Neostatic

1. Short answer:

The answer is “No.”

2. A simple explanation:

I am not Vegan or Vegetarian. I simply eat what tastes good to me, for me this includes food outside of that particular “box” like cheese, butter, honey and fish. I’ll eat soups with chicken stock in them and (on Easter) Ham potatoes. The only food philosophy that I prescribe to is “Eat what makes you happy and try to eat what makes your body happy.”

3. A bit of my history:

My diet has been primary meatless, by natural design, for my entire life. It is true that when I was younger I was made to eat meat, because it was “good” for me, even though I didn’t like the taste. (I was the kind of kid that would eat the french fries and not the chicken nuggets.) I transitioned into being a vegetarian, in a very natural way, by the time I was 12. I simply choose not to eat what I didn’t find tasty. The same way people who don’t like garlic stray from eating garlic. While the choice to not eat non-tasty things was easy, the application of a vegetarian diet for a girl living in “Small Town America”/ “Meat and Potato Land” was a difficult and confusing one. My family is made up of carnivores, pretending to be omnivores, that where reluctantly supportive (and slightly amused) of my new diet choice. In fact, I am convinced that almost 20 years later there are members of my family that still think I am going through “a phase”. To this day, holidays are lined with “jokes” where in people offer me whatever meat is being served.  In these early years my lack of education about nutrition and diet coupled with a limited exposer to different types of food made me a “pizza” vegetarian for many years.

4. My light bulb moment:

Later in my 20’s I found that being vegetarian was limiting my happiness. The word was defining who I was, putting me in a box with rules the mainstream movement had listed. Being vegetarian came with baggage, constant comments about bacon and the assumption that I was a PETA supporter . Most importantly this existence as a vegetarian was Maryland crab-less*.  One sunny day in July (about 6 years ago) at a family gathering surrounded by bushels of crabs  I pondered why I wasn’t eating something I wanted to eat. I realized it was only because I thought I was bond to this general definition of being a vegetarian. Then I realized i didn’t have to be. That there was no reason for me to be defined. Why I was a vegetarian had nothing to do with mainstream vegetarianism! The light clicked on and I stepped out of the box and into the light. I have been a much happier girl ever since.

*Yes, my “bacon” is Maryland steamed crabs

TA DA!!!

Well, now you know a little more about me. I’ll get into “What I’m up to now?” on a different date. Hope you enjoyed the words above and feel free to ask questions, if you like.