One New Age Hippie? Coming Right Up!

I have been seriously entertaining the idea of becoming a vegetarian. More exactly, lacto-vegetarian. Reasons why are as follows:

• touching raw meat sickens me
• the processes which bring meat to my local store are degrading, not only to the animals but to the people whom work in the plants.
• it's just not healthy. There have been many reported cases of illness, even death due to eating meat that wasn't up to standard. Not to mention the cholesterol.
  
• the only dairy I enjoy are cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt. Milk is easy to cut out, since it hurts my stomach and soy tastes sooo much better.
  

Ethically and morally, I just can't side with being an omnivore anymore. Maybe one day I'll have my own farm and raise chickens, pigs and cows, then I'll feel at ease with eating meat again. Until that time, then I think I'm just going to drop it from my diet. I'm making a conscious effort to stop standing behind the conglomerate corporations that feed us their ideas and horrible food which is laden with maleficence against other humans, animals and the earth as a whole. Until there is a shift in the practices these corporations uphold, then I will take a stand against them. I will spend my money on locally grown, organic, non-overly processed food and beauty items. I'm shaking my newly born, hippie fist at them. Take that! Ha!

I've been researching the internets to formulate my herbivore plan, to make sure I'm doing it right. The biggest problem I've heard of with talking to people who once were veg or are and how they got started,was the lack vitamins and minerals that you once received from eating meat. You need to be informed, so you can make the healthiest decision and not have any dietary deficiencies. I found online a "Vegetarian Pyramid", which shows what you should typically eat at every meal, once a day and weekly.
I've also been worried about what the heck am I going to cook?? That problem was easily overcome since the internet is full of veg recipes. I found on the Mayo Clinic's website, that they have a plethora of free meal ideas and recipes. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meatless-recipes/RE00104 Amazing!

I've also worried about cost. I know a lot of the obesity problem and diabetes issues in this country are because people eat poorly.
People eat poorly because they typically cannot afford to eat the things that are good for them. It's set up this way on purpose. Why go to the store and buy a pound of apples for $1.29? When you can buy a cheeseburger for only 99cents. Like the movie Super Size me states somewhere along the lines, that fast food places are geared to make you want to eat every meal there, and for cheap. Eating right is a choice. There are many local co-ops, whole food markets and farmers markets you can choose to shop at. Yes, you're going to pay a little bit more at let's say a Whole Foods or Sunflower Market, but you're paying for quality and to me the value in that goes a lot further with me than paying for something that is over processed, full of chemicals that are going to cause my daughter to start her period earlier, and harmful to my planet. If this is the one thing I can do, for myself and my family then I'm going start.

I'm really excited about this. I'm excited to go to Whole Foods and check out their bath and beauty products. No, laurel blah blah sulfate? Sweet!! A product that's made of real, wholesome ingredients that are good for me and the earth? Awesome!! Stoked people, I'm absolutely stoked!!