KeepGreenGoing

This final installment has been tough to write. What more is there to say? Outside of a couple brief moments of burger cravings the final days went really well. I stuck with my basic vegetarian diet and in the end it wasn’t too difficult. The toughest part for me wasn’t pulling myself away from a steak, but simply remembering that I was committed to a vegetarian diet.

Has the experiment changed me? The experiment has certainly changed me for the better. My eyes have been opened up to the health and enjoyment of a vegetarian diet. There is a freedom and creativity present in a vegetarian diet that I never experienced as an omnivore. I also feel that I had a little bit more energy as a vegetarian and that I more easily avoided the feelings of lethargy associated with overeating. On top of all of this there is the benefit to the planet.

Has the experiment changed me into a champion of vegetarianism? Yes and no. I’ve definitely reached the conclusion that vegetarianism is an excellent way of life; a much more symbiotic relationship between the planet and the people on the planet. The less we rely on the factory farmed production of animals, the more harmonious the planet becomes. That harmony comes back to us. However I’m still not convinced that all meat is created equal or that it is all bad.

Certainly we need to strike a better balance with our consumption of meat, beef in particular, and our consumption of vegetarian diet. I’m at a point now where I think it is okay to eat a little bit of responsibly farmed meat every now and then. I’m considering buying a butchered bison from a local organic farmer with my good friend Sonny.

I suppose that in the end my perspective towards diet have changed through the experiment. I think my outlook correlates best with what Michael Pollan said in his book In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”