— You might skim over the About the Trip page before you start here, it’ll make more sense 😀 —
Road to Veggie
Around Thanksgiving last year, I decided to turn to a pescatarian diet (though I often referred to myself as a vegetarian). My motivation didn’t lie in the implications for animal’s rights and/or for the environment, although these were certainly benefits of the diet. I was mostly interested in how it would affect my health; I wasn’t convinced that it would “make me happier than my meat eating friends” or increase my life expectance by 3.6 years, but I wanted to try it out for myself.
Fast-forward five months without meat, and and I still don’t know whether or not my life expectancy has increased. I can’t say I felt better immediately after starting the diet, and I wouldn’t say that I can see much of a long-term difference either. In fact, I have been sick on four different occasions since I started it – far more often than average for me. Clearly there are a lot of factors at play here, but that’s just how it played out. I was sleeping less, drinking more coffee, and wasn’t exercising as much as usual.
Brazilian meat?
When I learned that I would be going to Brazil, the diet came up a few different times within the context of the trip (mostly because of Brazil’s high-quality meat). Some people who had visited Brazil mentioned that it might be difficult to maintain the diet while living there: partly because of availability and partly because it would be hard to pass up some of the (debatably) best meat in the world. I did a little more research, and it did seem like it would not be reasonably convenient to stay veggie while in Brazil. I knew I would mostly be eating in groups, dining in unforeseen places, and accepting food from hosts.
Given this, I wanted to prepare my body at least a little bit before jumping into an environment where my only options might be meat. So, when I arrived home from Rice a few weeks ago, I started weaning off the vegetarian diet. I have been eating chicken in larger and larger portions, and I had a burger a couple of days ago. As I leave for Brazil, I am thinking about what my diet will look like. Part of me wants to stay vegetarian, and the other part is telling me it simply won’t be possible. I won’t be disappointed if I end up reverting to a meaty diet; in fact, I’ll probably enjoy it and appreciate it to some degree.
~ Stay tuned for the meat verdict ~
Learning from Veggie
In any case, vegetarianism has helped me give more thought to the foods that I consume. Because it was the first diet that I had been on (I had previously eaten whatever tasted good or whatever came my way), I learned a great deal about myself and realized a lot about my eating habits. I am more conscious of the origins of my food and of the consequences of my food choices. Now I tend to think before I eat much more than I used to.
Notes on The Brazilian Buzz Blog
I’m going to fairly informal in some posts and more serious in others.
I hope to journal my time in Brazil as well as keep it entertaining for all of you – my friends and family.
BLOG TITLE: If you can think of a particularly flashy name for this blog, comment and I’ll give you credit if I use it.
I don’t think I’ll be able to post perfectly regularly, but I’ll do my best to post throughout the internship.