I quit Vegetarianism.

A couple weeks ago I hit a brick wall with my Vegetarian (Well, technically Pescetarian) diet.

I just got to this point where the thought of eating anything made my stomach turn, especially any seafood related product, or eggs. (The majority of my diet.) At first I thought it was just boredom, then over a period of time I just started feeling nauseated at the thought of eating- which is HIGHLY unusual for me!

This posed a problem, naturally, and I definitely wasn’t getting in enough calories that I needed. Another interesting thing is that lately I’d been craving to eat meat again. I don’t know if it’s the weight training or what, but something within my body was telling me that I needed it for some reason. I started feeling a sort of deprivation that I never felt before in all of the 4 years I hadn’t eaten any meat besides seafood.

So why did I deprive myself when I had these cravings?

Well, mainly it had a lot to do with keeping up appearances. I mean, for years I’d been a vegetarian! People made fun of me in college about it!
WHAT WOULD PEOPLE THINK?!

Then one day I decided nobody really cares. Why should I let a limitation I imposed ON MYSELF continue just for the sake of it? To please other people? NOPE! NOT WORTH IT. 

One of the major factors for me going vegetarian in the first place was because of how horrible factory farming is. While I’m still not a huge fan of factory farming, I realized not EVERY single piece of meat out there is raised in this fashion. In fact, one of my fiances friends parents own a chicken farm. We went on a little tour, and I was actually pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

While it wasn’t a “lush pasture” per se, it was a HUGE space, and they had plenty of room to roam. They weren’t confined in tiny cages and keeled over in sickness and filth like those old PETA videos said!

Another reason I initially went veggie was because finding organic, farm raised meat was definitely not affordable or widely available for my college-student self. But now? Even fast food joints like Chipotle advertise all-natural, organic meats.

So, a couple weeks ago I decided to get a chicken sandwich from a gourmet all-natural burger place called Yeah! Burger.

It was amazing.

And I felt a sort of “fullness” and satiety that I hadn’t felt in awhile.

Now, I wouldn’t say I’m a 100% reformed vegetarian. As of right now, beef and pork are still questionable for me. I think it’s mainly a taste/psychological thing but who knows! I’m not ruling it out, though. I never really liked pork at all to begin with so I’d probably be okay with cutting that out indefinitely. But it may take a little time before I can come to terms with eating a huge piece of steak or anything like that! And I’m not sure if I’d want to. But that’s okay.

I will say since integrating some meat into my diet I’ve stopped feeling that malaise about food in general and have pepped up a bit. I have so many new options! It definitely eases a little bit of stress for me.

Now, I want other vegetarians/vegans to realize I’m not at all saying all plant based diets are awful or what have you, I’m just explaining why it wasn’t right for me and how I came to that realization!

Basically, the whole thing about finding your proper diet is you have to find what works for YOU. And you have to experiment! I’ve experimented with so many things, and I love not being confined to a single dietary guideline these days.

I know some people are strict about Paleo, Veganism, IIFYM, total clean eating or what have you, but these days I kind of eat a mish mash of them all and I love that. Even though I do eat meat now, I’ll still have some vegan quinoa/lentil stew. Even though I try to hit 20g protein at every meal, I don’t calculate it to the gram.

It’s just not worth the headache for me. I’m fit, happy, and strong. Food is such an enjoyable experience to me, and I like to keep it that way instead of being relegated to pre-prepped tupperware meals 24/7. (I’ve tried that. I hated it.)

I have a much healthier mental perspective on health, fitness, and life than I used to.

That’s valuable to me. 

And if I want to enjoy a Chic-fil-A sandwich, gosh darnit, I’m going to.

AND NOBODY IS GOING TO STOP ME!