Christmas Challenges of Becoming a Vegetarian

So for some of you who are unaware, I recently made the decision to become a vegetarian. My decision to become a vegetarian was not a rash decision that I just made one day. It actually came from long debate within myself about being one. See, while obtaining my undergraduate degree in Health Promotion and Fitness in college, I had learned about the different types of vegetarians. My decision also came from me always wanting to be a vegetarian, like I always wanted to be natural. It has practically been five years since I went natural, so why not become a vegetarian? To be honest, I was practically on my way to becoming one anyways; I rarely ate red meat, consumed mostly baked fish and chicken, ate fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and drank mostly water every chance I had. It was time for a lifestyle change that would affect my eating patterns.

In making my recent decision, I knew that I would have to do research because my undergraduate degree was obtained quite a while ago. So I decided to google: Vegetarian types. My research led me to About.com and its list for the "Top 7 Types of Vegetarians." These types consisted of: Pescatarian, Flexitarian/Semi-vegetarian, Lacto-vegetarian, Ovo-vegetarian, Vegan, Raw vegan/Raw food diet, and Macrobiotic. After a thorough review, I decided to become a Lacto-vegetarian with the possibility of transitioning to a Ovo-vegetarian or Macrobiotic once I was able to identify what my body needed. I say this because a co-worker told me that some blood types were unable to sustain the vegetarian lifestyle, so I should be very careful with my tactics. Well, so far so good. I have been a vegetarian for a week now. The challenge in being a vegetarian is not being tempted by eating meat. The challenge is actually finding food during the holidays or other events that I am able to eat. Today, for Christmas, my family cooked ham, greens, macaroni and cheese, yams, and rolls. Eating ham was definitely off my list. While I imagined that I would be able to eat greens, I was disheartened when I found out that the greens were flavored with bacon. So my holiday dinner consisted of macaroni and cheese, rolls, and a salad. I definitely do not presume this to be a challenge for me next year. I will just have to master the vegetarian lifestyle next Christmas by reading books, reading blogs, and researching information on the internet.

~So you want to become a vegetarian too?