Results From the First-ever Meatless Year Blog Poll!

Days 89 - 91

The results are in for the first-ever Meatless Year Blog poll!

The question I asked was a simple one, “Are you a vegetarian?” and 30% said they were with 69% saying that they weren’t. I do find it strange that the poll numbers add up to 99% and not 100%, especially since there was not a third option to choose. Can anybody explain that glitch in the Blogger polling system to me?

Thank you all for voting and you can see the results posted through at least the next week on the right sidebar. Maybe I will run this poll question again in October to see if anything has changed.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Back on Track?

Day 88

I am feeling somewhat better today. My eating and sleeping habits are slowly returning to normal. Meals are shifting back to being properly balanced and I am getting more rest. Amazing, isn’t it, how one can be easily thrown off by just changing their eating habits? Of course, if that change is for a healthier diet (like, oh I don’t know—cutting out meat perhaps) it can have quite the opposite effect.

Don’t forget to vote in the poll on the right sidebar! Just two more days to vote!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Over 2,000 Visits!

Day 87

Last night this blog’s site meter hit 2,000 visits. Not bad for a blog that started less than three months ago.

There was another blog that I used to follow a couple years back that celebrated when it hit a similar magic number by thanking the 100^th or 1000^th visitor (or whatever number it was) with a pizza party or something similar.

Nice gesture, but what about all the visitors before Mr. 1000? You couldn't have gotten to that magic number without all those other visits! It seems like such a slap in the face to many other people who followed your blog. To me, it’s like saying, “Yay, 1000^th visitor, but the rest of my readers just aren’t as important!”

Well, I think that is simply lame. Everybody who has supported me on this meatless journey by reading this blog, commenting on it, commenting on my Facebook page, contributing advice and etc. is much appreciated.

Everybody.

The outpouring of support from people in my life and even total strangers who have randomly found this blog on the net has been nothing short of remarkable. It reassures me that I am doing something worthwhile with my eating and writing habits. Why would I want to leave even one person out in my thanks?

I thank you all out there on the internet (strangers and acquaintances) who have found there way here. You guys are the best!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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The Dog Days of—January?!

Days 85 and 86

The people I live with have gone away on vacation so I have free reign of the house. This means spending long hours into the night working on resumes, sending out resumes, developing a writing portfolio, watching Conan’s classy last week (and DVRing Letterman’s jibes at Leno), promotion for this blog, planning new and separate blogs and other random bits of business.

Even though I am being productive on those fronts I have neglected to go to the YMCA for over a week and my eating habits have been thrown way out of whack. The result? I feel sooooo crappy.

It started Sunday night with coughing and a stuffy nose but I am feeling a little better now. Could this have been the consequence of the week-long interruption of my daily routine or did I just catch this cold that’s been going around? Anybody else out there have any thoughts on this?

Anyway, it’s more tea and rest for me. Nighty-night.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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1st Poll!

Day 84

I have posted the first blog poll on the right sidebar. The question of the first blog poll is simple, "Are you a vegetarian?"

This poll will end on 1/31/10, so you have one week to chime in on this poll.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Hope for Haiti

Day 83

Living in America, even during these hard times, I can all too easily take for granted just how lucky I am to have food and a roof over my head.

Haiti has not been nearly as fortunate lately. Please, please click on the image below to go to the Hope for Haiti website and see what you can do to help.

Talk to you soon.
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Caught in the Act

Day 82

The first video I have produced for this blog…and my most incriminating. Enjoy!




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Bits and Pieces

Day 81

Here are some reminders about the blog—

Are you on Facebook? Become a fan of A Man Finally Eats His Veggies at http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Man-Finally-Eats-his-Veggies-A-Meatless-Year-Blog/228505550587?ref=nf

Are you on Facebook and have a blog? Check out this link:
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/a_man_finally_eats_his_veggies_a_meatless_year/

And if you look to the column on your right you will see a section called “Followers”. You can follow my blog by joining that group as well.

Got a meatless recipe of your own you want to feature on here? Send it to meatlessman@yahoo.com and I’ll post it.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Natural Peanut Butter Woes

Day 80

I am not talking about the “natural” peanut butter that mainstream PB makers have started making, the stuff you don’t have to stir. I mean the real deal that has the layer of oil on top that you do stir into the peanut butter layer below and then keep in the refrigerator. The brand I buy has only peanuts and salt listed as the ingredients. One can even get it at a great price at Whole Foods (of all places!).

I keep it on the middle shelf of my fridge with a friendly label to let everybody else in the house know that the PB belongs to me:

The only drawback to natural PB is that it eventually hardens in the fridge to a clay-like consistency thus making it impossible to stir. I believe one has three options when faced with this situation:

1. Sell it to a mason for use as mortar.
2. Scoop it out of the jar and use it as sculpting clay. You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a giraffe made out of natural PB.
3. Salvage it for its original purpose. (Hint: Choose this option.)

Naturally, (Get it, natural? Ha! I kill me.) you want to salvage what you have left, and you want it to be soft and spreadable (please, no comments from the peanut gallery).

Of course, to save it, you need some heat to melt it down while still trapped in the jar. The microwave is not an option. Besides any remnants of the foil seal, the microwave will be too hot and will melt the plastic too. I learned this at a young age when I put one of those bear-shaped honey containers in the microwave to break down some crystallized honey. One minute and thirty seconds later I opened the microwave to find that poor ol’ Winnie the Pooh’s head was melted off . Oops.

Fear not, you can still get the most out of the PB you have left! Simply fill a 5” deep pot, pan, or other kitchen container with very warm tap water. Leave your PB jar in the standing in the water for a few minutes and when you come back you will have restored the PB to its ooey, gooey self!

Stir it and put back in the fridge and you are all set.

Of course, this still can’t bring back that poor honey bear’s head from all those years ago. Poor, silly ol’ decapitated bear.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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A Special Letter to Mom and Dad

Day 79

Dear Mom and Dad,

I try to be a good son. I shower daily, brush between meals, and try to be kind to kids and animals.

Despite all this, I am not the son you thought I was. There has been something I have not been upfront about and it is time I got it off my chest.

I am a casual user of tofu.

Yes, I know it doesn’t fit in with your world view and I tried to resist experimenting with it for as long as I could. I even remember bursting into a room of tofu users at a party my freshman year in college and loudly proclaiming, “I AM NOT DOING TOFU! YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!” then dashing out of the room. No tofuheads were going to peer pressure me.

Years later, I was at another party in Chicago. I noticed every now and then that some of the partygoers would disappear upstairs and reappear later feeling “perky”. At the time I found it just disgusting. Then I met Megan.

Our eyes locked from across the room (in fairness, it was a very small room) She was wearing a black dress with smiley faces printed all over it. I knew she was single because she was wearing a nametag that said, “I’m Available”. What a woman!

After finishing off the mint Oreos from the snack table and downing two Roy Rogers (okay, they were Shirley Temples) I bravely strolled over to Megan.

I used my best opening line on her: “Nice shoes.” After that, conversation was a breeze. We had a lot in common; we both loved the Yankee Candle Company, we both liked sandwiches, and we both graduated from high school. It was fate that we met, fate I say!

After a lengthy conversation of thirty seconds, Megan and I felt just like old acquaintances. It was then she suggested we disappear to the upstairs. Little did I know what she really had in mind, little did I know.

Ascending the stairs with anticipation, I was ready to do my twenty-something duties. Once we reached the special room my adrenaline was at its peak. Megan grasped the knob (of the door to the room) and showed me what was inside. The sight of what was inside is something I will not forget to my dying day.

The room was totally empty except for a fine oriental rug and the six people sitting Indian style in circle formation upon it. Each person had a paper plate in their lap that contained a combination of greens and…tofu!

Sweat began to roll down my brow but Megan gently took my hand and led me to the floor where there was a full paper plate of greens and tofu waiting for us.

She began to slowly feed me pieces of tofu and in my paralyzed terror all I could do was obey. With each piece consumed I found my resistance to this gateway food slowly breaking down. It was mesmerizing. It was liberating. It was tofu.

Eventually, I shoved Megan to the side and hogged the rest of the tofu and greens for myself.

Since then I have been a casual tofu user—not something I have every week or even every month, just casually. You can serve it so many ways too! You can serve it in salads, have it fried, baked, grilled, spiced and etc.

Just thought you should know the shocking truth. Tofu isn’t bad at all; you just have to get creative with it.

Love,
Jason

meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Was Martin Luther King a vegetarian?

Days 78

I cannot find conclusive evidence on the internet to show if Martin Luther King was a vegetarian or not. Is there anybody out there that knows the answer with certainty and has conclusive evidence to back it up?

If he wasn’t meatless then would Martin Luther King have been a vegetarian if he had lived?

I believe the answer would be: yes.

How could a compassionate man like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. not eventually add animal rights to his compassionate causes if he wasn’t in that area already?

If he wanted equality for all living beings I believe he would not put up with what is going on in today’s slaughter houses—something that is cruel to animals as well as to the people who work there; many of those workers being minorities, impoverished people, or both.

His widow, Coretta Scott King, became a vegetarian so I am assuming that Dr. King would have started an animal flesh free diet sooner or later as well.

Curiosity aside,

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

A Simple Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Recipe

Days 76 and 77

I actually did decide to have that cinnamon apple oatmeal on Friday morning and it was great! I made it in no time at all and it turned out just fine.

To make it you need:

- 1 apple, cored and cut into 6 equal pieces
- 1 cup of dry oatmeal
- 1 cup of Rice Dream (most oatmeal packages recommend water but I prefer milk or a milk substitute)
- A shaker of cinnamon

1. Mix the dry oatmeal and Rice Dream in a microwaveable serving bowl. (My recipe calls for one cup of each ingredient but you can customize the consistency of your oatmeal by varying the amounts.)

2. Microwave on high about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes.

3. Core and slice your apple. I recommend one of these; it will core your apple and slice it up in just one smooth step.

4. When the oatmeal is done cooking in the microwave, sprinkle some cinnamon on top then place the slices of apple on top as shown in the picture below.

Wait, wasn’t there something that was supposed to be special about this meal? The recipe is a real no-brainer—you can probably figure out how to make it from the title alone! But still, there is something special about this particular dish. Read on.

- The apple cost 49 cents at a Trader Joe’s.

- The drum of oatmeal cost $2.99 and contains about 30 servings. This recipe called for approximately one serving so $2.99/30 = .10 (rounded up from .099) is the cost of one oatmeal serving.

- The Rice Dream I used instead was from a 64 oz. container that cost me about $4.40. I used a cup (8 oz.) in the recipe. $4.40/8 = .55 cents.

So .49 + .10 + .55 = $1.14.

Not bad for a meal that includes three food groups and is made from quality, healthy ingredients. To get more out of this meal I recommend a nice, big cup of coffee (flavored with some unsulphured blackstrap molasses of course) and a veggie patty standing in for a sausage breakfast patty.

Remember that upcoming book I told you about from Supersize Me director Morgan Spurlock, Supersized: Strange Tales from a Fast-Food Culture? You can now pre-order it from Amazon here.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Have you seen Food, Inc?

Day 75

Seen Food, Inc yet? I purchased a copy earlier this week and just watched it today. It confirmed a lot of things about the food industry that I have recently heard, but still managed to shock me here and there. I recommend this movie to everyone, not just vegetarians or vegans, but everyone. We all have to eat and we should know what is in our food, where it comes from and how it is made.

Here is the trailer:



More movies on this subject wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating, Epilogue: Other Things I Fill my Belly With

Days 73 and 74

Here are some more bits and pieces of what I am eating. Again, this is not everything I eat, just the ones that appear on my grocery list the most often.

Bragg Liquid Aminos has a salty soy flavor and goes great on salads, bean dishes and etc. It’s a superb way to get those aminos in and add flavor to bland or repetitive meals at the same time.


Of course, veggie burgers are something a meatless diet has to encounter sooner or later. Slap one between whole grain bread or a roll and you’ve got a meal!

Oatmeal is good for more whole grain goodness and is great for your heart. I avoid getting any of the brands that are pre-flavored. It’s much healthier (and more fun) to add fresh fruit or cinnamon to it at home. That reminds me; tomorrow morning I should have cinnamon apple oatmeal! Why not?

I have gone meatless but the world will have to pry my daily fix of coffee from my cold, dead hands. My friend Audra suggested the above amino condiment as well as unsulphured blackstrap molasses, the latter of which I put in my coffee everyday. It is a great source of iron, magnesium and potassium and along with milk substitutes such as Rice Dream, Soy Slender and Almond Breeze; my coffee is an extra special treat to drink in the morning. Here’s a crafty coffee tip: brew some coffee the night before, add some chocolate soy milk, chill it in the fridge and in the morning you’ve got an even sweeter and cup of coffee.

Also, for days when I don’t want to have an extremely difficult time getting to bed at night, I drink green tea instead of coffee. I find the taste of regular green tea okay, but not especially flavorful. That’s why I jumped for genuine joy when I saw flavored green teas at my local supermarket—and on sale no less! I picked up green tea flavors blueberry, lemon, mango, mint, peach and, of course, pomegranate. Green tea has less caffeine than coffee and is full of antioxidants. If you want a healthy alternative to sodas or sugar-loaded juices then try some green tea!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating, Part 5: Meats/Proteins

Day 72

As the people who know me best are aware of, I love meat. Even though I am meatless for the year, I still can’t deny the fact that meat tastes great. It is succulent and savory. You can bake it, fry it, broil it, grill it outdoors and spice and slice it anyway you want. How can something so flavorful pose such a health hazard?

Well, besides the fact that consumption of meat can increase one’s chances of heart disease and cancer, there is this other factor to be aware of as well.

Better living through chemistry? No thanks.

The minuses of eating meat far outweigh the risks for me. In addition to the above negatives associated with eating meat, there are other factors one should consider as well. The meat industry’s treatment of the animals it uses in production is simply deplorable. I covered this in an earlier entry. Go see for yourself. I’ll wait.

Sad isn’t it? There are also environmental concerns such as the high emission of greenhouse gases from livestock production and the industry’s vast consumption of grain, water and fossil fuels that could be better spent elsewhere on our planet.

I also feel the best I have in years since dropping meat from my diet. My energy levels are up and I am taking off the extra pounds (I have shed 16 lbs. as of this writing).

With all these factors coming into play why would I ever want to go back to eating meat? And, with plenty of other, healthier foods to choose from: natural peanut butter, legumes and more that give me most of the vitamins and nutrients found in meat, I don’t have to!

If you are reading this blog right now and want to drop meat from your diet, then do it! What have you got to lose?

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Interlude: What is Meatless Monday?

Day 71

A friend of mine, Chuck Kelly, recently told me of a thing called Meatless Monday. It’s a concept where meat eaters cut out meat once a week. The goal of Meatless Monday is to “reduce meat consumption by 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet”. You can check out their official website here and they also have a Facebook page here.

Chuck is also a film producer who has worked with Ed Asner and David Faustino among others. He is currently making a documentary on the meatless movement in this country. You can check out his production company here and his Facebook page here. Tell Chuck that Jason sent you!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating, Part 4: Vegetables

Day 70

I have increased my intake of vegetables ever since going meatless. Eating fresh fruits and fresh veggies makes me feel good after eating them. I don’t feel sluggish after consuming them and they are a great source of fiber.

Even though I did promote eating whole fruits and I still believe that unprocessed veggies are best as well, I do often drink Low Sodium V8. Somewhat better than fruit juice because vegetable juice is not loaded with sugars, however, they are loaded with sodium. This is why I drink the low sodium kind. Why do I drink it in a can form at all? Because it is convenient, V8 gives you nutrients from more than one vegetable, V8 stays better longer than actual veggies and it fits in my budget better. I am eating better but I am not a millionaire folks.

Frozen vegetables are okay, if you have no other alternative. Canned foods are probably the worst way to eat veggies. Why? In the canning and preservation process they lose their true freshness. Next time you have veggies from a can note their faded color and compare the taste of it with actually eating the same vegetable frozen or fresh. There is a difference. Want to see something that will really gross you out? Open a can of spinach, it looks like it was already digested; it is devoid of color and firmness. If you have any cans of spinach at home give them to somebody you don’t like. It’s the best way I can think of to say, “You suck”.

I also enjoy eating green salads or uncooked spinach. Cooked spinach is a nice tender treat, but it shrinks down and loses vitamins while cooking. Like most veggies you’ll get the most out of them uncooked. Wash them, core them, slice them but cooking them will deplete them of those important vitamins and minerals.

On a different subject, check out a thing called “Meatless Mondays” by clicking here. A fellow named Chuck Kelly started it and I will tell you more about him tomorrow.

Talk to you soon!
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Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating, Part 3: Dairy (or Dairy Substitutes)

Day 69

So, dairy. Uh, yeah...dairy.

What can I possibly say about how I fulfill my daily dairy dosage? As longtime readers know, when I originally went meatless in November, it was just cutting out beef, pork, poultry, fish/seafood and whole eggs. On New Year’s Day I started to leave out dairy products too. If you want more details on this new wrinkle in my diet go here and here.

Before I cut true dairy out of my diet, I mainly got my share of it from 2% milk and the Chobani brand of Greek yogurt. Of course pomegranate was my favorite flavor of the Chobani. Whenever I bought some I tried to get as much of the pomegranate flavor as I could. Not an easy feat because some stores in my area didn’t always stock the pomegranate kind, so whenever I saw that particular variation of the brand on the shelf I bought every one in sight. Yeah, I know, “Jason, leave some pomegranate Chobani for the rest of us!” Sorry, but it is really (BLEEP)n’ good yogurt and I make no apologies whatsoever for hoarding this tantalizing treat.

So there.



When I told my family I was giving up dairy for the year they groaned. My brother-in-law told me I was going to get sick. Not so. As with meat, you can find plenty of good stand-in foods that give you the same vitamins and nutrients as the real deal.

So, on New Year’s Day I began to get my fill of dairy via substitutes such as Rice Dream, an enriched milk substitute fortified with Vitamins A, D, B12 and calcium, and calcium supplements themselves. The Rice Dream goes great in my coffee at home and whenever I buy some java in the outside world I first see if they have any non-dairy creamer. If not, then I just take it black.



There, that wasn’t so difficult, now was it?

Talk to you soon!
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Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating, Part 2: Bread/Grains

Day 68

My mistake, “Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating” will be a 5 part series. In yesterday’s entry I forgot to mention the Bread/Grains group!

For breads and grains, I most often get them from brown rice and whole wheat/whole grain breads. I personally recommend going with anything that is whole grain or of the brown variety. If it is white chances are it is just a filler, something that just fills you up. Yes, while white rices, white flours and white breads are certainly not as unhealthy as eating junk foods or meats, I believe that you will get more fiber and better nutrition from brown and whole grain varieties. Plus, I think that whole grain or whole wheat bread tastes so much better than white bread! The brand of whole grain bread that I buy is so good and tasty that when I toast it the inside remains soft. This makes for some of the most delicious and most fun to chew toast I’ve ever had in my life—moist and crispy at the same time!

What I also love about bread is that you can freeze a loaf and then when you thaw it out later it can be just as good as the day you bought it. This comes in handy when there is a sale on bread and you want to buy a few extra loaves without worrying about them going bad.

When I make brown rice I use my rice cooker. What I love most about using my rice cooker is that I can just add brown rice, mix in some spices and tomato sauce and then let it cook. The cooker makes it so I don’t have to constantly stir it and that leaves me free for other things like writing this blog.

Usually, I cook a 48 oz bag all at once and divide it up into 12-21 small Gladware (Yeah, I know, I will capitalize Gladware, but not tupperware. Don’t judge me too harshly.) containers. Some get refrigerated and some get frozen. Like freezing bread, this can help you stretch out your food supply and makes your grocery dollars go farther. Need a side dish in a hurry? Just go to the freezer and take out a container of the brown rice, heat and serve.

Six servings a day is what I do for the Bread/Grains group. That’s six slices of whole grain bread for me and I eat them at a rate of two slices a meal. According to the food pyramid, one 4 oz. serving is about what one should have with every meal so I am actually eating more servings than I should. I just can’t help myself. I just love a good slice of toast (or two).

Talk to you soon!
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Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating, Part 1: Fruits

Day 67

(I dedicate the “Some of the Food I’ve Been Eating” series to my friend Sunny who has been eagerly awaiting it.)

Many of you have asked what foods I’ve been devouring ever since I went meatless back on November 2nd. This entry is the first of a four part series and each part will focus on a different food group; fruits, meats/proteins, dairy (which I was still consuming before I cut that group out on New Year’s), and, of course, vegetables. These entries will not cover all the foods that have been in my diet these past eight weeks, just the ones I eat most often that have become my staples in this eating experiment.

Whenever I prepare my meals I like to include a serving of fruit. They are great for giving you the energy you need to function throughout the day and they have antioxidants. I prefer to eat them in their whole form as opposed to guzzling fruit juices that have less fiber and are usually loaded with sugars. Go with fruit in its whole form; it just feels better. Trust me on this one folks.

I purchased my first pomegranate a few weeks ago and cut it in half as soon as I got home. I am a sucker for products that are flavored with pomegranate (even artificially) such as grenadine, pomegranate teas, chocolate with pomegranate flavoring and etc. I was always curious as to what the fruit would look like halved and how the insides of a real pomegranate would taste.

The interior of the pomegranate I brought home looked like it contained all these tiny rubies with seeds inside of them that are surrounded by fibrous matter that looks like white latex. I removed all the “tiny rubies” or arils, as they are properly referred to, from the white matter and filled a good size tupperware (I refuse to capitalize tupperware no matter what my spell checker says) container with them and put the container in the fridge. Over the course of the next few days I kept on going back to the container to have some of the arils with my meals. They are very tasty but pomegranates are expensive, $2.50 for just one of them. Pomegranates are not something I can afford to consume on a weekly basis no matter how much you can get out of one.

Bananas have always been something I have loved but I find that they most often don’t make it through the week, no matter how early in their life cycle I purchase them. I love them but when they start turning brown I leave them be.

Apples are the fruit I munch on most often. If I get the organic ones from Trader Joe’s I find they are bigger, fresher, crisper, firmer and even tastier than anywhere else. The real kicker is that the Trader Joe’s apples are better priced than anywhere else and have a longer shelf life too. I pay 49 to 69 cents each for Gala and Granny Smith apples at Trader Joe’s. I bought two the other day from a mainstream supermarket and paid $1.97 for them. They were a higher price at lower quality. Go figure.

One last thing about fruits, beware of the “superfoods” label. This is a label I believe the produce industry has put on some particular fruits and veggies claiming that they are even healthier than less expensive fruits such as apples or strawberries. Pomegranates, coconuts and other more exotic fruits have been slapped with this label but many fruits that are not considered “superfoods” can be just as packed with vitamins and minerals as the so called “superfoods”. A 49 cent apple a day is just as effective at keeping a doctor away as a pomegranate that is $2.50 a pop.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Oh $#*%! I Had Chocolate!

Day 66

One of my stocking stuffers this past Christmas was a bag of Lindor Truffles. Over the course of the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I devoured all 45 pieces that the shiny crimson bag contained. I was munching on them while watching movies at home, driving in the car and etc.

I got them for Christmas—what was I supposed to do, throw them out?!

I have heard horror stories of unhealthy vegetarians. These are usually people that, even though they have eliminated all meat from their diets, still eat unhealthy by devouring tons of junk food.

Why give up meat to be healthier if you still have other unhealthy eating habits you still cling to? Going meatless was also an excuse for me to look at what else I eat and to reflect upon unhealthy eating habits I’ve had in the past. A couple of examples I will write about in this space soon.

I think it’s okay to please your sweet tooth every now and then but not in regular and huge amounts. My holiday chocolate binge was an exception and not the rule.

And what a sweet exception it was.

Talk to you soon!
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My New Year’s 2010 Resolution , Part 2: Moment of Clarity

Day 62

In yesterday’s entry I posted some links to a few short PETA films and announced that my meatless year now includes not eating dairy products in addition to the beef, pork, poultry, eggs, fish/seafood I gave up when I started this experiment on November 2nd.

Watching Meet your Meat on New Year’s Eve day made me fully realize just how much we make animals suffer when we raise them to grace our dinner plates. What I saw deeply saddened me, especially when I noticed that the cows in the video seemed to have sad eyes that have reminded me of many pets I’ve owned over the years.

I guess I now have more reasons to go meatless for the year. Maybe I will even be meatless for life now. I never thought I would go meatless until a few months ago and certainly not vegan!

Times change.

For those of you who are new readers to this blog and still don’t quite understand why I started going meatless in the first place please click here for the very first entry.

Lastly, today is officially the two month mark. Meatless for two months and so far I have shed 14 lbs. Let’s see if I can keep up the good work throughout 2010.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
Facebook A Man Finally Eats his Veggies Fan Page
All writing and pictures copyright the author of this blog unless otherwise noted.

My New Year's 2010 Resolution , Part 1

Day 61

This is probably the most important entry I have written in this space since I started this blog back on November 2nd. I think it’s going to be a lot to digest for most people so I’ve broken it into two parts.

The two below video links have changed my recently altered eating habits even further. Don’t worry, I am not turning into a radical activist but the short films below have prompted me to change my meatless diet even more.

WARNING: If you are easily upset by violence towards animals, other acts of animal cruelty or gore then please don’t go to the below video links as you will find them quite upsetting. Feel free to skip the videos at the links and scroll down to the text after them.

Click on the links below to see the short films:

Meet your Meat

Glass Walls

Starting today, in addition to the meats I have already cut out for my meatless year (beef, pork, poultry, eggs and fish/seafood), I am now cutting out all dairy products too. No more milk, cheese, yogurt and such. I guess I’m going full vegan now. I’ll tell you more on this decision in the upcoming second part of “My New Year's 2010 Resolution”. Other than that, I will just let the above videos speak for themselves today.

I still wish you all a Happy New Year, even though it begins on such a dour note for me in the world of food.