* nervous/excited twitch *

I’ve made a decision - after a few weeks of deep thought and extensive research, I'm done going back and forth over the should I/shouldn't I question.  I'm vegetarian, starting now.

I’m also going to try to eat soy products in place of dairy products (soy cheese, yogurt, ice cream - not all of the time, but most of the time) so I’ll even be kinda vegan.  I don’t think I can be completely vegan - I’m pretty sure my body just won’t allow me to, and that’s the way it is - but I’ll be somewhere in between vegetarian and vegan.   I tried to do it years ago, when I was 13, 14, something like that, and it didn’t work, but I’ve been contemplating it for a while now and I’ve been doing research (especially on concerns with iron, protein, etc), and I think I can do it this time. 
I’ll be easing myself into it, by going 2 days a week, then gradually upping the number of days until I’m a 24/7 vegetarian.  I think that seafood will be the hardest part and take the longest to cut out of my diet, but I’m doing this. 

I’m doing this for a few reasons -
First: I’m not a huge fan of meat anyway.  Yes, I’m German, yes, we like our wurst and schnitzel, but even now, when I eat meat, I do so sparingly.  I don’t even like the taste of beef anymore, and I could do without most meat, really.  The German meats and some Italian meats like salami and prosciutto will be the next difficult thing to give up, after seafood, but it can be done.

Second:  When it comes down to it, being meat-free is healthier.  Meat-eaters can be very healthy people, but it's a little easier to eat healthy without meat.  I don't have the *worst* eating habits in the world, but I don't have the best eating habits either.  Going veg might help me lose a few pounds/have much better skin/just feel better overall. 

Third: I’m also really, really disturbed by the way the meat industry functions - it’s not Old MacDonald’s farm.  Very rarely is an animal killed in a humane and respectful way.  It’s also pretty rare that the lives of these animals are at all clean or comfortable.  Just because an animal is being raised for meat doesn’t mean that the animal’s short life should be a miserable one.  It doesn’t mean that cows should be forced into birthing one calf after another in order to lactate, just so that we can have milk.  It doesn’t mean that animals should be beaten by workers.  Even though it’s a completely possible thing to do, few, if any, meat suppliers choose respectful and humane slaughter and treatment of the animals they raise..  More often than not, animals are unnecessarily tortured to hideous and disgusting ends before slaughter and I cannot support or turn a blind eye to it any longer.  If dogs and cats were the victims, the abuse would be illegal, but there is not one single federal law preventing animals in factory farms.  The meat, dairy, and egg industries even give millions of dollars to politicians every year to actively prevent the enactment of laws that would protect these animals.  Even one more person refusing to eat meat helps send a message about how wrong it is to treat animals this way, and I will be proud to be part of that message.

Fourth: Factory farming even contributes to global waming, pollution, more than one-third of energy consumption in the US, and nearly half of consumption of water resources in the US.  I’m not going to sit around and whine about global warming and how much it sucks- I’m going to do something to make sure I’m not contributing to it, and for me, that something is not eating meat, giving meat suppliers one less person to provide for, and knowing that because I’m not the only one, it’s really making a difference.

I feel like I could look like a bit of a hypocrite, as I live in Montana where these things are common even in my own family, if I didn't say that I’m not anti-hunting/non-commercial fishing.  90% of hunters/fishermen (like my dad) kill the animal with a much higher degree of respect than what happens in the meat industry.  One of my friends said that he gets his meat usually from the Amish or other private farmers where it's not big business and therefore little to no cruelty - and I think that's great. It’s much different than forcing animals into miserable lives, abusing them, and subjecting them to inhumane slaughter, and if cruelty were my only reason, I wouldn't be going veg, I'd just be a bit more selective about where my meat came from.. 

I posted something similar to this on my MySpace, LiveJournal, and Facebook pages, because I felt it was important that my friends don't just know that I'm choosing to be vegetarian, but rather that they know *why*.  Like I said - I'm German. We're almost born with a fork and knife in hand, searching for the bratwurst... so this isn't going to be easy.  So obviously I'll need support from my friends/family.  My mom is already a little freaked out because she's worried about my health -whether I'll be getting enough protein, iron, etc.  Going veg isn't as easy as it seems - I've barely started and I'm already learning that.

It's exciting though - a couple friends have already said that they've been considering doing the same thing, so I'll hopefully have them as great moral support, as well as my friends who are already veg.

Nugget