To Date or Not To Date... Omnivores

(thanks to my pal Craig of DoodleBlog for the cute photo)

VegNews, my favorite magazine at the moment, had a fantastic article with that title last issue. Hopefully I don't get slammed for copyright issues by titling this blog the same. I'll change it if so.

The writer (a vegan) was so amazing. She shared stories of dates she went on from an online dating site. Most of the men were omnivores (she said carnivores but I'm sure that those men did not only eat meat exclusively or they would've all looked like John Wayne.) She gave a decent account of the inner-dialogue that went through her head on each date. It seemed like the guys were cool too. She would ask them about their eating habits. The one said he only ate fish. She felt like she could deal with that. He couldn't. He emailed her an hour after the date and said that eating meat would feel like cheating on her. Oh well. Next date said that he would never change and not even be flexible enough to not eat meat in front of her (which was what she asked for, not to quit eating meat all together.) X off the list.

So, I'm on Match.com and I'm having a tough go of it. I joined in October, met a fantastic guy in November who is vegetarian. He's a great guy but we live four hours away and decided to keep it casual. He's younger and still in the college life. I'd never dated a younger guy and it took a lot of getting used to. I could usually deal with that because he was so awesome and intelligent and compassionate towards animals and people alike. He was European which meant a great accent and NO obsession with American football (my least favorite sport on the planet.) He's a great guy but I'm not sure of the long term possibilities. And that's where my luck dried out with Match.

They used to have an option of displaying your "Daily Diet." I think that what people put into their bodies shows a great deal of how informed they are, and how concerned they are for themselves and the environment. The options for the Daily Diet display were Meat and Potatoes, Vegetarian, Keep It Healthy, or Fast Food. And you could actually SEARCH for those who clicked Vegetarian. One downside was that it was actually possibly to click all three, which makes it kind of hard when someone is checking Meat and Potatoes and Vegetarian. The two lifestyles cannot co-exist. Yet, Match.com left it that way. I emailed them about it and got an automatically generated response to the tune of "thanks for your concern on our website but we're not changing anything just because you're a stuck up snobby vegan." Not exact wording, I paraphrased it.

Then, my world on Match.com collapsed. They completely removed the Daily Diet option! So now, I had no idea how these men eat! I mean, that is serious business for me! My world and job revolve around food and I couldn't see at a glance what their lifestyle is. So, I emailed them again. Automated response ensued. I'm pissed.

So, now I'm stuck on Match.com with no possible way except by the "search words" which really aren't helpful anyway because I lot of people don't add them to their profile, to find fellow Veg-lifestylers. Grrrr. I've found a few possibilities that I hope to meet at some point but it's just so hard now. I've met a few that eat meat but I've stopped even doing that because I know that it's such a turnoff for me that I can't even try to be understanding about it. I can't date an omnivore. I could maybe make out randomly with one at a club but that's where it would stop. Sex is better when you're at least vegetarian. There's a lot of reasons behind it but I'll just leave it at that. I've gotten pickier since I've gotten older and I just can't handle the thought of kissing a mouth that has consumed meat recently. It's gross. I need someone that lives the same lifestyle as I do and for a girl in Central Pennsylvania, even in a city, that is a hard feat. Someday, my Vegan Prince will come. He doesn't even have to be a prince, just a vegan and not stupid.




How about you? As a vegan/vegetarian, would you date someone that ate meat? How would you handle it?

Sexy Vegpires

Okay, so I'm a little behind the times anymore with movies. The only time I've been to a movie theater recently has been to see the recordings of the Metropolitan Operas with my mom. I'm an opera freak, I listen to it constantly and actually studied and trained in classical voice for years. So, needless to say, as hot as Robert Pattinson looked as Edward Cullen (two very new names to my ears last year-told you I'm not in the loop!) I just never got to the theater to see it. So, yesterday was Easter. Mom and I usually don't do much on holidays if my brother and his kids aren't coming around so we ordered a pizza (half cheeseless for me) and rented Twilight on her new fangled TV system thing. I can barely run a DVD player to save my life so I still am baffled at how she can click a button on her remote control and freeze live TV and even more-rent a movie without going to the rental shop! It's amazing.

I really admire the fact that they put some effort into making the character Bella appear vegetarian. Now, I haven't read the books (though they are most certainly on my list now) so I'm not sure if she is actually a vegetarian or not but I just think that it would be fantastic if she is one. I also enjoyed the slight humor in that the strikingly beautiful family of Cullens considered themselves "vegetarian" vampires because they only drank animal blood. Not the most appealing opening shot of a deer getting chased down but still, I have a dark humor and I'm also able to laugh at myself and my own ideals sometimes so I had a chuckle. Mom looked at me sideways to see how I would react though because usually I'm pretty squeemish when it comes to animals being killed in front of my eyes but I handled it well.

I want to be a sexy Vegpire and live forever if it could mean living with Robert's beautiful face near mine... if he were vegan of course.



Alongside of being vegan, I'm also a super stickler on natural health and natural cures for what ails you. Being raised by a hippie who gave me tofu for my finger food in my highchair and never having seen a cake mix until age 12 would kind of do that to a girl. I've sort of turned into my friends' "natural know-it-all". And, if I don't know it, I'll be darned if I can't find it out. I've had a few friends ask me recently about allergies. Seeing that Spring is upon us means two things for me- 1) my heat bill will go down and 2) my allergies will kick in. Since I went strict vegan, I have been able to get over my allergies to cats so far. As I mentioned before, I was horribly allergic to felines. Just looking at them made my nose itch and my eyes water. But, since having gone strict... like borderline millitant vegan a few months ago (remember, I've been vegtarian for years but still did dairy and eggs) I have been able to pick up my friend's gorgeous little orange fluff ball and practically rub his fur in my face and not have to stifle one sniffle because of it. For some weird reason, dairy caused a deficiancy in my system to be able to hold up to feline dander. I don't know what it did but it did it. I haven't had a drop of milk since approx early February and I've been fine.

As for seasonal allergies, I'm not sure what going vegan has done for those yet. I'll know as soon as the flowers start blooming and the fields start filling up. Central Pennsylvania has a plethora of farm lands with tons of different stuff growing in it so you can drive a few miles and see five or six different crops growing. I'm going to gather a list of all the natural remedies I've found have worked for my allergies through the years and share my findings. They will all, of course, be vegan and most likely herbs and supplements you can find in a local health food store (like mine).

Allergy post coming soon. And, I think I need to watch Twilight again.

Reasons why I live La Vida Vegana

Think about it: our lives REVOLVE around food. If you're a stay at home and even working mother of young children or teenagers, you are constantly planning what is for dinner, what you're packing for lunch and somehow magically tailoring to each of their tastes, wants, needs, and moods. If you have a significant other, you're likely cooking for them in a trade off pattern or even providing for them all the time. If you're a 20 or 30-something socialite, you're always looking for the hottest new spaces to what? EAT. I'm a cook in a health food kitchen. I am surrounded by food for 8-10 hours a day. Food signs my paycheck. I have been at least vegetarian since 2003 when I went to Hellfest in New York with some friends and got sucked into watching a PETA video at their stand. I had had eggs, sausage, and bacon with buttery toast and chocolate milk that morning for breakfast. That night, I couldn't stand the thought of consuming anything that an animal had to suffer or even lose its life to produce. I went from meateater to vegan in 0.2 seconds in the middle of a hardcore music and tattoo festival. It was the most drastic change in my life I've ever made and if you ask any of my friends, I have the tendency to be pretty drastic.

So, as an introduction to me and mostly what this page will be about, I'm compiling a list of somewhat detailed reasons why I have chosen this lifestyle for myself.

1) Health. I've come to a maturity in my life that makes me realize that I cannot be fueled on Tasty Cakes and Pepsi. I'm 27 years old. I'm a grown up. I'm old enough now to be able to understand what I put in my body is going to have a lifelong effect on it. I've seen the health problems older people in my immediate family have and I'm freaking out. I don't want to get cancer, diabetes, or worse-fatter than I already am. I want to be healthy for the rest of my life. I vainly want clear skin, shiny hair, and a slammin' body. Not consuming animal baddies really helps with that. More importantly, it has helped with a few health issues I was already beginning to experience. When I cut only meat out of my diet and ate pretty healthy, I lost weight. When I cut dairy too, I lost even more weight. Also, eliminating dairy from my diet practically did away with allergies from which I suffered my whole life. I used to be constantly clearing my throat, blowing my nose, and itching my ears. The last time I blew my nose that I can remember was the other day when I popped the pepper container open too quickly and it poofed up into my face. Allergy-free is good for me!

Also, meat/dairy that is not organic or free-range or labeled spefically is full of antibiotics (to keep the animals healthy and disease free because they are so malnourished and crammed so tightly in pens that they're always getting sick) and hormones or steroids to make muscle (meat) grow faster and milk be produced at a quicker rate. Forget going with the natural path of things, mass-production of meat and dairy are money makers and since the FDA's pockets are lined with blood money from the farmers, of course it will allow these things to be given to the animals. Hormones, steroids, and antiboitics make money. Only thing is: the farmers are shooting the general public of consumers in the foot for us. Let's think about it. Hormones in the milk: could this be why there are 8-year-olds getting their periods and DD breasts by 13? Steroids in meat: rise in young and teen boy aggression maybe? Antibiotics: the growing issue of lessening resistence to disease? Chew on a few on those for a while. If you want actual sources, I can provide them.

2) Compassion. Actually I'm really not an animal-lover. I haven't had a pet for years and years. Wait, I had a parakeet but I gave it away on a road trip stop in Texas. I figured as a tropical bird, she'd be happier there instead of Pennsylvania where it can get below freezing in the wintertime. I really don't "do" the pet thing. Furry creatures shed and make noise and messes and chew on things that I really would rather them not chew on. I can understand the bond petowners have with their pets. A girlfriend of mine has two cats and no children and she and her husband prefer it that way. The way those cats are treated, you'd swear they were kids. I get it. But would you eat them? Would you slit their throats, bleed them dry, yank their skin from their bodies, butcher them, toast them over a fire with some oregano and eat them? Then why eat a chicken? Or a cow? 99.9999% (not a proven figure, just out of my dramatic head) of animals raised for meat are put through horrific torturous acts before they are killed for meat. They are frozen, packed tight into filthy corrals, beaten, dismembered, and scared shitless before their throats slit and their bodies mutilated to end up on the menu at Olive Garden. I feel the need to respect any living thing, especially defenseless, unless it is threatening my life or health (ie: if I'm staring at a bear that's ready to maul me and I have a gun in my hand, respect goes out the window and survival kicks in.) I can't eat something that once belonged on or in the body of an animal. It does not mesh with my formulated morals. Don't even get me on animal-testing for beauty products, skin care, hair care, cleaning solutions, etc.

3) Veg is Sexy. I remember I read an actual scientific study where they had groups of people eat specific diets and report back on their sex lives. In almost every situation where both of the participants had been eating a consistent vegetarian diet, they reported better, healthier, more energetic, and longer-lasting love making sessions. Of course, I can't find this article online, especially since PETA's banned Super Bowl Commercial (which I love, by the way) is all over the place, but I found a similar one with the same feedback in this EatVeg.com article. And after conducting my own privately funded independent study, I must say that my findings come right alongside of theirs. Things are just BETTER when you're vegconcious. Let's just say, vegetarian men have good taste. And I will be no more graphic because I'm sure at some point my mother will read this and I will catch hell because I'm talking about the S word in a public online forum. Sorry, Mom. Are we still on for LOST this Wednesday?

4) Mommy Earth. I may have been known to hug a few trees in my day. They're so cute and they just scream "hug me!" Seriously though, do you KNOW how detrimental the meat industry is to the land that we are so desperately trying to save? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. Get that? We are drinking pee and poop and more from all of the meat and dairy farms. Um, gross. There's also an insane amount of crops (about 70 percent of all grain grown in the U.S.) for feeding the approx 7 billion animals being raised for consumption. Imagine saving all the land that is destroyed by the sheer pollution by animal excrement and the land that is designated solely for feeding these animals? We could have so many more vegetables, grains, and fruit at our disposal and at a cheaper price because we would have more land to farm it on. Imagine, also, being able to export the extra grain to the starving children in Africa. Sally Struthers should go vegan.

5) Spiritual Health. No, I'm not Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, or anything else like that. I actually spent a large chunk of my late teens and early 20's as a very dedicated Christian. I no longer hold to a specific faith but when people kind of roll their eyes at me when I say that the closest thing to religion I practice is Veganism, I have to explain to them that I just don't think that a Deity with any compassion in its heart, would smile upon the idea of humans (who are supposed to be the most intelligent species) murdering another one of Its creations. It doesn't make spiritual sense to me. Shouldn't we try and coexist peacefully? We kill too many of our own kind already. Spiritually, I cannot be at peace if I am responsible for another creature's suffering. It's been proven that animals have intelligence, what if they have souls? No thanks.

6) Money. Even if I decided I wanted to eat meat again (watch the weather report for hell to freeze over while you're at it), I simply couldn't afford it. Meat is expensive. Well, meat without all the chemical shit in it is anyway. I loosely paid attention to my grocery bill pre-veg and post-veg. Weekly bills, just for me, went from approx $90/week to approx $50/week. They're even lower now that I don't buy as much pre-made and processed foods (except my coconut milk yogurt and ice cream.)


So, those are main reasons for myself and a little look into my history with Vegan Life. And we go on from here!