Let's Meatless March: The Recap

I ate a lot of frozen food.

Mostly from Morningstar Farms (whose website tells you to "See Veggies Differently") or from Amy's Kitchen.

I especially enjoyed the Morningstar products, because I like any company whose name has a connection to the devil, and because they make a mean mini corndog. They tasted just like the real thing, but with, like, one-third the fat! And I could say the same for their chik'n nuggets and sausages. So I ate a lot of that.

Also, cheese. I used to think I was lactose intolerant, but maybe not. I'm doing all right with that awful Alfredo sauce in a jar, at least.

Compared to the hardest thing I ever had to give up (playing on the swings, when I was in first grade), living without meat for 28 days was pretty easy. Not that I didn't crave it. I did. I lost a lot of my appetite (not actual, physical hunger, but my psychological desire for food), and stopped getting psyched about meals.

A meal without meat seemed to be less filling, like getting a lot of appetizers insted of a main course. I was always aware of that missing, vital ingredient, something hearty and tangible that I could tear at with mah teef and eat with humorous and numerous annoying noises.

When I'd smell the street vendor carts with their cooking chicken, or when I'd fast-forward through a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken on Battlestar Galactica, I'd remember and sigh and think about what sort of big, delicious, stomach-killing meal I'd enjoy on March 1st.

And eventually... I sort of got used to vegetarianism. It's March 2nd and I still haven't eaten any meat (my excuse yesterday was because it was a busy day and I didn't want to get sick, today I just haven't eaten anything yet because I'm trying to lose three pounds by sunset). And I don't feel any pressing need to. The appetite's mostly diminished.

Like, sure, one day I'm gonna go to the tea place and get that Irish bacon. And I really want to have BBQ with some choice friends someday soon. But I think I'm over the hill on feeling the need to have it with every meal.

I'm not in the mood for a cheeseburger, at least, and that's something I thought would never happen.