November 24, 2009

Habits and Vegetarianism

Meat: On the opposite end of the spectrum is my habit of NOT eating meat. I'm grossed out by meat and I disagree with the way meat is generally obtained and prepared in our country. Yet, my body is starting to disagree with my choice of not eating meat. I've had headaches and other symptoms that people warned me would happen if I went vegetarian. I didn't think it would happen to me. Unfortunately, looks like I'm missing something in my diet, and it's probably meat that provides it.

I don't think I need a lot of meat in my diet to satisfy whatever deficiency my body has, but my habit is to not eat it, so I struggle with how and when to "force" myself to change my habit. And I have all these other feelings about meat that make it a hard decision to put meat in front of me at a meal. It's almost like a zen koan - meat is your life and your death. What do you do?

Being mindful and accepting of the current situation is the only way to go at this point. I don't know what the solution is for this one, but I'm making tacos tonight, and tonight, I won't pick out the meat. Or at least, that's what my plan is. Let's find out what happens when habit wants to kick in at dinner time.

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