Happy Veggie-versary – how hard was year one as a mostly vegetarian?

What I thought life as a vegetarian would look like…

What a plant based life actually looks like (Peppa Pig is Happy about it too!)

Hello, my name is Heidi and I am an accidental mostly-vegetarian sometimes vegan.

Its been a year since I broke up with meat and you know what? I think I’m better off without it. I’d fantasised about the breakup but never really thought I’d go through with it. But our relationship had been unhealthy for a while and I guess it had to happen. The first time I knew meat might not be a lifelong love was when I was at a saleyard for work. There were sheep dragging themselves through the packed pens on shattered limbs. Why aren’t they euthanased? I wondered while I saw more and more sheep in pain. So I asked and the brutally simple answer? ”Cos then they’re worth nothing.’ So they were dragged onto more trucks and shuttled to the abbatoirs. When I saw the mangled limbs hanging out of the trucks I was so upset but I put it out of my mind. Whenever I passed a sheep truck from then on though, I would always see a few broken legs sticking out.

Despite that, I stayed with meat because the idea of vegetarianism back then seemed a little bit crazy to me. But then there were horror stories from the abattoirs, mass deaths on live export ships and a glut of new information about the damage meat can do to your health and the planet. The case for a breakup was building…

Then just over a year ago, a vegan friend showed me how it was possible to eat delicious things that weren’t a dead animal. I got veggie-curious and started watching some documentaries with my husband – Cowspiracy, Food, Inc and all the other usual suspects. I started paying a lot more attention to the poor health of the planet too and started to wonder if I could live a plant based life.

I’m not a believer in setting myself up for guilt so I made a commitment to eat less meat and more plants. Not to ‘never eat meat again’ or ‘never eat any animal product again’ – just to eat less. I got a couple of vegetarian cookbooks, did some grocery shopping and off I went (with husband onboard as well). And I just kept doing it – I’d say in the past year, I’ve eaten no meat about 97% of the time- the exception has been meals which family and friends have prepared or meals at restaurants who don’t offer suitable vegetarian choices and where the meat is well sourced and well prepared so I don’t waste a single bite.

I’m not perfect and I’m sure there will be days where I slip up but I can count the number of times I’ve cooked with meat at home during the past year on my fingers which to me is pretty darn good for someone who used to eat it daily. So I’m high-fiving myself, having this virtual humble  brag then hitting Pinterest to search out some #vegetarianrecipes

If you’ve thought about reducing meat good luck and go for it!

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