goin veg

for 6 years i was vegetarian. then i moved back to good ole georgia and couldn't resist country fried dear steak, biscuits and gravy, yellow squash cooked with bacon, blt, venison burgers. one bite ruined me for the past 4 years. i've been battling with this meat thing on and off, justifying that i'm a foodie and therefore HAVE to eat meat. but on my most recent fasting cleanse i was reminded how lite it feels to not eat meat.

i know a crazy, native-Italian-moved-to-New Jersey at 15 who's been vegetarian for 40 years !!!! can you imagine being from Italy, living in New Jersey and not eating meat??! i can't.

and my yoga instructor has been vegetarian for 25 years and travels extensively for her job. can you imagine traveling all over central America and not eating meat??! i can't.

but then i came up with my very own form of vegetarianism, which i can't and won't rightly call vegetarian. and i'm not quite sure what i'll call it. my current diet already has a lot of restrictions: no corn syrup of any type, no added sugars whenever possible, no refined sugars, no preservatives, food colorings, artificial flavors or fillers, low intake of corn and soy derived products, minimally processed foods even if it is gluten free, all things gluten free, no gmo whenever possible, organic as much as possible....i think that covers it, phew!

so the newest restriction, meat. unless...the meat is fish or seafood (which eventually i will phase out too), or it is free range organic and humanely slaughtered. this mainly pertains to meats such as chicken and turkey. i'm not really a red meat fan and never have been unless it's venison, so pretty much all red meat is out. and even with these exceptions i rarely eat it.
and to be quite honest, for the past two weeks i've been more than content eating greens, fruits, nuts and grains.

the more i think about it and all the damage that's been done to the earth to mass produce foods that aren't even foods anymore (!), i can't find any reason why i need to eat anything other that the basics, and in their most freshest and natural form.