Recently, I was encouraged by a coworker to watch the crowd funded documentary Cowspiracy. It had been in my Netflix Queue for quite some time as I am often interested in new information and perspectives on our nations food production processes and the influence our food choices have on the environment, our health, and our society. The premise behind Cowspiracy is that agribusiness is non-sustainable and destroying our environment. It supports a very compelling argument that the largest amount of impact a single person can have affecting the environment is living a vegan lifestyle. And I have to say, it definitely pulled on my Eco-feminist tendencies. This was approximately two weeks ago and in that time I have switched to a vegetarian (aspiring vegan) diet. Here are my observations thus far in no particular order:
– My skin became softer. This was unexpected, but a quick google search led to the discovery that this is common. I also discovered that at some point in the future it is likely that I will not have body odor. Bonus!
– I was eating a much healthier diet than I though. While there was a bit of junk food in the house, my husband and I still mostly retained our ‘read the label’ skills from our long discarded Paleo/Primal diet and were still eating fairly fresh foods quite a bit of the time (minus frozen pizza). I also notice that I really don’t eat or gravitate towards dairy as often as I expected. Currently, I am only eating cheese if I am at work (and not much at that) and don’t anticipate missing it much as I further my education and find suitable alternatives.
– I think I am going to miss eggs quite a bit until I settle on a good substitute. I have enjoyed a good over easy egg on toast with avocado & tomato in the past and I may take on the task of searching out a good local source now that I can’t stomach buying them in the store. At the moment I feel that is a compromise I am comfortable making for the occasional egg.
– No one bats an eye at ‘vegetarian’, but a person receives all kinds of side-eye when mentioning the other ‘v’ word. When I can’t contain myself from talking about all this new information with someone the general response is ‘I could maybe go vegetarian, but I could NEVER go vegan’ or something along those lines.
– My spouse is supportive of my dietary switch but has no interest in becoming a meat free household, himself switching, and I think he is worried I will try to convert him with the fervor of a cultist. He sees that all too familiar ‘she’s made up her stubborn mind and there’s no turning back’ gleam to my eye that is often associated with my feminist leanings. This generally means that if we begin discussing one of my passion philosophies that there is a good chance the discussion will become heated, especially if one of us has to concede on a viewpoint. (Side note: I rarely concede gracefully).
– The kids are far less than enthusiastic over the idea of a vegetarian/vegan diet with the exception of all the sweet foods. I’m struggling with respecting their criticism and how I will approach this in the future.
Overall, the switch hasn’t been as ‘hard’ as I thought it might be. That being said, it’s only a month away from Thanksgiving and I suspect this year might be rough since I don’t have full recipes to convert yet. It will be educational (as always, I’m sure!).
HipTipton 