So the last week felt a little like a sham, since I’d already decided that cheating was legal. But I figure there’s some valor in finishing it out even after cheating once. That’s coincidentally the same approach my last girlfriend took with our relationship. And I also feel that there’s some sense of accomplishment in publicly writing about it and post-dating it even months after it actually happened. Again, same as my ex.
Anyway, I finished out the veggie diet with the Saturday caveat for 31 days – though Danielle said that my diet of Chips Ahoy, PBJ and mac n cheese is probably more like a toddler diet than a vegetarian diet. I went the entire last week eating more free food, as this was the first actual week of classes. Free pancakes and muffins in the morning and free pizza (real pizza – not stupid white pizza) in the afternoon. The highlight of the week was definitely our trip to Olive Garden to get the neverending pasta bowl. In fact, it was so good, we did it twice. And I had leftovers both times. So I basically ate the penne with five-cheese marinara four days in a row.
Jen and I decided to cheat this week by eating Dim Sum. Dim Sum is apparently an Asian word for brunch. And if you’ve never had it, it’s very intimidating. I’m still not actually sure what I ate. Simon ordered it all for me and thank God he was there. If not for him, I’d have probably just drank a cup of hot water and walked out. People are walking around with food I’ve never seen speaking a version of broken English I can’t understand and I have no idea how to order, eat or pay for the food. I don’t know what is supposed to go with what or whether or not they’ll fart in my food if I use a fork and put ketchup on everything. I already had a strike against me as I wasn’t already Asian when I walked in. So Dim Sum was an interesting experience and in any other situation, not worth breaking my vegetarian diet for.
And so ends my vegetarian experience. As I now have the benefit of hindsight, I can say that I learned very little from the experience. Actually, that’s not true at all. What I learned is that not everyone is made to be a vegetarian. And for some reason, meals aren’t cheaper just because they don’t have meat in them. Which I think is bullshit, but as I’m no longer buying strictly vegetarian, good for me. I also found that if I’m going to try to put myself on a diet ever again, next time I’m going to do a bit more research and find a healthy one, not just an easy one. I never weighed myself again so I have no idea if I lost weight, but that was never really a goal of mine anyway. What I have decided is that I’m going to try to make sure I don’t eat red meat more than once a day. And I guess that’s good. But according to Joe’s mom, that’s the only real meat anyway. “Oh, Dustin’s a vegetarian now? Well, I guess I’ll just make some chicken instead.” And I’m not kidding. Welcome back, meat. I’ve missed you.
