Good Lifestyle

When I decided to becomevegetarian In early 2018, it was not for the reasons why many people could normally assume normally. I recently moved to Malaysia as an American expatriate and I often met new friends and colleagues who abstained from meat for religious reasons, but for me being vegetarian, it's more a lifestyle choice than on my Beliefs (or even my experiences to grow in a family of multi-generation cattle breeders).

In the months before going to Kuala Lumpur from Paris, I made the conscious decision to start living without plastic as part of a zero waste lifestyle. Of course, this continues to have several major positive influences on my life in general, but one of the greatest amounts to take so far for a more.Plant-based diet.

There were many factors for this switch, including how it allows me to shop on farmers' markets and bulk food stores that eliminate the need for plastic packaging, the fact that most bins Household compost can not take any animal remains and how the international livestock industry is a leading cause of deforestation and wasting water around the world; In the end, I made the choice to mitigate my impact on the environment by saying not to meat.

It started at zero

Since I started my trip to live with less garbage in 2017, I have constantly looking for new ways to limit my individual impact on the planet. From the beginning, I have regularly bought in bulk food stores with my own reusable containers and I have always refused plastic straws (and other items for single use), but none has been more effective than eliminate meat from my diet.

By the time I moved to Kuala Lumpur in January, I was ready to hit my daily meat habits aside, replacing the beef and chicken with leafy greens and seafood (choice I did for help facilitate the transition). But the day I announced my friends and my family, I pursued a more-based diet on the plant, I learned that there were many more reasons than ever made originally. While answering their questions as best I could, I started putting my personal motivations for a vegetarian.

Without knowing it, my individual response to packaging and plastic composting had unexpected thoughts on inaccessible, inhuman and ecological practices of animal agriculture in America and around the world. (And the news thatMicro-plastics are discovered across different levels of the food chain was yet another catalyst on this list of expansion.)

In the months since then, it has sometimes been difficult to stay motivated; That is why, when we are considering changing the lifestyle, it is important to have a list of personal reminders to continue moving forward, whether for health, the environment or the good. Being animals. I confide me, it may have started with zero, but it does not stop there.

The limit does not exist

One of the most difficult lessons to learn when my vegetarian diet was that there were more options than mere salads, green beans and asparagus. After having grown up in the small town of Alabama to a family obsessed with works of cows (and eat meat), the concept of vegetables being an autonomous meal was difficult for me to grab first; They had always been mere accompaniment dishes to the more substantial slab of beef, chicken or fish.

Now, after moving to Asia provides a large part of the benefits. Here in Malaysia, a vegetarian can have a full buffet of options presented in front of them-choose your favorites, as well as rice, and it's good to go. But unleash the notion of a meat and potato meal plan is difficult, yet rewarding.

The things I learned because the passage from the green side were to explore new ways of cooking and the importance of seasoning, take advantage of seasonal products and go to the street looking for local markets. When I bored and I wanted something new, it's time to approach an ingredient differently; Instead of missing this steak cut of the coast eyes, I discovered that I really enjoyed the taste and texture of grilled eggplants.

Allowing you to be creative with the foods you eat will be a game changer: Replace your carnivorous aspirations with satisfactory vegetarian options and you will see that there are no limitations to what you can prepare. That's how I managed to continue without missing my fleshy past.

To be vegetarian is not a package

Since the transition to an ovo-vegetarian diet (one meat without meat, poultry, fish or dairy products, but sometimes eggs), my life has changed enormously. Not only did I have developed lactose intolerance (which holds me away from dairy), but it also allowed me to better understand (further eliminate my food waste at home) and deleted any need that J I had once for a trash basket (because, while the meat products are often sold in a type of packaging, vegetables and other staples of my new power supply can easily be purchased without package in my own reusable containers ) He also pushed me to redefine what is a "vegetarian" means for me.

What I learned so far is that vegetarianism is not a packaging contract. It is not a way of life that dictates a defined equation on how one should live; Instead, I did mine - and you can too. I passed slowly by cutting the beef, chicken and pork, before gradually removed seafood. (Anchovies and shrimp pulp are quite common in Malaysian food so that it continues to be a challenge in Several restaurants.) But simply because you are vegetarian, or just want to be vegetarian for three days of the week, that does not mean you must be one night.

I think it's important to come back to this list of motifs I mentioned earlier, discover why you want to continue life with more vegetables and open to all possibilities that enjoy a more ethical and sustainable diet (and yes, healthier). could bring. You can even find you want to become avegan In the future, as I have.

The advantages of being vegetarian

While looking at my own list, I discovered that so many things on myself have changed, evolved or improved; Honestly, the integration of a vegetarian diet has had a truly "spirit, body and soul" effect on me, as a shot that it might sound. Since I made the decision to become vegetarian, I noticed to become more aware of what I eat, where it comes and how my actions have a positive (or negative) impact on the world.

In addition to being more aware, I have noticed that my body had harvested several awards. Not only did I become more aware of the effects of the food I eat on my body, but I started to lose weight without really trying, my skin has improved (partly thanks to the skin care routine that I personally mixed for myself. Also), and I rarely took sick; All this by eating as much as I do before without feeling almost as gross orinflated.

More importantly, I discovered that this lifestyle brought me closer to the source, which showed me to worry about worrying and inspiring me to be more aware of the struggles of our animal ranges In factory farms. If living a zero waste lifestyle has made my feeling of environmentalism and conservation, a plant-based diet has inspired a feeling of compassion.

What will your reasons be?