Here's a little something you may not know about me. Since probably August/September, I've been making a conscious effort to have at least one "meatless" meal per day. There are a couple of reasons for this: - I have a guilt factor when I eat meat. Ever see that Simpsons' episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian? "Liiiiiiiiisa, I thought you loooooooooooved me." Yeah. That.
- Consuming less meat has been shown have great environmental and health benefits, as I learned from the absolute authority that is Wikipedia.
- A surprisingly large number of my friends are vegetarians which makes it easy to enjoy a meal.
- But the number one reason I've been cutting back on meat? It's just too expensive. Yeah, I know, I'm a great humanitarian here. Just worried about my bottom line. The ends still justify the means though, right? Or did I miss a memo?
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I don't consider myself a vegetarian. Fish and seafood don't count as "meat" in my book. And, well, over the holidays, all bets were kind of off when it came to what I ate.
That said, once I was back in town, the lack of meat in my fridge and the ready availability of vegetarian restaurants around my workplace (I'm kind of drooling as I think about Viva Loca's tomato, cheese and pesto panini on jalapeno bread), means that I've suddenly realized I hadn't eaten meat in the last four days (and the last four days before that). Didn't plan it that way, it just happened.
My reason for talking about all this now? Yesterday was Tuesday. Tuesday is typically wing night with a good buddy of mine. I had trouble finishing my wings this time. The guilt factor was stronger than usual (Was that a tendon? *gulp*) and there was an odd rumbling in my tummy. Perhaps the early signs of revolt. Some of it even looked undercooked, though I was assured that was all in my head. Either way, I couldn't finish my plate and so passed it on to my friend. A few hours later and I'm having problems. Problems that require the most immediate access to a washroom.
This morning, I'm still not feeling all that well, but we've got a media call today for BASH'd so I'm trying to ignore it (I'm so smart aren't I?)
Now, to be fair, just when I was ready to lay the blame on all of this on the evil chicken flesh I ingested into my body, I got twittered this PSA from the City of Ottawa (yes, the City is on Twitter!)
It seems something is going around of the gastrointestinal variety although, I had actually made sure to thoroughly clean my hands yesterday because we were at the dirty Oak.
Then again, who knows? I just wanted to get a bit of a conversation going on the merits/demerits of eating meat. Feel free to get things started below.