Tempted By Meat?

[Honza]

Between the age of 18 and 22 I was a vegetarian (I did not Smoke/drink either and exercised regularly). THEN I went to Art School and all those disciplines collapsed so that I ended up eating meat, smoking, drinking, and not exercising. It's not Art Schools fault; it's my fault. Also I met a Woman who had all those 'habits' too. Now that I'm 40 I still can't give up meat or the other vices however much I'd like to. I've sort of gotten into a rut of being dependent on all those bad habits.
I do feel sure that one day the need for those vices will pass. My spiritual strength is increasing and the apeal of meat, cigarettes etc. is slowly dying down.
To have a healthy and conscientious lifestyle is a priceless achievement which I'm not going to give up striving for!

[Honza]

I guess the point I was trying to make is that I'd love to be a vegetarian, but I struggle with the temptation to eat meat. Trying to give up meat is like trying to give up smoking (well maybe not that bad).
Is anyone else struggling to be a veggie? Or is anyone struggling to stay a veggie? For someone like me who loves the taste of meat and enjoys smoking giving these vices up is difficult.
I think a spiritual life is built up slowly through discipline and perseverence and good will. When it collapses on you like mine did (for all sorts of reasons) it is a real challenge to build it back up again.

hi honza

i used to smoke and gave up so many times before i stopped completely. i became a vegetarian at 13 and tried to eat meat again a few times in my early 20's but out of habit just went back to being vege each time.

the longer i went without cigarettes the worse they tasted when i gave in and had them again...eventually i went off them.

i would say...don't be hard on yourself. sometimes we go to the other extreme and become a "body fascist" instead. how many ex smokers have you met who are "born again" and so anti it's ludicrous? i've met many LOL. the higher the pedestal you create for yourself and your standards, the harder you fall. so that's where binging becomes a problem.

just start small. go with your body if it craves them but ease it off the meat and ciggies. your body prefers to be without toxins so it will adjust in time the less and less you put toxins into it. then it will go towards the healthy options.

try and not eat meat for a few days. don't be hard on yourself if you eat some steak after. try another few meatless days after. keep trying calmly. pick yourself up and dust yourself off and start again.

remember to substitute the protein well like with protein shakes, legumes, tofu etc...other wise it will be harder to say no to meat because the body is craving protein. it will make you crave the main kind it knows if your deprive it.

my weakness is carbs...and loads of them. my body lets me know when i need to cleanse it though. the healthier our bodies get, the easier it is to turn away from the junk. i ease more veges and fruit into my diet so it leaves less room for bread etc and cheese (mmmm....cheese)exercise...especially walking is so important as well. it clears so much.

good luck...you'll do it. you'll be a good influence on your partner also. small changes are better than none at all.

Cigs? I would wait untill my next bout of cold or flu when We go off the wretched things and give up.
Meat? we need to find alternatives. Give up red meat, it is not good. Deep water fish, away from poluted shores is better.
Mix your meat thing in with rice and eat less of it.
Pay more and get organic meat. Pigs are not good for eating, we can use their organs for human transplant, which is as close to canibalism as you want to go.
White meat, then on to tofu, tempeh etc.
Brown rice, millet, barley(cook well) etc. Corn is a grain also.
There is nothing wrong with a bowl of porridge every morning. Use barley malt or rice syrup, or raisins to sweeten. Baby figs even.
Use sya milk instead.

[jeremy67]

Originally Posted by AL

Pigs are not good for eating, we can use their organs for human transplant, which is as close to canibalism as you want to go.

Not sure I understand what you're getting at here, AL. Why are pigs not good for eating? Although humans can receive transplants from pigs I think the DNA of a pig is sufficiently removed from that of a human for there not to be a moral objection on that point. And yes, I am aware of humans being referred to as "long pig" in parts of the world, and the fact that charred human flesh is said to smell of roast pork.

Generally I struggle with the meat eating thing... I am not veggie and don't think I ever could be, but I don't eat a lot of meat, and very little red meat. But somehow I can't seem to get round the fact that humans would appear to be programmed to eat meat; I'm thinking of our teeth and digestive system here. So although the process of rearing animals for meat is a little unsavoury (sorry!), I just can't seem to feel guilty about it.


Love and Light,
Jeremy

fair enough. i don't believe in forcing one's beliefs on others. how do any of us know what is truly the way to be?

my views on vegetarianism have changed and grown since i started. i personally believe eating meat is ok as it's part of the food chain. i have issues with the way it's raised. obviously. but i have some leather shoes still, i have sweat shop sneakers...etc etc.

i just personally don't eat meat. and it's easy for me. we all have different ways of doing our bit. some is better than nothing.

well, yes we do have meat eating teeth. they're there for a reason. although ive done some reading on cancer patients healing themselves through cycles of fasting and consuming raw fruits and veggies. organic would be the way to go to be more healthy (factory processed is obviously unhealthy). personally i believe, a great deal of the worlds cancers and disease originate with the consumption of factory processed foods, with all the chemicals they add to preserve etc.

back to the point: if you can find a way to quit smoking, im sure quitting meat would be a breeze.

There are many reasons why some are unlikely to be vegy, one small example may be those who are Tigers in Chinese astrology.
It is good to know what we are eating. For instance, If I ate meat (I have not eaten meat fish or eggs for over 25 years and people struggle to accept my age, when they ask. So ther are no problems in terms of health, if we do it right.)
Some of the things involved in the processing of meat as far as I am aware-
Hormones, anti biotics, steroids and a host of other chemicals etc.
I would suggest, eat organic meat if you must. Beter still, wild game or fish/ chicken, white meat.
The thing about meat is that it breaks down too well, in fact, the human intestine is too long and so the meat has gone off by the time it passes through our body. Bowel Cancer?
The intestines of a cow on the other hand are longer, so eating grass is not the ultimate answer as our intestines are too short and may not extract the goodness before it has past through our system.
So the human body is designed to eat cooked food perhaps with some raw.
Consider the size of a cow, from eating only grass.
Consider all these big strong vegy creatures like elephants, gorillas, giraffe
etc. Then when we look at predatory meat eaters, they are generally small thin and fast. Ok, big cats.
The predators will get veg matter from the contents of the stomach.
I cant think of one meat eater who eats none vegetarians. To eat a meat eater is obviously considered too toxic by nature. Fish are not animals.
I remember reading that, a sack of brown rice has an aura of, I think it was 7 feet radius. I wonder what size the aura of a sack of flesh would be?
Chew a lot, it saves the digestive system work.
peace Al

Originally Posted by rose

sometimes we go to the other extreme and become a "body fascist" instead. how many ex smokers have you met who are "born again" and so anti it's ludicrous? i've met many LOL. the higher the pedestal you create for yourself and your standards, the harder you fall.

I agree with this! It's like when we try really ultra hard to quit something or stay away from something then there is an equally imbalanced reaction to that thing and all of the karmas are still there, tightly interwoven. If I still wanted to eat meat, then I'd still be eating it. It's only because I really genuinely went off it, and genuinely went off cigarettes too, that I don't do either of them any more. But I'm not a raging anti-smoker or a raging vegetarian - if everyone else still does it then that's fine. (obviously I care about the welfare of the animals and cringe at factory farming methods, but I think that's a different issue to the consumption of meat per se).

When I look at the world, it is almost as if another species is controlling our diet. Predators who live on flesh and who want to subdue us all to make us weak.
Change, but do it gradually and don't get fanatical. But don't mock those who are making genuine effort and therefore holding a mirror to your own weaknesses. People have been abused in a big way, if NATURAL seems extreme, it only goes to show how far we have strayed, or been taken, from our natural ways. We need to go slowly if we choose to change.
lol Al