Heyyy peeps! I'm really glad to be able to share with you about my experience on vegetarianism and yours truly is really excited for making it to 3 years since 2018 August! Time flies indeed and never would have I thought that I could make it that far. Nevertheless, I would consider myself more of a flexitarian than a full-time vegetarian. At first I felt a little upset because I wasn't being able to commit 100% vegetarianism but now I feel that I have done my best so even being to attain 99% is already enough for me. Being a vegetarian isn't as hard as it is thought to be, but I wouldn't deny that it surely poses some challenges especially when vegetarianism isn't prevalent in your community.
During my first year of my vegetarian journey, I was a strict lacto-ovo vegetarian. Meaning that I only took all kinds of food including egg and dairy products but abstaining completely from meat (or even broth) at all. I would scrutinized every grocery labels to see if they contained any animal product other than egg/dairies and would be so thrilled to see the labels with vegetarian or vegan friendly wordings. And all these made easier because I was living alone and I was in full control to decide my diet. Hence most of the time I would do my own groceries and cook for my own self, incorporating mainly fruits and vegetables into my diet and not forgetting tempeh and tofu as my main protein source (Did I mention they are my fav too?).
Cooking for myself did not save me a lot significantly from money and time but I was sure more obsessed with eating healthier back then and I felt it was worth it. I like to document them into my IG account and which after that I decided to make an account dedicated just for my homemade food at @eatwithyinnsu (If you even bother to check it out though hoho).
After I was done with my studies, I came back home and everything just changed. Being the only vegetarian in your family or paternal/maternal side of your family makes everything even more challenging. In terms of social, I have faced social awkwardness and sometimes being thrown questions as of why there's a sudden change in my diet. Is it because of religion? Have I gotten it too far? And yeah all those you know and you name it. And whenever there's a feast for dinners, weddings or celebrations, you will find 90% of the things prepared you have no longer take. Sometimes when the elderlies just wanna make sure you're getting enough food, they would offer you some food (especially non-vegetarian ones) straight into your plate. I would be so glad when there's someone around me whom is willing to take "that" food for me but when the situation is unfavorable, I would feel obligated take it for respect to them. I feel I don't need to hurt their feelings by rejecting their offer just because they do not understand my situation and were just doing it because they cared. However, it's just an exception to the elderlies who failed to understand what vegetarians don't eat (I don't know if this makes sense to you).
For me it's not about attaining a perfect 100% thing only could you be a vegetarian. Neither is it an all-or-nothing situation. For me my intention was simple; I did it because I feel better with my new switch of diet. I feel rewarded because I feel I could do some favour to my own health and also to the environment and the animals. I would just try as much as possible to avoid meat intakes into my diet and frankly I wouldn't say that meat are not delicious; they are tantalizing (well, to me and used to be my favourite). Without meat, my food would seemed like meh and bleh. But after I have got to overcome my temptation over the taste and texture of meat, I felt lighter and less burdened at heart. However, things will not always go the way we wanted. I still need to adapt to my ever-changing environment and try my best to make sure I could still eat healthily and at the same time be flexible to dine outside especially on social occasions on being a vegetarian. Perhaps many people might not agree on what I'm doing since I would not considered myself a strict vegetarian (in Chinese we call it ččžšç´ ). My aim is to be able to completely omit meat as much as possible whenever I could.
I can't be perfect but I know what I'm doing. Sometimes it isn't going to be easy, but I assure you when you persist in doing what you feel is right, it's worth doing it for. I feel there are indeed a lot of benefits in practicing a vegetarian lifestyle but what is suitable to everyone varies. I would still respect everyone's decision on what they choose to eat for themselves; whether you are a carnivore, omnivore, pescatarian (vegetarians that takes fish), vegan or so on. It's definitely not easy to be able to eat together with a vegetarian too so I've always been really grateful to have my family and friends who would still dine together with me despite our differences.
This blogpost ain't gonna have a stop because I really have so much of great things to share about. Have just ordered my bulk purchases on some nuts (much to my delight) and have tried out some pretty awesome vegan/vegetarian restaurants (food delivered though due to the pandemic. (Damn you, Covid). Sometimes being a vegetarian/vegan doesn't means that you have a healthier lifestyle especially when the carbs intake are still high. Trying my best to amend my diet plan to a more plant-based diet (as much as I could!). I have so much more to write but I guess I need to stop here. Apologies if you find this post rather dull because I actually have more pictures to share but apparently my computer just failed me and I couldn't upload my pictures đ Sooo.. thank you and hope you enjoyed the blabbers for today! Take care of yourself and see you till the next post! ;)
P/s: Don't let imperfections stop you from doing what you want to do :)
Signing off,
SY