Trials
 

Trials is a brief account of my journeys in trying to be vegetarian. Such journeys took place thrice in a personal lifetime without much success.

In each trial, I attempted to abstain from eating meat for nearly a month. With each trial, as the weeks ensued, I felt increasingly weaker and somewhat malnourished until I decided to quit vegetarianism.

In philosophy, Trials was my spiritual attempt to advocate against animal cruelty that has been historically and to date done in the form of butchering animals alive. Alongside, it is that I'm pro animal welfare.

However, an integral part of human survival, evolution and living is the ability to eat meat, including such nutrients as iron and protein. I would be reluctant to use protein pills from pharmaceutical shops for they are costly and the possibility that they could be clandestinely mixed with drugs and harmful chemicals.

Trials has been not only my spiritual attempts with such failures - they constitute my lifelong experiences in which I come to evaluate my choices and their outcomes, both imagined and actual.

Unfortunately your "vegetarian trial" ran smack into the scientific fact that the human species is an omnivore and made to eat a bit of everything....it is simply who we are.

Your experience sounds like most peoples experience with attempted vegetarianism......including mine .....they just don't feel good.....they feel weak....they lose weight....etc.

My experience is that only a limited number of the population does ok with vegetarianism and even a smaller number with outright veganism.

That's interesting.

Glad that I'm not alone.

I disagree on pretty much everything you said. We aren't omnivores. If we were, meat and dairy wouldn't have such negative effects on our bodies. Within two hours of eating it, inflammation begins to set in. It subsides over the next few hours, but then you eat more meat and it starts all over.

What's more, people suffering from heart disease or some cancers or numerous other killer diseases, see their symptoms reversed and they return to good health when they quit eating animal products. That would be why Texas Midland Memorial Hospital began actively encouraging patients to chose the vegan options on the menu. They also now give classes to staff, patients and whomever wants to learn, on how to incorporate a vegan diet into their lifestyle.

When people feel like the OP was saying, it's more likely a lack of sufficient calories. An assortment of fruits, veggies, legumes and nuts will give you all the nutrients you need, including protein and with one exception, B12. But that is a matter of 3 tablets a week.

There are numerous pro athletes who are now choosing a vegan diet. They find that their recovery is greatly improved after strenuous workouts, they feel stronger and healthier. In fact, Kendrick Farris, America's strongest weightlifter and whom represented the USA in the Olympics in 2016, has been following a vegan diet for years.

And in the ten years that I've been vegan, the numbers in Canada have grown from less than 1% to about 10% according to a Dalhousie University study done recently. Israel claims 13% as vegan these days and in 2016, the turnout for an animal rights march was 30,000 in Tel Aviv. Australian vegans have mobilized public sentiment to cause their government to shut their live transport market down for at least the summer months, by virtue of arousing people to the cruelty of it. And that will expand until live transport is shut down permanently. This is a social justice movement that is growing around the world.

This video will explain why I don't believe we are omnivores.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4NsMiOMmCY

Thank you Debrah for reassurances.

This certainly helps.

Reading about your experience, I can only think that whatever discomfort you felt was more than likely a case of not getting enough calories. Too many people just drop the meat and don't replace it with more food. What did you eat in that month (done 3x)? Perhaps I can help you figure out where the weakness in your plan was so that if you should decide to try it again, you'd be more successful. I haven't touched meat in 25 years and I gave up dairy and eggs 11 years ago. So maybe I'd have a suggestion that could help if you were interested.

I have never understood this position in these discussions. I quit eating meat in 2004. I have been vegan for 12 years. I have never taken supplements; I have never thought to go back to my previous diet; and I never have a single thought about eating meat. I know it is not necessary to eat meat, and I never will eat meat ever again. I know this like I know breathing, it's that easy.

IMO, your comment is what people think about and struggle with when they really DON'T want to stop eating meat, but feel they should due to whatever their intellectual moral argument. Diets should be based on what you TRULY wish to eat. Otherwise you end up going back and forth like this, when there is no need to. The old spiritual saying for wannabe vegetarians: If you dream about pork, eat pork. Better to eat what the soul desires, than to deny it. Self-denial is a form of twisted religious belief; it's fundamentalist extremism, self-flagellation, and can cause issues of the psyche and even mental illness. Just look at Catholic church.

I lost 95 lbs and naturally leveled off at my high school weight... well okay 10-15 heavier than that, due to all that accumulated life baggage probably. But I look pretty sharp, baby! And given 70% of people are overweight and 30% are obese... yeah, add a few salads to those meals you're eating people and lose some weight, it's a GOOD thing.

Check online, there are all sorts of articles on the subject, even from holistic health sites, confirming that human beings are omnivores. But it's immaterial. If we were raised by drunks and became alcoholics in our 20s, it doesn't change the fact that the decision to get sober is a healthy and positive life-choice.

EDIT: Okay and yes, some of that was in fact autobiographical. But my dear mother bless her didn't drink, I need to make that much clear!

I always say, if you have to force yourself to stay of meat, don't bother.
When you are meant to let go of meat you will know and it is not a struggle.

I stopped eating meat or any dead animals about 20 years ago and all other animal products about 10 years ago. I am now past the 70 work in my garden, play tennis, only doubles these days, and climb the local hills to stay fit.

Haven't been to a doctor for about 30 years. Don't supplement, don't eat a lot of proteins, but a lot of carbs. They are easy to burn.

My view, anything you force onto yourself will eventually backfire.