FROM THE OTHER SIDE:
More than ‘meats’ the eye

“How would you like your cow cooked?” That’s where it all started.

My friend’s birthday at a local steakhouse made me think beyond the pricey menu and into my own eating habits. Here I was at a restaurant devoted to serving carnivores and I suddenly wanted a salad… hold the meat.

Just hearing the waiter name my food by the animal it came from smacked me with perspective. My entire life I have been a vulture for slaughtered cows, pigs, lambs and chickens. I have never set down my fork and steak knife long enough to consider an alternative to my eating habits.

I always thought vegetarians and vegans were interesting, if not for the fact that they passed up juicy cheeseburgers, then because they seemed to remind everyone at every meal that they didn’t eat meat.

In retrospect, I always thought it was funny when I heard some vegetarians and vegans criticize omnivores for eating living things when I always thought, isn’t the Earth’s flora living, too? Vegetables and plants have the same life cycle as animals and humans — a seed is planted, they grow, they mature and they die. What’s the difference?

Then I came to think that vegetarianism was just a trend that would fade away, like boy bands or bell bottoms. Organizations like PETA use celebrities to promote their message and that can be very influential to some. This can make vegetarianism seem trendy or cool, rather than a lifestyle choice.

The other day I was talking to a friend who is a strict vegan about how someone goes about taking on a vegan lifestyle. My friend doesn’t eat anything that didn’t grow from the earth. You won’t see her wearing leather and she even washes her hair with vegan shampoo.

It amazes me that there is an entire subculture of students who live vegan, but what amazes me even more is how they can pass an In’N’Out without their mouths watering. Ice cream? Forget about it.

Why? That is exactly what I am going to find out.

I vow not to eat meat for the next two weeks.

For the next two weeks I will cook carrots and slice tomatoes instead of roasting cow and frying chicken. I am going to cut eggs, milk and yogurt out of my diet. I won’t enjoy my weekly sushi fix for the next two weeks. Goodbye, delectable chicken quesadilla from Chipotle. I’ll have the rice and beans instead of chicken wings.

After talking to my friend, I realize that I may not be able to go completely vegan. I have a wide selection of leather belts I need for work and a giant bottle of regular shampoo.

Also, I never realized how extensive, and expensive, it would be to go completely vegan, and I don’t get paid for two weeks so I won’t be able to buy non-leather belts and I would hate to throw my giant bottle of shampoo in the trash.

I don’t expect to be a perfect vegetarian at first, but for the sake of the experiment, I plan on keeping a detailed record of what I eat. I will have a true vegan grade how well I conformed to the lifestyle after two weeks.

When all is said and done, I hope to gain insight into why someone would willingly choose to cut meat out of his or her diet. I want a better understanding of how strong my urges to eat meat are and find out what my relationship with food is.

Most importantly, I hope to appreciate the reasons behind someone choosing this lifestyle.

So the question now is: Would I like my plant rare or well-done?