I've been hounded by a friend of mine(I mean,literally hounded) who is a Vegan(Gosh!! How does he do it? No milk??? Mommy!!) to stop eating chicken and fish. I already don't eat red meat, because I don't like that taste much. But chicken, that is a different issue. And seafood is neither there nor here.
Jogging my memory(and taking my mom's help when I can't), I was a pure vegetarian till about 8 years old. Then started my love affair with chicken. I started eating chicken livers and moved on to real chicken pieces(the one with bones - apparently I became a big girl, big enough to handle bones!). Then, I stopped again due to non-encouragement at home. Actually, non-encouragement is a vastly different word from lack of encouragement. But I digress... And seem to have given some not-to-be-mentioned statements to my family! They love pulling my leg for it!!
Back to my Non Veg story. I started eating chicken again once I was in college when the doc said that I had to get some iron into my body to become Lady Shaktiman! (sadly that never happened - chicken went in but iron got spent more. And Lady Shaktiman? The hope is dimming!). And, as a result, I started trying out different chicken dishes(mmm... the Arunachalas and the shops near my college where we got this yummy grilled chicken!! They won over any hesitations that I had!!) and even started cooking some of them(And this was greatly aided by AS). The triple K's sure had some fun times cooking chicken dishes, right from chicken biriyani to chicken curry. And I became an expert at making Chicken Chettinadu, so much so that I started cooking chicken every week(!!).
Now I stand at eating chicken almost every other week. Been into discussions with different friends about veg/non-veg issues over the past one year. And finally got nailed by one of my friends who said that I should try only veg for a month and if I think that I don't feel a difference at the end of one month, I can get back to eating chicken as I like. He offered the piscatarian choice(veggies + fish for a month and then veggies for a month - he knows I can't/won't cook fish! And schemed to make me live on veggies for (almost)two months!! Aha! Now that won't do!) but brave that I am, I jumped on the veggie challenge directly!
The challenge is to eat only vegetarian diet(meaning veggies, fruits, rice, lentils, grains, dairy products, etc) for a month... That is 3*31 = 93 meals!!
Mmmm.... There I said it. The reason to put this on my blog is to chronicle my experiences with it so that I can judge easily at the end of the month. Since I haven't had chicken today, I'm taking today as the first day of the challenge. Oh God!! I can already see butter chicken mocking at me!! Give me the strength to overcome this challenge and prove the world that chicken eating is actually good for health! Or wait, maybe veggies are better!! Oh! Just prove whichever is better... so that I can stop having these arguments again and again with so many people.
P.S.: All words of encouragement/condolences to my state are welcome. Any support/personal stories are double welcome! But no flame wars please. And certainly no sending yummy chicken dishes home!!!
6 comments:
I eat meat almost daily, sometimes I just get too sick of it and go on few weeks without any meat(almost unconsciously). I dont think its too hard as it sounds, esp after you eat too much of meat (like daily for weeks), atleast imo.
I am on a 2-month veggie diet, since coming back from India, and its not really so hard. And I really am enjoying a pure veggie menu. The trick is to have as much chicken as possible, for an extended period of time, and then you will willingly go in for a vegan diet. To be honest, I don't think I will stick to it after 2 months, though. But I won't be eating as regularly as previously. Most likely, once a month, I guess.
Since you are taking it as a challenge, you may try ur best to stick to it. If you fail of course, I suggest eating chicken as often as poss, till you get sore of it, then you will happily welcome the dull boring vegetables. :-)
PS: Staying totally off fish isn't that good an idea either. My solution: Have tuna with sandwiches once in a while. That gives me the omega-3s. When u cut on chicken/fish, just make sure you are getting the nutrients from elsewhere. And sure, tuna is "non-veg", but I don't see a point in totally cutting down on non-veg food like its a different class.
Arun, true! I was already getting sick of eating and cooking it every week - guess that's my break point. So, reduced it to alternate weeks. But this challenge should be fun! Lets see how it turns out....
Aths, woah! really? If I can survive this and find the sweet spot where I do eat chicken but consider eating it more of a rarity(and hence a treat) than a norm, I'd have succeeded :) With tuna and other seafood, I don't frequent places with it for lack of company/choices. But yeah, I should try a piscatarian diet sometimes.
Whats de status now :)
Ramya, status update post coming soon :)
I was a non-vegetarian by birth, but a converted vegetarian by choice. One fine day, I just decided that I will not eat non-vegetarian. This was 21 years back and since then I can safely say that I am a pure veggie. I don't consume even cakes/pastries since there is a possibility of them containing egg.
People do wonder if I don't get tempted, but since they seen me avoiding meat at parties, family functions, they do believe that I am a pure vegetarian :-)
The main reason why I quit non-veg was because I started following a spiritual path. And one condition put forth for following the path is - give up meat !!
So I guess, if you find something better than non-veg food, you can easily give it up. I know its well past now the date since this post was added, but hope you are now a pure veggie.
Good luck !!
Post a Comment