Carnivorous

I had what I thought was the compliment the other day, "You're quite the little carnivore".

I was a vegetarian for a number of years.  I should preface this entire thing with that.  I used to be a vegetarian.  And then for a while, when I was un-vegetarianing myself, I only ate fish.  So I am NOT judging the lifestyle.  Not at all.  I am no longer a vegetarian because it didn't work for me.  I wasn't getting enough protein, plain and simple.  And in my head - well, it just wasn't healthy in my head.  I was using it as a crutch to support unhealthy restrictions on my food.  Not quite anorexia, but something in that vein.  So I had to stop. I chose to stop.  I completely respect people who can pull it off.  Even moreso because I am not one of them.  So with that said...

It is true, I eat more meat now than I think I ever have at any other stage in my life.

What does that mean, exactly?

Well.  I never ever eat meat for breakfast.  Even the smell of meat in the morning makes me feel ill.  I also rarely eat meat more than once a day.  And there is at least one, but usually two, days in the week in which I eat no meat at all.  I eat 4 meals a day Mon-Thurs, and 3 Fri-Sun.  That means I eat 25 meals per week.  At most.  At MOST I eat 5 meat meals per week, and only 1, sometimes 2 of those are red meat.  So 20% of my meals, tops, have meat.

This person actually proceeded to tell me that they were thinking about becoming a vegetarian.  That the lovely smell of meat cooking was really just fat and salt.  They asked me if raw meat grossed me out pre-cooking.

And I felt judged.  Defensive.  I still feel judged and defensive even though the conversation is over.  I actually approached them later and told them how they made me feel and they apologized, especially since they're not a vegetarian yet and they were therefore being totally hypocritical.  But I can't seem to get it out of my head.

Is eating meat wrong?

I don't think so - I think it is in our biology to do so.  Now, the way our meat is obtained nowadays - that is arguably wrong.  But the act of eating meat itself - no, that's just survival.  You could argue that we no longer need to eat meat to survive - we have so many other choices.  And that is true.  You clearly don't NEED to.  There are plenty of people who don't.  But in line with the rest of my dietary maxims, I'd argue for all things in moderation.  I think we evolved to eat meat.  I think meat is the better choice to meet my protein needs. I am not interested in trying to further evolve our species - I've already completed procreating, so anything else I do is moot at this point anyways. ;-)  But most importantly:  I feel better when I eat all things in moderation, both physically and mentally.

So yes, carnivorous.  And proud.  (And working on removing defensive from the adjectives describing me.)