Life is Healthy

Finally getting back into the game. Yesterday, I got a report from the Daily Mile—zero workouts for last week. That hurt. I don't want to get another failing report card. And with that, I made it back to the gym this morning. 45 minutes on an elliptical. And I felt pretty good. I got some much needed oxygen pumped into my body. It's all up hill from here, right? (That's an exercise joke. Ok, it wasn't that great.)

I'm doing OK on my diet, but couldn't keep up the vegan thing.  I could go without meat. But I couldn't go without milk and cheese. So I broke over some string cheese. And I have frequent insomnia—so warm milk made it's way into my diet. And then there was the grilled chicken salad. OK. I did have some meat after all. But it was grilled.

I know that some people who are vegan do so because of morality about the way animals are treated. And I appreciate that they feel that way. I don't want to see animals harmed in any way. I just can't stop eating them. I wish I could. I grew up on a farm—I've actually seen a chicken running around with it's head cut off. Not something I enjoyed. In fact, I couldn't eat chicken or eggs for years. (Not because I thought they were treated bad. I was just sick of them. I hated them. But more about that later. We had a chicken farm in case you're wondering.)

But other than whacking some of their heads off every once in a while, we treated our chickens well. (But I hated them. I hated feeding them. I hated getting them into roost at night. I hated gathering eggs. Hmm. Maybe that's why I don't mind eating them now. Some kind of payback.) Anyway, they weren't in little cages pooping all over each other. They ran around in a pen. And a fair-sized pen at that.

People bought eggs from us. And sometimes a whole chicken but that was rare. We mostly sold eggs. So that's my vision of a farm. I know not all farms are like that today. But some local farms still exist. And maybe people should buy meat and eggs from local farmers. Anyway, how and why did I get off on this? OK. I forgot to mention the greenhouse-gas thing, too. But I won't go there right now.

Anyway, the point is: I can't stop eating meat. I've tried. I wish I could. I can go long periods without eating meat. But it always finds its way back into my diet. And I just can't believe that I'm a horrible person because I eat meat. I don't think the meat industry brainwashed me either. I was eating meat long before it became a big deal. Here's another thing: People eat meat. How can you stop an entire planet? Isn't there some other way than all or nothing? I don't know. What do you think? I really got sidetracked, huh?