![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Maybe this hasn't recently reoccurred to me, it's just recently taken more a forefront of my thoughts.
Why am I not a vegetarian already?
Vegetarianism is in line with my belief system on a number of levels. I rarely cook with meat (partly because I hate cooking to begin with), and I am already in the habit of going for non-meat proteins whenever practical. I'm practically an extremely flexible flexi-tarian as it is. I can imagine my parents rolling their eyes at this, but I've grown up with the positive influence of 3 vegetarian aunts.
...except that said aunts aren't exactly the healthy, energetic people I remember them being. -_- Whose to say if their problems would be solved with more iron and Vitamin B12, but at some point each them took a turn based on some health factor or another. Relegated to their homes though they practically are, they are still whole-heartedly dedicated to keeping meat out of their diets.
I like vegetarianism in theory. I'd probably keep eggs and diary in my diet, despite sometimes getting migraines from eggs and being a touch lactose intolerant. I can't imagine being too picky about my food not touching meat or having traces of it, either--I highly doubt the traces I'd be exposed to--especially in everyday life in Japan--would make a huge impact on my health or on animal welfare, and trying to avoid every trace would just drive me (and the people around me) bonkers.
So... how much harder would it be to go all the way?
Well, picky though I am, I do like the tastes of certain kinds of cuts of meat. I would get headaches from too much tofu or egg in my diet, which leaves me with nuts, beans/legumes, and combining all sorts of produce. The problem with those choices is that nuts are expensive here, ready-to-use beans are expensive and dried bean choices are limited and take forever to prepare, and if I go too crazy getting different kinds of produce all at once then I run the risk of a bunch of them going bad before I can eat them all, even sharing with neighbors. This isn't California--I've scoped out the produce stores and the all-natural store on the other side of town, and there just isn't much to work with.
I also lack a lot of space in my kitchen and lack a lot of appliances. I can't do anything that requires a food processor (so no hummus) or an oven (so no veggie pizza). Since its just me, it can't had too many leftovers that I can't freeze (but if I CAN freeze them, I'll all for it! Too bad lentils are too expensive for me to make soups with it all the time!). I don't have a fridge at work, so any lunches I bring from home have to be okay with just a couple of ice packs that quickly lose their coldness even in a bag I got specifically to keep things cool (but with my stomach of iron, I eat those should-be-kept-cold foods anyway!).
Plus, I frequently eat with other people--be it going out, doing hot pot together, or fancy multi-course meals at work functions. Depending on the group there may be easier times to push some vegetarian preferences, but not with any consistency. Plus, there's the whole "vegetarians don't eat meat, but fish is fine!" idea here. I'm pretty sure I can eliminate fish from my self-choice diet, but it's just not a multi-course Japanese meal without sashimi.
That, and as mentioned, I dislike cooking. I try to get myself excited for easy ways to make healthy meals, and then I wind up disliking a lot of it and feeling exhausted about how much time I spent preparing it. If I am to take vegetarianism seriously, then I need to be prepared to spend a little more time, money, and effort on getting it right, especially considering my migraine triggers. If I only take it as eliminating meat, then I'll probably just add more sugar to my diet in its place. Hardly a smart move, but I know myself well enough to know what kinds of poor choices I make when I'm stressed or in a hurry or lazy.
Well, here's too more of my avocado-tofu-goop experiment for lunch tomorrow, and some mushroom chawanmushi with my dinner. I doubt it's strictly vegetarian, though.
Why am I not a vegetarian already?
Vegetarianism is in line with my belief system on a number of levels. I rarely cook with meat (partly because I hate cooking to begin with), and I am already in the habit of going for non-meat proteins whenever practical. I'm practically an extremely flexible flexi-tarian as it is. I can imagine my parents rolling their eyes at this, but I've grown up with the positive influence of 3 vegetarian aunts.
...except that said aunts aren't exactly the healthy, energetic people I remember them being. -_- Whose to say if their problems would be solved with more iron and Vitamin B12, but at some point each them took a turn based on some health factor or another. Relegated to their homes though they practically are, they are still whole-heartedly dedicated to keeping meat out of their diets.
I like vegetarianism in theory. I'd probably keep eggs and diary in my diet, despite sometimes getting migraines from eggs and being a touch lactose intolerant. I can't imagine being too picky about my food not touching meat or having traces of it, either--I highly doubt the traces I'd be exposed to--especially in everyday life in Japan--would make a huge impact on my health or on animal welfare, and trying to avoid every trace would just drive me (and the people around me) bonkers.
So... how much harder would it be to go all the way?
Well, picky though I am, I do like the tastes of certain kinds of cuts of meat. I would get headaches from too much tofu or egg in my diet, which leaves me with nuts, beans/legumes, and combining all sorts of produce. The problem with those choices is that nuts are expensive here, ready-to-use beans are expensive and dried bean choices are limited and take forever to prepare, and if I go too crazy getting different kinds of produce all at once then I run the risk of a bunch of them going bad before I can eat them all, even sharing with neighbors. This isn't California--I've scoped out the produce stores and the all-natural store on the other side of town, and there just isn't much to work with.
I also lack a lot of space in my kitchen and lack a lot of appliances. I can't do anything that requires a food processor (so no hummus) or an oven (so no veggie pizza). Since its just me, it can't had too many leftovers that I can't freeze (but if I CAN freeze them, I'll all for it! Too bad lentils are too expensive for me to make soups with it all the time!). I don't have a fridge at work, so any lunches I bring from home have to be okay with just a couple of ice packs that quickly lose their coldness even in a bag I got specifically to keep things cool (but with my stomach of iron, I eat those should-be-kept-cold foods anyway!).
Plus, I frequently eat with other people--be it going out, doing hot pot together, or fancy multi-course meals at work functions. Depending on the group there may be easier times to push some vegetarian preferences, but not with any consistency. Plus, there's the whole "vegetarians don't eat meat, but fish is fine!" idea here. I'm pretty sure I can eliminate fish from my self-choice diet, but it's just not a multi-course Japanese meal without sashimi.
That, and as mentioned, I dislike cooking. I try to get myself excited for easy ways to make healthy meals, and then I wind up disliking a lot of it and feeling exhausted about how much time I spent preparing it. If I am to take vegetarianism seriously, then I need to be prepared to spend a little more time, money, and effort on getting it right, especially considering my migraine triggers. If I only take it as eliminating meat, then I'll probably just add more sugar to my diet in its place. Hardly a smart move, but I know myself well enough to know what kinds of poor choices I make when I'm stressed or in a hurry or lazy.
Well, here's too more of my avocado-tofu-goop experiment for lunch tomorrow, and some mushroom chawanmushi with my dinner. I doubt it's strictly vegetarian, though.
