Farewell First Semester

Its been a journey y'all. First semester Freshman year and we've all survived... well physically anyway (we'll wait until exams are over to evaluate our sanity). But all in all it has not been as difficult as I imagined (minus exams...). Of course my semester could have been a little easier if I hadn't taken up the vegetarian quest. Though I sound regretful, I really couldn't be more happy with my decision. I've survived the "Freshman Fifteen" (for the fall semester of course). I've tried new things, and saved a lot of money on the way... and perhaps saved a few carbon emissions. Vegetarianism taught me to be more health-conscious and that's a value I'm grateful to have acquired early in my college career. Will you see me becoming super vegetarian or vegan in the near future? Probably not. Will I continue my rigorous diet of non-meat products? No. But I can tell you this, I will continue to eat tofu if it's an option, I will continue to brave the Lenoir salad bar and I will continue to not eat as much meat when dinning out to save money. So all together it's been a great semester, a wonderful journey and an invaluable learning experience.

Now y'all... lets go home!

Till next semester,

Allie.

Dear Santa, I Want a Pony and... Better Food at Lenoir.

Is it just me or has everybody noticed the declining quality of Lenoir lately? Maybe they're trying to get rid of all the left-over crappy food before everyone goes home for the holidays. But Hey Lenoir, I need my brain food to study for exams, not the crap you're serving me.

It was bad today I had cereal for lunch and a waffle for dinner. Are breakfast foods the only safe and eatable options Lenoir? Have you seriously come to this?

But the thing that reeeeaallly made me mad was that they ran out of chicken nuggets before I could get some. Ok, I know what you're thinking... this is a blog about vegetarianism and your trying to be a vegetarian. Yeah, I know but when its chicken nugget night at Lenoir, all serious life commitments go out the window. But no fear loyal followers, I stayed vegetarian tonight (MEH) because they ran out of NUGGETS.

I can't wait to go home and eat real food.

MLIA- Vegetarian Style

Today, when telling my parents about my intentions to become vegan, they told me that they saw it coming ever since I first watched Land Before Time and started eating leaves off the tree in our backyard. MLIA

Today, I told my vegetarian friend that my sandwhich had meat in it so I didnt have to share. It worked. MLIA.

Today, I decided I would start being a vegetarian. My mom made steak for dinner, I ate it. I'll try again tomorrow. MLIA

Today, I went to a restaurant, but they didn't have a vegetarian selection. That's OK considering I love meat. MLIA

The other day, I was babysitting 6 year old twins. One of them was telling me how she recently became a vegetarian. I curiously asked her why, since no one else in her family is adverse to eating meat. She calmly and seriously replied, "because, when animals take over the world in the future, I don't want them to eat me." Best reason I've ever heard. MLIA

MLIA: Best for when you're in class and have decided not to pay attention... or for when reading blogs for your ENGL class.

Go Green! In More Ways Than One.

I've already established reasons why vegetarianism can improve your health, but what about the environment?

Well here are SIX good reasons to give up meat for our mother earth:

1. Conservation of Fossil Fuels. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans.

2. Water Conservation. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein.

3. Efficient use of grains. It takes up to 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 lb. of beef and 3 to 6 lbs. to produce 1 lb of turkey & egg.

4. Soil conservation. When grains & legumes are used more efficiently, our precious topsoil is automatically made more efficient in its use.

5. Saving our forests. Tropical forests in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. Since the forest land "filters" our air supply and contains botanical sources for new medicines, this destruction is irreversible.

6. Asthetics. Decaying animal parts, whether in a freezer case or served in restaurants, can never be as asthetically pleasing to the senses as the same foods made from wholesome vegetable sources.

Soy- Healthy or Not?

Ok so if you're looking at a soy bean its looks pretty healthy. Its green, its leafy, what else could you ask for? But new information is suggesting soy beans may be deceiving in their nutritional value.

Lowers Fertility?

-In a preliminary study done in 2008 at Harvard, evidence suggests that soy products may decrease sperm count. In a study done with 99 men, all consuming soy products daily, most men had around 41 million less sperm than before. The results were not statistically significant at there level of study but it did raise the question.

My take.

- It would make sense for soy products to decrease sperm count (eaten on a daily basis of course) when you consider this from an evolutionary standpoint. Males who don't get enough meat would obviously be considered weaker than the men who had access to meat because those men were strong enough or smart enough to acquire it. Also, doesn't sperm contain a lot of protein, maybe soy just doesn't have enough.

Meh, I'm not a science major but I don't think anyone should be worried about this in the least. Don't guys our age want to decrease their sperm count? Just saying. And it seems like every day we're finding out something else is bad for us. I say just stick to your basic food groups- yay food pyramid.

Thanks PETA

So vegetarian, vegan, or meat-lover, we all know PETA is extremist... and a bit crazy. But what shocked me the most was that they will do almost anything to get their message out. This is an advertisement of PETA's, advocating for the adoption of animals. (Warning: this may be offensive to some people- some suggestive nudity).

Great PETA you've got the guy's attention, if they could pry their eyes away from the obvious for a second to read the words. But seriously, what is PETA trying to do? Yeah that's awesome that PETA is trying to get people to adopt more animals, but reverting to sexism and offending a huge Christian population is NOT the way to go.

So way to go PETA... I've got a few things to say to you or maybe I'll just eat Chick-Fil-A every day for the rest of my life, wear ALL kinds of animal tested makeup and BUY puppies not adopt them.

How the Great Fall

Ok, so I was planning to write another blog post about how great of a vegetarian I am. I was going to tell you that with the few small slip-ups and "breaks" I've been meat-free for almost an entire semester. Well, most of that is true. There have been slip-ups and "breaks" but for the meat-free part, well, after Thanksgiving, I've pretty much failed at staying a vegetarian.

I rode the (working) escalator up to Lenoir today to meet friends for a quick lunch before class. Nothing seemed appetizing and every line was moving at a snail's pace to be polite. The salad bar would have taken too long and the vegetarian stuff looked... well just weird. All I wanted was something filling to eat, and I wanted it fast and easy, no work involved.

And there it was, a beacon of light- cheese burgers and tatter tots called to me like a sweet dong bird from the forbidden grill station. The line was moving fast and I caved.

But this is not the only incident. In fact, since I've been back from Thanksgiving Break, I've eaten meat almost everyday and I only suspect this will continue or get worse as finals and stress close in on us.

Do I feel bad? Well, a little. I am proud of myself for my effort and I will definitely continue to try, but for the time being if you see me eat a smidgen of chicken at Lenoir... well, opps?

A Traveling Vegetarian

I just bought tickets to go over seas! Seat #28B and I'm next to the window (called it)... I've never been out of the country and for spring break this year my boyfriend and I are traveling to England and Scotland to visit his sister studying abroad.

So of course my first thought after buying the tickets was "How is being a vegetarian and traveling going to work out?" Ok, so that wasn't my first question, but its definitely an important one. I'm sure London won't be a problem considering the diverse and eclectic population but Scotland... I'm not so sure. From what I can tell Scottish food almost always contains meat if not meat products. Maybe I'll take another one of those "breaks" from being a vegetarian over spring break. Yeah, what could be more American than spring break and meat...?

Well whatever the argument, I'm almost sure I'm not going to be picky about what I eat over there... or drink for that matter. By the way yall, we're both 18 or older, got to love Europe.