Going Veggie..

Maybe some of you hadn't realised it, but for the past past week, i've been a vegetarian..
No seriously, I didn't eat meat for a straight seven days. Hurah.

Previously, going veggie for even two days straight was a tremendous stretch for my meat-eating, meat-loving soul. I didn’t know what i was thinking trying to be a vegetarian for a whole week; it seems pretty ambitious for a carnivorous dinosaur called yours truly.
But hey challenges always make the whole thing even better, so i decided what the heck, ---just try it. The least it could do is make my arteries less clogged than it already is..

“I’m a level 5 vegan—I don’t eat anything that casts a shadow.” –Character on The Simpsons

Funny.
What level vegan are YOU Mr Derrick?? (o.O)

Well for starters, i must admit that i wasn't a total vegetarian. Eventhough my roomie got kicks out of calling me "the vegan", with a heavily sarcastic tone you could taste the salty SARCASM, calling me a vegan would be an insult to all vegans everywhere. This is because i also ate eggs and dairy products during my seven-day stint. ( I had to, if not i would DIE lorh..)

I actually did some research on the net, and the term for my type of "vegetarianism" is called Lacto-ovo vegetarian. Oooh.. glamorous.

1)Vegetarian (Lacto-ovo- vegetarian)

When most people think of vegetarians, they think of lacto-ovo-vegetarians. People who do not eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish or animal flesh of any kind, but do eat eggs and dairy products are lacto-ovo vegetarians (“lacto” comes from the Latin for milk, and “ovo” for egg).

Lacto-vegetarian is used to describe a vegetarian who does not eat eggs, but does eat dairy products.

Ovo-vegetarian refers to people who do not eat meat or dairy products but do eat eggs.

2)Vegan

Vegans do not eat meat of any kind and also do not eat eggs, dairy products, or processed foods containing these or other animal-derived ingredients such as gelatin. Many vegans also refrain from eating foods that are made using animal products that may not contain animal products in the finished process, such as sugar and some wines. There is some debate as to whether certain foods, such as honey, fit into a vegan diet.

Wow really? Very interesting indeed..

So day one of being a vegetarian was alright. I honestly didn't feel anything missing during the first day-- no yearning for meat at all.. Then came the second day and i realised that the nuggets in my fridge will have to wait next week for me to come and eat them.. *sighs*

"Wait for me, lovely, succulent, inductive i mean, seductive nuggets.."

But still, i soldiered on. No biggie. The third day was ok, and the following days vary from me feeling so desperate for animal meat, to not feeling anything at all towards meat.

Plus, my housemates were really supportive.
And by really supportive i mean really UNsupportive... Oh how dare they. ^^

I became the butt of their jokes. They liked torturing me by purposely eating burgers or nuggets in front of me-- oh so diabolical. God knows how hard it was to not to go crazy smelling their meat-laden cooking. Plus, they would question me if i was doing this to get a flat stomach, or whether i'm on a crash diet. The answer was (tiringly) NO.. I just wanted to see the world from a vegetarian's point of view.. gawd! (Napolean Dynamite style..)

My only comfort was the knowledge that at least I was eating something healthy, and they were all simultaneously eating their way to an early heart attack. Meheh!

I remember the first time i told them that i was going veggie for a week. Some were quite supportive, but my darling roomie just said " Heh. I'll give you two days..". *crunches on a biscuit*. I guess she didn't realise it at the time, but i totally took it as a challenge. In fact i would like to thank her for that, since it really drove me to complete the one-week vegetarian lifestyle. hah!

Plus, whenever I eat fruits or veggies in front of them, roomie would call me "the vegan" again.. Which was, really, so UNCREATIVE. At least embellish it with other words like "super-vegan" or "veggie superhero" instead of using the same words over and over again. Tsk2. I expected much more from your sarcastic emo powers Nana.. .

But i took it all in my stride. It's all in good fun. If they didn't torture me, i wouldn't have anything interesting to tell people, now would I?

So what did i eat for the whole week? Well, mostly my diet consisted of tomatoes, pears, apples, oranges, hashbrowns, eggs, bread, and Campbell soup, (and some other stuff i can't remember).. It wasn't bad actually, since they were all reasonably tasty and become quite good after a while.. At least everytime i ate them, there wasn't this guilt inside of me; this inner conscience that says i'm eating something unhealthy or something pumped with hormones and additives. Plus, i didn't have to wonder how my food was prepared-- i've heard stories of chicken that were drowned in boiling water so that they would get de-feathered ALIVE. Damn humans are so cruel..

And i think i've got an idea of how it is being a vegetarian. Even if it's just for a small glimpse-- i can't confess to really knowing what a real vegetarian goes through, but i feel that at least i have a vague idea of how it feels. Going to restaurants were quite pains actually, since most of them don't offer vegetarian alternatives-- and even if they do, they don't look appetising at all (to me). Most of the time I ordered meals with meat in it, but donated the meat to my friends.. Why yes, i am that awfully kind.

Moreover, there's not much difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. They're basically just normal people who happen to prefer vegetables over meat. Well obviously, heh. Just because someone's a vegetarian, doesn't mean one is "special". When i was a (temporary) vegetarian, i preferred it if people didn't fuss over me or treat me as something else, or ask me why i do it.At times it gets tiring. Going veggie is just a personal choice-- just like how some people prefer cats over dogs. And how some people prefer not killing animals to killing them.

And, did you know that these celebrities are vegetarians??

Natalie Portman

Carrie Underwood (Voted Sexiest Vegetarian 2007)

Milo Ventimiglia

Tobey Maguire

Kristen Bell

Josh Hotnett, i mean, Hartnet (voted sexiest vegetarian.. by um, me.) :P

*Mr Derick*

^(-__-)^

(Sorry don't have a picture so just made a smily face..)

So the last day of my vegetarian escapade came to an end during the Chinese New Year open-house. Which was kind of sweet. It's as if i was celebrating the fact that i successfully completed my mission of being a temporary vegetarian. Hurah!

It wasn't easy, but i'm glad i at least tried a different lifestyle for one week. And it wasn't bad either.. *ponders*

Maybe next time I'll try being a vegetarian for two weeks~~ ^.^ Hehe.

We'll see..

For now, " infamous nuggets, come to mammah! How I've missed thee.."

(YAH. after all that preaching, i still can't let go of my tempura nuggets. Lousy.)