few people I have told this to are med/nursing students and they have given me a shit ton of resistance.

What set me off is that today I had lunch with my old roommate Amy. When I roomed with her freshman year, I was vegetarian and then I stopped shortly after. When we got lunch, I got a big sandwich full of veggies and as I was going to take my first bite into it she asks, "Are you vegetarian again?" I said, "Yes." and she began.

"Vegetarians only get carbs in. You don't get enough protein. Oh, you're doing it because of a book? What was the book about? Is that even accurate? That's not healthy. TVP is genetically modified. blah blah blah."

You get the point. I love Amy to death and I know that she has my best interest in mind, but it just makes me sad when people take such an opposition to my choices in life. All I could do was try to describe to her how much better I feel and how it wasn't like I just removed meat from everything I used to eat. If that was the case, I would be living off of cheeseburgers sans the burger, fries, and ice cream. I feel like my food options are limitless and I am trying more new things and combinations. For instance, today, I made vegan ranch dressing from scratch. I never even cooked when I was omnivorous.

I also got flack from my friend Patrick who said I sounded like PETA. When in the fuck did giving a shit about animals become a bad thing? Where are these veg people that made such a ruckus that gave all vegetarians and vegans a bad name? I don't try to force my choice not to eat meat on anyone, yet I still have to handle them pushing their choice to eat it on me. It's just how people are I guess.

But for just a little shameless told-ya-so, I went to the butt doctor today and he checked out my shit and told me that I've allowed myself to heal through my vegan diet and that I should stick with it because it's very good for me. I did a little told-ya-so dance in my car and laughed a little. It made things a little better.