It’s Monday morning and, what were once days for planning chicken fajitas or steaks, have become ones of vegetarianism in my life. I know, it’s not like me to be awkward with my diet (yeah right), but I thought what a challenge for me and my carnivore-loving ways. It’s a tiny sacrifice seen as apparently, with the amount of people (nearly 1 million) taking part in meat-free Mondays, we (actually mostly “them” seen as I’ve just started) have made an enormous difference on our pockets, health and of course, the environment. It has also obviously saved a bunch of animals (sound for them. Not so sound for my meat-recipe filled cookbooks).
I wish I could say this is something huge for me and I’m really committing myself to something mad altogether. Really though, I was a vegetarian in a past life, a whole eleven year past life from aged 10 until I was 21 to be exact.
I grew up on a dairy farm where there were pigs, cows and birds galore (not to mention a pet fox, ferret and bunch of other creatures great and small).
One of my earliest memories was “catching” my beloved father killing a goose for dinner. I reacted as if it were a big shock and this creature and I were going to spend a long life together frolicking on Beal farm. Really though, this goose had the same meaning (or lack thereof) as her 5 goose sisters. Nevertheless, my drama queen ways didn’t let me down, hence the jaw-drop, tantrum and screaming in the kitchen while my mother prepared dinner (the goose). I’d reacted so badly, one would’ve thought this would’ve led me to my new found vegetarianism quickly after. It didn’t. It took another couple of years.
It was Wilbur, the runt of a litter of pigs when I was 11 who was the icing on the bacon-filled proverbial cake. Bottle-fed, cuddled every evening and named so beautifully (and originally), I couldn’t help but become rather attached to Wilbur. I was extremely proud of the fact I had saved him and made a point of telling him on regular occasions.
Sadly, my family were quite attached to young Wilbur too and celebrated this fact by putting him in the freezer 6 months later. Yes, you guessed it. This brought on vegetarian June.
I didn’t look back until I moved to France in 2007 and started dabbling in the odd rasher and chicken thy. The rest is history. Meat-loving June had taken over…
Until two weeks ago when I thought, you know what? I can undo some of the damage here and, I’ll surely be forgiven? At least, that’s what I tell myself.
In any event, it’s a healthy option.
Will I go back to full-vegetarianism again? I have no idea. But, as long as I’m doing meat-free Mondays, I’m doing something. And, I’d much rather be doing something than nothing. Doing nothing helps nobody.
To learn more about Meat-Free Mondays, visit the site here.