Going Veg: Day 17

Well things have been getting REAL on the job front, so I've fallen a little behind on blog post updating.

For example, today at an interview someone asked me what my technical experience with data programming is and I was all,

And then they put a spreadsheet in front of me that was meant to test my Excel knowledge and I was all,

And then once I finished I tried to sneak out of there all,

But they saw me (I probably should have taken off the fake mustache and glasses) and asked me a million more questions.

So... yeah. Busy. Also, I've been watching a lot of How I Met Your Mother. Also, for the last three days I've been listening to a lot of Harry Potter books on tape. Also, my next two post ideas are going to take a lot of research and quite frankly that sounds like a huge helping of no thank you. 


But I will finish them/start them, I swear. For now, lets talk veggies.

I have cheated on this vegetarian excursion three times. Only one time was on purpose.

1. The second day of my vegetarian month, I went to a bar called Johnny O's that offers free mini corn dogs with the purchase of a $2 pitcher. I'm not a strong person and corn dogs are my weakness. They were free and I hadn't eaten all day. And I kind of forgot I wasn't eating meat. Kind of. 

2. Ate a bite of fried chicken before remembering that I was vegetarian, lolz.

3. Ate a bite of chicken fried steak because I've never had it and I wanted to try. So the only time I purposefully ignored my vegetarian promise was to eat meat that's been fried in other meat, covered in a third meat's gravy.

NO REGRETS

Worth it.

The hardest part about going veg has been going out to eat. I like vegetarian dishes, but sometimes there's something else on the menu that I want more.

I'm not saying that the fried green tomatoes I had last night weren't awesome. They were scrumptious. And I never would have tried them if I wasn't vegetarian. But I was at a restaurant that's famous for wood fire barbecue. And I wanted some wood fire barbecue, dang it!

The other hard part is cooking with non-vegetarians. I don't want other people to have to make concessions for me, but oftentimes I end up the diplodocus at the t-rex party.

Essentially what I'm saying is:

Good parts about being vegetarian

-Trying new foods

-Vegetarian options cost less

-Probably healthier

Bad parts about being vegetarian

-Limited options

-Feel like a burden to people cooking

-I'm tired of cooking with tofu

Going Vegetarian!!! (???)

Well everyone, I'm doing it. I'm going vegetarian. For one month. 

Some of you may ask, "But why, Hannah? You love meat. You don't consider a pizza complete until it's covered in some sort of salty meat-type."

And to that I say, you are entirely correct. However, this is something I want to try. I don't really have one concrete reason why I'm doing it. Mostly, I just want to see what happens. 

Some things I will miss more than others. This includes:

1) Bacon

2) Pizza toppings

That, my friends, is a barbecue-chicken-bacon-ranch piece of pizza. It was my last meat-inclusive meal. And it was awesome.

3) Hamburgers
4) Being able to order whatever I want at restaurants
5) Brats

But now is the perfect time for me to try being a vegetarian because Madison is so very vegetarian- friendly. In fact, being vegetarian isn't even a huge accomplishment in Madison. I'm a little embarrassed to brag about it in public because the raw food vegans are probably snickering at me into their soymilk cucumber shakes.

In fact, I'm currently writing this post from a vegan coffee shop. They have about 15 options for vegan baked goods. And the big selling point that they keep stressing: We don't make you pay extra for soy milk!!!

And the vegans come a-running.

Some of my interactions with vegans in Madison remind me of the scene in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant has a blind date with a fruitarian. Check the hilarity out here.

Then again, sometimes I feel like vegetarians/vegans get a bad rep. As in, because you're a vegetarian you must also be pretentious and a bit insufferable.

Because I relate everything through TV, I would like to offer a television example. If you watch the show Bob's Burgers (which you absolutely should) they take a few jabs at vegetarians. Such as:

Louise (Bob's daughter): "It’s not a lie if you tell it to vegetarians. You taught us that!” 

So here I am, toeing the line between vegetarian and meat-eater. Will I end this month a veggie-loving Prius-driving hippie with eyebrow piercings and dreadlocks? Or will I rebel and become a bacon-snarfing gun-toting American flag-decorating pick-up truck aficionado?


Not to fall back on stereotypes or anything. 

Will I get cranky? Will I feel healthier than I ever have? Will I lose weight? Will I gain weight? Will my skin begin to glow with that famous carrot-shine? Is "carrot-shine" a term? 

Tune in to my next posts to find out! Or don't. I'm a blog writer, not a police officer.