On Christmas Day, I ate meat for the first time in a year and a half. (We’re not counting that chicken salad sandwich that I thought was egg salad – that was an accident, and I threw it out as soon as I realized – we’re talking about intentional meat consumption only). I had a slice of bacon, just one. It smelled so good and, I figured, nothing you eat really counts on Christmas anyway. My mom was standing next to me nattering about something, and I turned to her and said, “I can’t talk about that right now. I’m eating bacon for the first time in over a year. You need to give me a minute.” And I shut my eyes and savored it. I was sad to discover that bacon still tastes as good as I remembered. I’d been theorizing that after such a prolonged period without meat, my body would have adjusted and meat would taste funny to me now, but nope. It was freakin’ fantastic.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a vegetarian. (Or, rather, a lacto-ovo-pescatarian, for you purists.) I have no plans to go back to eating meat any time soon: I still believe in my reasons for not eating meat, and I still like my veg lifestyle. That hasn’t changed. But I think one should check in on things now and then, and also I really wanted some bacon. Damn.
In other news, one challenging thing at my new job has been the sheer availability of junk food. Anybody who gets a gift basket from a vendor puts it in the kitchen. Any food left over after a meeting gets put in the kitchen. People are dropping off leftover cookies and holiday candy. It’s been crazy for over a month now. I have never had willpower where junk is concerned, even less so where free food is concerned, and ever since I got pregnant I haven’t felt much need to because I needed the extra calories. And now I’m breastfeeding: I’m back down not just to my pre-baby weight but to my college weight, and my pre-baby pants are all too big. So the problem is not that I’m eating tons of snacks all day – I need the snacks, my body has plenty of use for the calories – but I do worry about the sodium, sugars, caffeine, and carbs, plus just the effect of dumping so much crap into my system. And the bad habits I’m forming. Hopefully the worst of the freebies are over and I can buy some fruit to try and fill the hole where cookies and truffles and caramel popcorn have been going. (The plus is that I have a place to drop off all the unwanted junk food from my house, which I did yesterday.)
Also a plus, F and I had lunch at a vegan cafe over the holidays! Everything was excellent, especially my falafel wrap, which was the best I think I’ve ever had. Thumbs up to Vge Cafe in Bryn Mawr; we’re looking forward to visiting again.
Rox Does Yoga 
Very interesting post! About 2 months ago I started making an effort to try to eat a small bite of meat every couple of days only so my body doesn’t have a negative reaction to meat in case I accidentally ingest it (see your chicken salad example). I found that after 2 years as a pescatarian I lost the taste for chicken. I just don’t care for it anymore, though admittedly when did eat meat I was pretty picky about poultry. I did used to LOVE sausage and I’ve found when I taste it now I really like it, but I don’t have the same passion I did for it before. This may also be because of a general tendency I’ve had lately to cut processed food when I can, but lord knows I’m not the best or consistent at that. All of this has confirmed my decision to continue a veggie lifestyle but not stress about a bite here or there, whatever the reasoning may be. I think sometimes I have to fall off the wagon to re-commit to my decisions! 🙂
Before I went veg, I still liked chicken, but it had more become the easiest thing to fill the “protein” slot in my meals, you know? Occasionally it would be great, but mostly it was just a standard normal thing that I ate without really questioning it. I can remember a number of meals at restaurants, and lots of meals I personally cooked, where the chicken fulfilled its duty as food just fine but I got way more excited about the side dishes or the bread. The veggie lifestyle just makes more and more sense in hindsight.
One of my biggest problems with the thought of returning to a carnivore life (I almost typed carnival) is that all my favorite meat products are totally processed. Bacon, KFC chicken legs, hot dogs, little mini hot dog pastries. Those things were the highlight of my wedding hors d’oeuvres. Pork roll sandwiches. Lunchmeat ham sliced really thin. Nice lean free-range buffalo meat doesn’t do anything for me, but give me a hot dog at the ball park and I’m a happy woman. So if that’s what I’d be happiest about going back to if I took up meat again, I figure I’m probably better off without!
[…] Christmas day, I made an exception to my usual vegetarian practices and had some bacon. I did this last year, too, only last year I only let myself have one piece; this year I decided to have as much bacon as […]