intro

[Guest guest]

on 7/28/02 12:53 PM, CHERYL BURKET at cburket wrote:

 

> hi all. i'm cheryl. nice to be on the list tho i don't read each thing.

> like bob, i'm an old-timer, started out eating cheese sandwiches.

>

> i learned, i guess at a somewhat old age, where my meals came from. i

> remember sitting at the dinner table at our house- I was in elementary

> school & it came up- that what we were eating was from animals. i was

> absolutely horrified. that dinner conversation changed my life.

> I don't know why i didn't know wheer my food came from before that-

> anyway, after that i cringed whenever i ate meat. i kept thinking of big

> brown cow eyes & how getting killed must hurt and the poor animals...

> i didn't know you didn't have to eat meat. so i continued eating it- just

> less. over time, i guess i got numb to what it was though i never forgot.

>

> then in high school- philadelphia area in the late 1970's, a friend became

> interested in dieting. she was an artist and that term had painted these

> huge cow heads & started talking about vegetarianism. she gave me a dark

> brown and green cow head poster to put in my bedroom, yes the eyes were

> big. i thought, that's interesting, vegetarianism... so we'd talk about it.

then she became one so i decided to, too, one day i said, well i guess i'll

stop eating meAt now. that was

> about all the fanfare. this was 1978 or 79. i did NO preparation, no

> research, nada. i went cold turkey, no pun intended. only my parents,

> said i was going to die. being a vegetarian would RUIN my health. my father

(who would, two yaers later, kill himself with alcohol) would bring home

pepperoni pizzas for dinner thinking he could break my will. only the

strange thing was, i never ever once craved meat after i stopped eating it.

what happened was, since i didn't consume any protein but beans, i lost ALOT

of weight & got weak and depressed and my hair came out a bit. i became

anorexic. i still continued on my merry cheese sandwich way, knowing if

others were vegetarians and living healthy, i'd be there some day too, i

just had to crack the code to it.

>

> let me just mention that a vegeatiran diet, in the northeast in the late

> 70's made me a FREAK in everyone's eyes. i continually had to be on the

> defensive and thanksgivings were the worst. i didn't have the knowledge or

> mAturity to appropriately deflect any of that.

>

> it wasn't until college in another state i learned about soybeans. the

> first time i ever ate soybeans i had incredible energy & color in my face

> seemingly for the first time in years.

 

over the years, little by little, i figured out what to eat- i was always

the only vege, the one freak in any crowd. i got smart on eating out,

eventually. i'd insist on not eating in restaurants where i'd only be able

to forage a baked potato or a salad. now here in SF i can eat on neaRLY ANY

BLock.

 

i want to say to those of you starting out, i have no regrets & am SO

HEALTHY! everyone thinks i am in my 20's and i just turned 40. it's one of

the few absolutely dead-on right decisions i ever made. i went back east for

my 20th high school reunion & looked at all the old looking jerk-offs who

used to make fun of me. i had the last laugh.

 

oddly, this is my first joining of anything vege all these years. it's nice

to feel normal.

 

as far as those who eat meat, they don't deserve the title vege. i laugh

when i

hear that stuff. people are such poseurs sometimes!

>

take care.

>