I Stopped Being Vegetarian (This is a Big Shock)

I was vegetarian for seven and a half years! That's a long time!

I've always considered myself to be a picky eater. I wasn't the kid that would only eat chicken nuggets, but I was definitely the kid that would always push the beef around on her plate, eventually off onto a siblings plate when parents weren't looking. My parents always ordered a cheese pizza so there was one I would eat. Long story short, by the time I was a teenager, there was a joke that I was a "chickatarian," because chicken was basically the only meat I would eat. As I got older I never tried new sauces or different dressings. I kept to a good amount of safe foods that I knew I liked. Never ever mixing foods that "don't go together." When I was 17, I started thinking about being vegetarian. I thought well if I don't like meat... who's going to make me eat it? That's when I started watching documentaries and realized how truly terrible factory farms are and how disgusting shrimp farming is. When I was 18 I was walking across campus when I realized that I had a job and could afford my own groceries. I threw away my turkey sandwich and started that day at lunch time. I never looked back, until about 7 years later.

I had off and on considered not being vegetarian for around 6 months before I "quit." One day, about 3 months into marriage, I sat my husband down and told him I needed to talk to him about something. I love a good flare of dramatic effect! That Saturday we had Chikfila as my first meat meal in 7 and a half years!

I feel like it's almost easier for a vegetarian to be more unhealthy than a meat eater. I'm sure there are still a lot of vegetarians and vegans who put in the work to eat all natural foods, but with the insurgence of "plant based meats," it's so much easier to choose the quick and easy option.

I got to a point where I realized that I would be healthier if I just ate the dang meat. When it comes to eating a tofurkey or turkey sandwich, chik'n nuggets or chicken nuggets, an impossible burger or a beef burger; I honestly think I can state with out a doubt that all of the latter are healthier. I decided I was ready to choose real food. I was ready to try the real deal instead of whatever these alternatives are made out of.

It also occasionally felt like a restriction. As a vegetarian, there are a lot of instances where there is no option for you, or the option is a bag of chips or a side of fries (again, a lot less healthy than just eating the meat). It's one thing for me to say, "I don't think I like that, I don't really feel like trying it." It's a whole other thing for me to not have the option to try it because I have this dietary guideline that I've told everyone, and is expected of me.

I decided I wanted to start treating it just like being a picky eater. I wanted the option to try things, or to not try things. Do you know what I've found? I like most things I have tried. With the exception of steak, pepperoni, sausage, and fish, I have liked every thing I've tried so far! I've even cooked deer meat in my kitchen! Twice! And it was good!

Two other things happened this year that feel related to this topic in some way. I have had a life long allergy to tree nuts. I've tried and tested, and it was true. Hives, swelling, vomiting. I carried an epipen and Benadryl everywhere with me for two decades. Seriously, I remember picking out a bag for prom that my epipen would fit into. Weirdly, one day I just had this feeling that I really didn't think I was allergic anymore. I was too scared to test it, and the distant memories of the allergy skin test when I was younger, kept me from telling any doctor my theories; but I did stop carrying/renewing my epipen, and I didn't stock my apartment with Benadryl when I moved out of my parents house. Nothing ever happened again. Again, I never tested it, but I was way less careful with contamination and if I bit into something with nuts, I would just spit it out and be fine. When I got married, I found that my husband has very good health insurance. When I went to my new doctor for the first time, just to establish care, I told her my theory that I no longer thought I had my life-long allergy. She thought that was weird of me to assume, but told me that a blood test was completely covered by my insurance! Would you believe that I completely grew out of my nut allergy! 100%! What was once my worst one, now creates 0.07% of a reaction. I don't know if you know it or not, but this opens a whole new world.

I also started a new job, in-which we cater a meeting or something about once a month. Don't get me wrong, we almost always cater a salad... but it has still opened to me another whole new world. I thought I only liked ranch. I thought I would HATE fruit in a salad. Now you can find me eating a salad with pineapples, strawberries, dates, pecans, and some random yellowish vinaigrette. And LOVING it! Going back for seconds! That's NUTS!

After 25 years of being scared to try new foods and food combinations, 20ish years of a nut allergy, and almost 8 years of restricting meat, I feel very free and crazy! It may seem silly and small, but it has been so fun for me the past 7 months to eat so many new and different things. To make my husbands favorite meal (cottage pie) and eat it with him. To eat a chicken sandwich if I want to. To try a new and interesting salad with a dressing I've never tried. To stop at Buccees and be able to eat candied nuts! To have an option at any fast food restaurant on a road trip! It's fun and exciting! I didn't realize how much I was missing out on!

Here are some pictures from mine and Stephen's trip to the state fair a month or two after I stopped being vegetarian. We split a mile long hotdog and a turkey leg!

I have dived all in! I'll cook it all! I'll try it all! (Except for pineapple on pizza..I still haven't tried that...)

If there is something you need freedom from in 2024, I hope you find it. Even if it is something that seems silly like the way you got used to eating.

Happy New Year! I love you and pray that this year will hold everything you are hoping for and working towards!

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"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

This year, don't let yourself be burdened as a slave to your phone, your productivity mindset, the clutter of your home, your mindset towards food, your addiction, whatever it may be.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17

The good news? The Spirit of the Lord is inside of you, if you have called on Jesus as your Savior!

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See you next month for "Is TikTok a Hobby?"!

Love ya! Bye!