On Being a Veg-head (or atleast trying)

I was at a function the other night with one of those full sit down dinners,  I got up to talk to some people and when I got back the main course was on the table,  A large slice of roast beef covered in gravy,  I stared at it for a moment and it just about turned my tummy.

I don't eat meat anymore.  Stopped about 2 years ago.  Now, I'll still have seafood once in a while although I'm trying to stop that too.  Couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with some old friends in Brampton.  I just couldn't resist.  It's been along time since I've had linguine in a clam sauce.  I'm not a vegan but I have managed to get chicken, beef and pork out of my diet.

Part of it is healfh reasons.  But there's more too it.  I live in a rural area with a lot farms.  Every day I'll drive by them and see goats and sheep.  Llamas and pigs and cattle. As I was driving by a herd of cows one day I said, you guys are going to be on somebody's dinner plate in a couple of days and I got a full body shiver.  It really bothered me.

I think this has to do with all the damn cats I have.  Over the years I've grown to appreciate how animals have their own quirks, mannerisms and personalities just like people do.  I watch the squirrels and the chipmunks.  Every one does things slightly different than the others,  So for me these are more than just dumb animals.  There's something going on that humans don't understand.

When I was with 'EZ Rock I found out pretty quickly that as nice as they were Humble Howard, Colleen Rusholme and Kim Stockwood were, in reality, food bullies.  Every Friday a chef would come in to prepare a meal from one of his recipes.  It smelled great and I'm sure it tasted great but I'll never know because I never tasted it.  The 3 of them would tease me, putting a sparerib under my nose...waving a fork full of chicken in my face...or picking up a piece of steak and blowing the aroma so I'd get the message on what I was missing.  I wanted to, but I didn't break.

I actually feel better without meat in my diet.  Even when I get the urge for a hamburger I'll have a soy burger instead.  But everytime I walk by a Mc Donald's and get a wiff I want it, I need it and I get a way from it as quickly as possible before I have to put myself into red meat rehab.