Food for thought...

So around this time last year, my good friend Merideth, who resides in Miami, along with her husband, Brian, did a Meatless May and went vegetarian for a month.  Inspired by the book Skinny Bitch, Merideth and Brian accomplished this challenge and she included a full report and some recipes on her blog.

Last summer, Heylee and I both read Skinny Bitch as well and did the same thing.  Though the book preaches a vegan lifestyle, I decided to try out vegetarianism for about 3 months.  The book advocates the humane treatment of animals and sheds light on common food additives as well.  The one that shocked me the most was the approval process that aspartame went through, before finally hitting the market.  Aspartame is most commonly in diet sodas, NutraSweet and Equal and is basically just additive crap that goes in thousands of foods and drinks... ok, I'm off my high-horse.  (Just read into it a bit!)

I didn't put an end date on my personal challenge and actually lasted much longer than I had expected.  Finally, I gave in to a chicken sandwich at The Cheesecake Factory at the end of summer.

I've never been a big red meat eater.  Never in my life have I ordered a steak in a restaurant and I only ate other red meat like burgers occasionally.  I've still yet to eat red meat since I began my challenge last summer.  I do include chicken, turkey and some pork in my diet though these days. 

On Monday, while enjoying me last day of vacation, I watched Food Inc. on my laptop via Netflix.  This is not an anti-meat documentary.  Instead, it examines the chicken, beef and pork industries in the United States and the inhumane treatment of animals as well as economically and environmentally unsustainable foods.  

This got me to thinking about my diet again.  I am admittedly a bit of a hippie already.  I only grocery shop at Whole Foods, I never wear fur, I recycle, I only drink water, tea, an occasional Starbucks coffee and yes, alcohol.  I even adopted my cat and rescued her from Garland for goodness sake!  So, for the past 3 days (yes, 3 whole days!) I have again cut meat out of my diet. 

More than just getting all uppity about the politics of the meat industry, I enjoy being forced to try different foods and to incorporate more fruits, vegetables and grains into my diet to make up for the lack of meat.  I don't know how long I will keep this up, but I do feel better about reminding myself what I'm putting in to my body.

Just some thoughts... carry on!