Food Friday: Food and Travel: Changing my Diet
Back in 2007, I gave up mammals. I know that sounds weird. Trust me, I’ve explained it many times over the years. I made a decision to drop all mammals (mainly cows and pigs) out of my diet. It was an odd choice that left me explaining my reasoning (and also that chickens are not mammals) to a lot of people. I didn’t really miss the meat much. I liked that cutting it out of my diet kept me a bit healthier and cut down on meat consumption in general. It wasn’t until I started traveling that my lifestyle change really started to affect me. Food and travel go hand and hand for me, so this was a problem. So…
I’ve decided to eat cows and pigs again
Considering I spent a year and a half in Argentina, the land of steak, and never ate so much as a bite of it, this may seem like weird timing. Here’s the thing – I don’t want to gorge myself on meat. I still prefer poultry to red meat. I still plan to frequently choose vegetarian options over meat-centric dishes. I just don’t want to limit my experiences.
But there are rules
Like I said, I’m not a huge meat eater as it is and I’m still not interested in a big bloody steak. I will now allow myself no more than 2 dishes per week that contain red meat. Of course, I think it will be rare for me to even hit twice in a week, unless it is while traveling. The idea is just to prepare my body for it so that when I do eat mammals while traveling, it won’t be a shock to my system.
Parilla in Argentina. Still not really interested in this mountain of meat.
This wasn’t an easy decision to make
I really struggled with this. I kept thinking, will my vegetarian friends judge me? Am I a quitter? Am I just a fat girl who wants to eat food and travel?
For weeks, I kept bouncing the idea off people. I read up on “flexatarians” who are vegetarians all week but allow themselves meat on the weekends or similar schedules. The 3rd time I brought it up to my mom, she said “I don’t see why you don’t just do it. You keep saying it affects your travel. You don’t even like steak, you never have. You’ll just eat a little.” Maybe I just needed my mommy’s permission?
But how to break the meat fast?
I was a little weary of getting my first red meat dish in a restaurant. What if, by some fluke, I got food poisoning, and it soured me on meat forever?! Think of all the missed opportunities that would arise in my travels due to a sketchy kitchen staff! Luckily, my very clean friends had a birthday BBQ. There were only burgers, sausages, and ribs. It was time. Meat on bones still freaks me out (that’s a whole other story. Don’t put chicken wings in my face okay? I hate it!) so I went for the burger. You know what? I ate it and I feel fine. I didn’t want another one right away, but I didn’t feel bad about it (physically or morally) either.
@AbbyTegnelia took this. I’m actually eating a veggie burger here but let’s just pretend.
I think I’ve made the right decision for myself. Have any of you struggled with food morality while traveling? I feel like it’s something a lot of travelers have to face eventually.
