Veg Update: Day 116

Today marks Day 116 without an intentional meal with meat in it. I say "intentional meal" because I consider my last true meaty meal an A-1 Thick & Hearty burger from Whataburger. I ate half of the burger on February 13th and was almost nauseated by the amount of heartiness in it. Why did I choose this as my last meal, you may ask? Well, this definitely was not on my mind when I ordered it. I didn't drive up and think, "Here it goes... My last carnivorous meal."

The next day, I stepped onto the scale at the doctor's office and I made my decision. That was it. No. More. I'd made excuses for myself long enough. I had been interested before in the idea of leaving meat behind. Although, I was never one to follow through with my plans to do, well, anything. When it comes to eating right and exercising, I was pretty awful at it.

Let's get back to the "intentional meal" phrase I used earlier. A couple of months into my "lifestyle change" (no, not a diet!), I was invited to the Alamo Drafthouse opening on Slaughter. The food and drinks they provided were decadent and impressive. I admit I had one teeny tiny bite of meat there. It was for research purposes, I told myself. Alas, I felt a tinge of guilt and failure afterward. I had stayed on track for nearly two months, but I tried not to beat myself up over this.

My next encounter with meat was about two weeks ago. I met up with a friend at a Mexican restaurant and realized there was about one tablespoon of ground beef in the sauce on my enchiladas—once I was 90% done with my plate. I was mildly disappointed, but this was my first meal in nearly 100 days to accidentally have meat.

I'm not trying to be perfect. I'm not trying to make a point. I'm doing this purely for health reasons and well, just to prove to myself that I am capable of making a change. I've been feeling pretty good, lost 13 lbs. and I find that this lifestyle is forcing me to reconsider plenty of things. I also learned that people are not comfortable with my change.

I kept quiet at first about all of this in fear of what people would say and think. Now I am finding people are just honestly curious about the whole thing. I welcome the questions and am happy that people are intrigued. There's been plenty to learn during my experience and I hope this encourages more personal growth than it already has.