Some of you may be aware that just over a week ago I switched to vegetarianism. Not hardcore vegetarianism, or veganism, or even proper vegetarianism. I still eat cheese and eggs, and haribo sweets, still drink wine, and without thinking, I used a beef stock cube in a bean bolognese. It was great.
I have no reason for doing this other than I like a challenge (I’m still straight for god’s sake, surely this is evident?). I care about the environment, and the strains of meat production on various things but that has no bearing whatsoever on my decision. It really is just a whim.
The thought of skinning baby sheep for a decent lamb shank doesn’t freak me out, or fluffy bunnies boiled in a pot, or p-p-p-porky pig crackling. I really couldn’t care less about cute animals. Seriously guys, it’s just a whim.
Surprisingly, it’s been really easy to cut meat out of my diet. I’ve noticed a couple of unintended side effects: I’ve lost my awesome pot belly, and I smell slightly different, I also feel a bit healthier (maybe that’s some kind of placebo effect though).
With Christmas coming up, it will be impossible for me to carry on, my gran is cooking. It would break her heart if I didn’t eat prawn cocktail, roast lamb, chicken curry, and her fabulous bacon sprouts. There’s no way I’d offend her by not eating all that amazing food 
but otherwise I’m quite enjoying finding different things to use instead of meat. I’m going through a lot of mushrooms and beans.
Basically I’m not eating anything that was alive. No meat, no fish, no small children. Eggs are fine. And I’ve no problem with “slaughterhouse by-products” like rennet, gelatine, and glue. I never ate glue, but you know, for general use. I still use post it notes. I’m not going organic, although if anyone needs to offload some of their homegrown organic produce: potatoes, onions, cannabis etc, I’d be happy to take it off your hands!
Initially I assumed I’d find vegetarianism really hard but it’s totally not. I don’t know what the fuss is to be honest. It’s likely I’ll switch back to eating meat because eventually I’ll just fancy a steak and I don’t like denying myself things I want, but for now, to all my vegetarian and vegan friends: I think I get it 
I did the same on a whim for 2 months, mainly because I wanted to push my cooking in to unexplored territory (or maybe that’s just what I said when people made me justify myself). Hope you’re still enjoying it!