Day 17: A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
this is the most recent huge impact i can think of. almost since i've known him, W has had little health issues. countless visits to numerous doctors/specialists, hours and hours of physical therapy, all for nothing. shortly before R was born, W was in so much pain (foot/ankle, back, neck, shoulder, unexplained chest pains), it was hard for me to even watch him struggle. he had difficulty helping me in the middle of the night cuz it was hard for him to even get out of bed to go to R when he cried. then he started doing some reading on inflammation/gout/arthritis, which lead to vegetarianism, and the more he read, the more it made him rethink his diet/lifestyle. he decided to give up eating meat and dairy, and within weeks his body started healing and within a couple months he no longer had the pain he had been dealing with for YEARS. it was truly amazing to witness. now, i had experimented with vegetarianism in jr. high and high school, more as a means to lose weight (which worked) but i wasn't a healthy vegetarian. when you're a kid living at home and your mom cooks all your meals, it's kinda hard to do anything but eat what she makes. plus, she didn't understand what i was doing at all. afterall, my parents grew up in post korean war korea, so the thought of not eating meat and dairy was like turning away free money! anyway, so it was easy for me to go veg too. but i did it really slowly. i would still eat meat on occasion, if we went out to eat and there was nothing else on the menu that looked appetizing. but after about a year of being a part-time veggie, i ate a carnitas burrito during a trip to CA for R's first birthday, and i got a little ill (nothing severe), and that just about did it for me. then i watched Food Inc. and that really changed things for me. since then, i've stopped eating any animal carcass, stopped drinking cow's milk (tho i do occasionally eat cheese and yogurt, but only if it's organic, and preferably local and not from big factory farming operations). i actually stopped drinking cow's milk once R was born. do i miss eating meat? honestly, sometimes i do. but i told myself that if i really want to eat some steak or something, i'm not gonna feel bad about it. but really, if it came down to it, i don't think i could actually eat it. the thought of eating meat now makes me gag. dead, rotting, decomposing flesh, that they DYE red so it looks appetizing. blech. the part i really got grossed out from the movie was the story about chicken. gag. i will never eat chicken again. ever. oh, and those of you who think "free range" chicken is any better? uh, the USDA deems "free range" chicken as chickens that have had the door to the chicken coop open for a short period at least one time a day. yeah, these chickens are so scared to go out, they don't even notice the door is open. there's free range for ya. since watching Food Inc, we've watched many other great documentaries on why we really shouldn't eat meat or animal sources, and read many great books (including Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which i highly recommend, and no, it's not pro-vegetarianism, it just forces you to think about what you're eating). now with that said, we do eat eggs, and recently started eating fish again (only from whole foods cuz they only buy responsibly/sustainably raised fish from clean waters and never dye their fish), but only cuz we were practically vegan and veganism is a whole nother ballgame and much easier to become unhealthy doing. and i just don't have the time or energy to plan out our meals that much to make sure we're getting everything we need. now, i'm not trying to convince anyone to become a vegetarian by any means. it works for some, it doesn't work for many. do what you want, it's your life/health. cuz there are definitely unhealthy ways to be a veg, and healthy ways to be an omnivore.
this is the most recent huge impact i can think of. almost since i've known him, W has had little health issues. countless visits to numerous doctors/specialists, hours and hours of physical therapy, all for nothing. shortly before R was born, W was in so much pain (foot/ankle, back, neck, shoulder, unexplained chest pains), it was hard for me to even watch him struggle. he had difficulty helping me in the middle of the night cuz it was hard for him to even get out of bed to go to R when he cried. then he started doing some reading on inflammation/gout/arthritis, which lead to vegetarianism, and the more he read, the more it made him rethink his diet/lifestyle. he decided to give up eating meat and dairy, and within weeks his body started healing and within a couple months he no longer had the pain he had been dealing with for YEARS. it was truly amazing to witness. now, i had experimented with vegetarianism in jr. high and high school, more as a means to lose weight (which worked) but i wasn't a healthy vegetarian. when you're a kid living at home and your mom cooks all your meals, it's kinda hard to do anything but eat what she makes. plus, she didn't understand what i was doing at all. afterall, my parents grew up in post korean war korea, so the thought of not eating meat and dairy was like turning away free money! anyway, so it was easy for me to go veg too. but i did it really slowly. i would still eat meat on occasion, if we went out to eat and there was nothing else on the menu that looked appetizing. but after about a year of being a part-time veggie, i ate a carnitas burrito during a trip to CA for R's first birthday, and i got a little ill (nothing severe), and that just about did it for me. then i watched Food Inc. and that really changed things for me. since then, i've stopped eating any animal carcass, stopped drinking cow's milk (tho i do occasionally eat cheese and yogurt, but only if it's organic, and preferably local and not from big factory farming operations). i actually stopped drinking cow's milk once R was born. do i miss eating meat? honestly, sometimes i do. but i told myself that if i really want to eat some steak or something, i'm not gonna feel bad about it. but really, if it came down to it, i don't think i could actually eat it. the thought of eating meat now makes me gag. dead, rotting, decomposing flesh, that they DYE red so it looks appetizing. blech. the part i really got grossed out from the movie was the story about chicken. gag. i will never eat chicken again. ever. oh, and those of you who think "free range" chicken is any better? uh, the USDA deems "free range" chicken as chickens that have had the door to the chicken coop open for a short period at least one time a day. yeah, these chickens are so scared to go out, they don't even notice the door is open. there's free range for ya. since watching Food Inc, we've watched many other great documentaries on why we really shouldn't eat meat or animal sources, and read many great books (including Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which i highly recommend, and no, it's not pro-vegetarianism, it just forces you to think about what you're eating). now with that said, we do eat eggs, and recently started eating fish again (only from whole foods cuz they only buy responsibly/sustainably raised fish from clean waters and never dye their fish), but only cuz we were practically vegan and veganism is a whole nother ballgame and much easier to become unhealthy doing. and i just don't have the time or energy to plan out our meals that much to make sure we're getting everything we need. now, i'm not trying to convince anyone to become a vegetarian by any means. it works for some, it doesn't work for many. do what you want, it's your life/health. cuz there are definitely unhealthy ways to be a veg, and healthy ways to be an omnivore.
posted by joyce at
10:50 AM
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