To meat or not to meat?

I'll start by saying that after a little over 2 meat-free weeks, I am very happy with the experience to date. I can't say I have had any cravings for it. More the opposite actually and I think that is because I have been feeling really light this week and my brain has decided to associate meat with feelings of heaviness. I have felt full of energy and positive. This could have to do with many things but in a time when life could seem a little bit overwhelming and challenging, I have been feeling great and have decided that this new diet might be responsible, at least to some extent.

Therefore, I think that the month of June and after will be a breeze on a personal level. I assumed that the trickier part would on a social level and I have been surprised by how easily the people around me are dealing with it. Surprisingly, most people seem to have made the decision not to use what I may have said about Vegetarianism against me and I am grateful. Yes, there was a time when I couldn't understand how to cook something without meat or why anyone would want to eat it. The lesson is "only a fool never changes his mind", "treat others as you want to be treated" and the old "never say never".

Nevertheless, it is a "coming out" of sorts. I am not about to call myself a true vegetarian. I am definitely only experimenting at the moment but still, I do feel that to go back and start eating meat straight away would be kinda lame and if I do use my joker, it will be because I have thought it through and through.

Last night was a good test actually. After a long day of driving from Newcastle to Albury, we walked into the kitchen to find a slow cooked chicken casserole nicely simmering away. A few hours earlier I had told Chris in the car that although I was enjoying it, a slow cooked meal could well be what tips me over the edge. Well, turns out, I didn't even wince. It smelled delicious and I'm sure it tasted just as good but I felt just as happy tucking into my vegetarian tajine, which Chris' mum got the ingredients for in a last minute dash after our very short notice announcement of my new regime...oops. I made it up by cooking it myself while Chris' parents were away.

In fact it was so good that I'll be enjoying the leftovers tonight while everyone gets stuck into a juicy roast beef around me. Manouf!