The Path of a Sometimes Vegetarian, Part 2

This post is part 2 of a 3-part series. To catch up, check out Part 1 here.

About 9 months into my non meat-eating escapades, I started to think that maybe I could eat some meat in keeping with my desire not to use up pounds and pounds of resources in order to do so. I could eat local grass-fed beef! Free-range chicken! Wild caught fish!

Bonus? Meal times in my house would be a lot easier.

I thought about it and thought about it, and one day I just did.

And then I did it again.

In fact, I ate local, organic, grass-fed beef for dinner the night Tim and I told my parents and siblings about my pregnancy. It was delicious. I mean, really delicious.

Here's the thing, though.

There are a lot of means to producing a pound of meat out there. Steps in quality, if you will. Maybe I didn't view my new ventures into local, organic, and grass-fed meats strictly enough, because soon I was taking those steps, making compromises in my eating choices...until one day, I sat at a rest stop eating Roy Roger's chicken tenders.

I was grossed out.

I needed to be done eating meat for awhile because with too loose a rein, I was no longer doing well with making choices in keeping with my own convictions.

So I stopped. With the very next meal.

I realize I can be a bit difficult to keep up with. Sometimes I will be asked, "do you eat meat right now?" It's a completely fair question. Because while I will sometimes call myself a vegetarian to make the answer obvious, I'm on a path. I veer. I've made choices I'm not proud of (and some I am proud of!). I've made exceptions while calling myself a vegetarian for differing reasons. I'm learning.

For me, it was never about the label. I don't need it. Labels don't define any one person as it is. They don't talk about heart, about value, about passions. They can give a starting point from which to have a conversation, and they can make understanding a bit easier for someone wanting to know (or in my case, cook for!) the labelled person.

And that's a very good thing, because understanding where I stand on food issues has been quite an (unexpected) process even for me.