It was the summer of 2008. I was in the middle of a bad breakup, and therefore a complete mess, as expected. The lack of control over my life bothered me the most. I couldn't stop myself from calling her, drinking, smoking, throwing away money. My willpower was depleted. So in an effort to regain a grasp on my life, and in "preparation" of cutting myself off from her, I set a few short-term goals. I wanted to give up cigarettes, coffee, alcohol and meat for two weeks. Yes, all at once. I don't know what it's like to withdraw from hard drugs, but I imagine my experiment, given my disheveled state at the time, could be at least a 7 on a 1-10 difficulty scale. Though it may have been mostly psychological.
I forget if I was actually able to do all four things concurrently. But I will tell you about giving up meat. It's not easy. I loved it all. You don't realize how much of a centerpiece meat is in every meal until it's not. I watched jealously as others chowed down on meat, even at a place like Ikea where my friends ate the signature Swedish meatballs and I had a lousily made veggie wrap (which isn't a knock on all veggie wraps, just theirs. veggie wraps are awesome if you actually put some effort into it).
My brother supported and joined my temporary vegetarianism, though I must confess that under his suggestion, we allowed seafood. I would frown upon that now since it's not true vegetarian. But pesco-vegetarianism is a challenge in itself. And it's not like I had seafood every meal those two weeks. This was when I first tried falafel. Oh, thank goodness for the almighty falafel. Crispy, zesty lumps of vegan goodness. For that reason, Oasis in Williamsburg, Brooklyn will always be dear to me.
Anyway, I didn't experience any veggie stigma, but I'm guessing it may be because I told everyone it was only temporary. That seemed to bring expressions of relief which I didn't realize at the time.
"Oh, you're not going to give meat up forever, are you?"
"No, just two weeks."
"Oh, okay. Good." / (Phew!)
"Oh, you're not going to give meat up forever, are you?"
"No, just two weeks."
"Oh, okay. Good." / (Phew!)
So the two weeks went by without a hitch. After that I "broke" and had some grilled chicken, which frankly wasn't even that good.
Also, vegetarianism doesn't cure heartbreak.
