Being a vegetarian is hard...

... and I am quite happy not being one. I am really not having a dig at vegetarians, I think you are all wonderful, and I am inspired by how strongly you uphold your convictions.

But it's not for me. I understand that this can be a sensitive topic: I read somewhere that telling a vegetarian that you will eat meat and they can just not, is kinda like saying that they should just let you continue murdering people while they choose not to participate in such activities (something along those lines...). This is somewhat extreme, but if it's really something that you believe in, then that view has some sense in it. "You just go stand over there with your celibates, and I'll continue over here with my raping ways..." So that just got very serious. But something to think about, perhaps, when you're opposing someone else's views and forcing them to just let you get away with it, without them standing up for something that they feel strongly about.

BUT! I tried Meatless-Monday's this week. It was interesting. I had my boiled egg and coffee for breakfast (not trying out vegan just yet), a spinach and feta pie for lunch (something I had not yet tried, being a huge fan of chicken pies instead), and then dinner. Dinner was my "epiphany". I had Caponata, something which, before coming to University, I had never heard of before. Maybe you haven't either.

In our dining hall, it looks nothing like this. But you can
kind of get the idea of what's in it, or what it looks like

It is an eggplant-based dish, and the way it was prepared in our dining hall (where we are treated to a number of new and unusual meal options) was with a lot of cheese, and almost like a lasagne-type bake dish. The cheese was great, mostly because it is quite a rarity on the dining hall menu.

It wasn't a bad meal at all, but by this time I think I was noticing the lack of protein in my diet for the day, and when I had finished eating, I felt like I had just eaten a side of a full meal: where is my meat?! All these veggies had me feeling unsatisfied. I felt full and not really hungry anymore (there was quite a lot to the meal: all that eggplant, gosh!) but I did not feel as though I had eaten the main part of my meal.

So well done to the vegetarians (and especially the vegans!) for sticking to this type of diet on a daily basis. I'm not really a big meat-eater, but by the end of my Meatless Monday I really felt like I had eaten a lot of plants. It was probably also psychological, but that would still be a factor in a novice Veggie too. I just hope you are getting enough of the right nutrients (says the Human Kineticist and Ergonomist in me).