It all started with my wife (Cassidy) in her Values and Ethics class at UVU. Her Instructor is vegan and everyone has a animal ethics part of the class. When Cassidy got to this part of the class it really hit her. Her instructor is a great teacher and is still her favorite teacher she has ever had. He also is the reason she got her first tattoo (realizing that it is ethical). Besides just that chapter and classroom convincing her, her instructor also said if you want watch this movie called “Earthlings”. If you don’t know Earthlings is a very graphic very real show about how animals get slaughtered and how they live at farms. So, Cassidy came home from work and had told me what she learned in her ethics class that day and said that she wanted to go vegetarian. I kind of laughed and was being sort of rude about it without really meaning to be. I was eating meat in front of her sort of laughing. Then she said how about you just watch the Earthlings trailer with me and see what you think. I am a softy and before the Earthlings trailer even ended (it was three minutes long) I was balling and said I wanted to go vegetarian. I had to stop the trailer early, it was horrible. I saw cows throats getting slit and pigs getting beat up before getting slaughtered. We talked and decided to go vegetarian.
The problem with us going vegetarian is that we did not know how to do it properly. I started losing a lot of weight (not in a good way) I was a strong and muscular before I went vegetarian. I then lost a lot of muscle and started gaining fat in places I didn’t want it. I was what you call skinny fat. Cassidy started gaining weight and that wasn’t fun for her. We were eating cheese quesadillas at least once a day. We would eat a lot of eggs and cheese. Lots of pizza and noodles. So, basically a lot of fat and carbs. I worked at a bank at the time and everyone there were hunters and manly men they gave me a lot of crap for this. I was fine I can take people giving me crap but it did get kind of old. I started to crave meat like crazy. All I wanted was to eat a burger or salmon or fried chicken that wasn’t fake.
Before I say how this ends I want to say there is a right way to go vegetarian. It takes a lot of work but you can do it in a healthy way. Don’t go vegetarian until you are used to making the tasty vegetarian meals that are healthy. Buy a cook book make a bunch of those meals before you completely commit. Alright, back to the story. I made it about six months before I started eating meat again, but I started eating only seafood because it made me feel less guilty. It quickly went to other meats and eventually completely back to eating meat again. Cassidy made it one full year and I was so impressed with her. When we got off the vegetarian diet I started working out more and eating more protein and I am now stronger and bigger than before. Cassidy lost all the weight she gained. So, would I suggest you go vegetarian? Yes, but only if you do it right. I wouldn’t do it again, but when I go out now sometimes I will get vegetarian dishes. I also try to buy from ethical local farmers. I think the best thing to do is do your best to buy ethical meat.
Salisbury Eats 