you know the cow video? after i watched it... i was just sick. the next day i had cream in my coffee and the most delicious greek yogurt with honey. but the whole time i was thinking "baby cow dying" and... well, i haven't had dairy since. and the weirdest part? it's no big deal. i think it's like how i am about meat. i don't eat meat, period.. it just isn't an option, so i don't crave it or anything like that. and it's just like the dairy switch has been FLIPPED because all week i have stayed away from it.. something that comprised at least part of every meal i ate.. yet it's no big deal. i can't make promises about the future, but at least for now it is NO BIG DEAL.
i went to the local vegan restaurant tonight and had a steak sandwich with sweet potato fries... and chocolate cake. it was all great. but i ate so much that i feel sick. we've been home for like two hours and i still feel like i'm gonna barf - TOO MUCH FOOD. i can't get over it. needless to say, as a vegan i ain't going hungry.
the first real test comes tomorrow - we're going to a friends' house and they grill out and she makes delicious brownies with hershey's kisses in them. i gotta pass.
other than that, not much happening.. except, you know, fiji is in like 4 weeks. CRAZY. i am actually getting excited, although not about the planning part or the shopping part or the packing part.
also, like.. 2 weeks til atlanta! yipee! ok, sleepy, bedtime.
mmm, i haven't thought about that too much, but it's not as simple a question as that, whether or not i am a vegan or whatever if i eat shrimp.
seafood, at least for me, is more an environmental concern than one of animal welfare. overfishing, bycatch, etc... all HUGE problems that our ocean animals face. but as far as animal welfare is concerned, ocean fish and shellfish, etc., have it about 100x better than domestic animals raised from birth to death as a product and for what we can eat from them.
as it was, i ate shrimp 1-3x per month, depending on how much we were going out, where we went, etc. like our last trip out of town.. i ate shrimp at the fancy seafood/meat restaurant we were at.. i didn't have any other options, and it was delicious on top of that. now... what's worse, really, me eating shrimp a couple of times a month, or eating animal products every meal of every day, as most people do?
i think as far as shrimp goes i'll start carrying around the sustainable seafood guide and start finding out where the shrimp is actually sustainably caught. if no, then i know i'm going w/ a salad or pasta.
i myself don't eat fish or anything and pretty much think eating fish like orange roughy is AWFUL, but as far as my friends who catch fish within limits from our own waters? i may not partake of the fish myself, but i'd much rather they eat something that grew up and was caught in the wild over something that, like a pork pig, was raised in a factory farm. there is some brand of pole-caught tuna that i actually tried when they had it at work.. completely sustainable, caught in the wild, etc. it's $5 a can! but i really wouldn't feel bad about, say, my chris eating that tuna.
long response? hehe. believe me, i've given a lot of thought to this. i think even if i eat shrimp a coupla times a month, if i'm not eating meat or dairy or eggs, i am still best described as a vegan... with shimpal tendencies. but then again, i may as well just knock that out of my diet as well and not feel like i'm being bad for the environment. we'll see.
I'm Stacey. I'm a 31(!)-year-old Wisconsin girl living in sunny South Florida. The highlights in my life are my lovely boyfriend, my aloof cats, my adorable/adoring stepdogs, my two lumbering tortoises, select family members, being outside, being underwater, taking pictures, yadda yadda. Stay tuned for lots of babbling!
A small boy lived by the ocean. He loved the creatures of the sea, especially the starfish, and he spent much of his time exploring the seashore.
One day the boy learned there would be a minus tide that would leave the starfish stranded on the sand.
When the tide went out, he went down to the beach, began picking up the stranded starfish, and tossing them back into the ocean.
An elderly man who lived next door came down to the beach to see what the boy was doing. Seeing the man's quizzical expression, the boy paused as he approached. "I'm saving the starfish!" the boy proudly declared.
When the neighbor saw all of the stranded starfish he shook his head and said: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, young man, but if you look down the beach, there are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see. And if you look up the beach the other way, it's the same. One little boy like you isn't going to make much of a difference."
The boy thought about this for a moment. Then he reached his small hand down to the sand, picked up another starfish, tossed it out into the ocean, and said: "Well, I sure made a difference for that one!"