Reflection: One Summer in Australia Can Change Everything



Windjana Gorge in the Kimberley Region, Western Australia

Soon it will be two years since I came back from Australia... I went in 2009 for just a month, and came back pretty much a different person. Soon enough, I found myself having to grapple with what felt like a completely new identity, one where I would no longer be unaware of what was serving my sustinence, one where I would no longer be controlled by my taste buds...

It was that summer in Australia that I consumed animal flesh for the last time. It is a decision I look back on in awe, sometimes, because just a few weeks before I decided to take the plunge into vegetarianism, I was telling myself and everyone else how I "just couldn't give up meat" because I "like it too much". I had determined that flesh, to me, was no longer considered food.

Becoming something you weren't before, whether that's a Christian, a new employee, a vegetarian, or a healthy person, it requires a drastic change of your thought process. And that's what happened to me. I forced myself to think about what it was that was on my plate--where did it come from? What did it take to get it there? What IS IT exactly? Chicken was the most difficult, but also the most easy... chicken tastes good, especially Tandoori varieties, however the reality that there is dead animal flesh on my dinner plate became increasingly unappealing to me.

Good taste would no longer be boss. I would no longer be fooled by the industry-controlled media saying "you need it for protein". Did you know legumes are in the same category as meat now, and by volume contain MORE protein and nutrients than any kind of flesh? That's without the saturated fat and cholesterol, and with the addition of lots of good-for-your-colon FIBER.

Fruits, veggies, and legumes--food you can feel good about eating.

My end thought on the whole transition was this: Meat tastes good but isn't nearly as good for me as plant foods that can taste JUST as good as meat does... so why bother eating meat? The non-factory farm stuff is too expensive for what I want to spend, anyway. A 2 lb bag of beans costs less than $2. The less cholesterol and saturated fat I consume, the smaller the risk I have for heart disease, high cholesterol, and many forms of cancer. So I populate my dinner plate with delicious, plant-based culinary creations [mainly] for that reason. Of course there are more reasons... environment... how there is no need to manufacture living creatures... but mainly because I just don't need it.

BONUS: Did you know Bill Clinton lost 24 lbs when he switched to a dairy-free, plant-based, very low fish diet? Me either! Read about it HERE!