I do not expect you to become a vegetarian, though at least one vegetarian meal a week is very very good for your health, and I would greatly encourage you to try some vegetarian cuisine as some of it is really tasty. I am merely listing my reasons for becoming a semi-vegetarian (technically I could be called a vegetarian, even though I still eat fish and eggs) and some thoughts on the matter of vegetarianism.

A few months ago, I watched Micheal Moore's documentary "the Corporation" which went into details on how poorly animals are supposedly treated by corporation owned farms, and I was uphauled at first, than I started thinking about it... if I was to raise an animal kindly would I really want to eat it? That would be like eating ones pet dog or pet cat, though their are some asian countries were dog and cat would be much more acceptable than beef. Now this was not the only reason I started going vegetarian, but this thought was a planted seed toward it. Previously I had encountered two wonderful people that are now my friends who were both vegetarian for different reasons. The first ones reason was that she just didn't feel that raising animals for food showed respect to life, this made a lot of sense to me. She would still eat meat that was hunted so long as the animal was respected and the full animal was used, rather than just hunted for a trophy and a few cuts. She's the same way about all of nature, just wanting us to show respect and contribute something for everything that we take. The second person, had been raised as a vegetarian, and just thought that "the idea of eating another animals flesh" was disgusting. I can be a bit unsensitive at times, so her reason really didn't bug me that much though I will confess "animal-flesh" is not exactly an appetizing term. It should also be noted that I think Ghandi's autobiography also made me consider vegetarianism more than I may have otherwise.

In my search to better myself I stumbled upon a passage in the new testament, that talks about how you might not want to do something that you know is perfectly acceptable if it will cause someone else to do what they think is wrong. The writer Paul explained his reasoning by defining sin as disobeying ones concience, which according to the Bible is put there by God. What I got out of this is that if you think it is wrong for you to do, than it is wrong, regardless of whether it is wrong for anyone else or not. Now due to the reasons that I mentioned earlier, I was already eating a lot more vegetables than meat, but this thought combined with the other planted seeds from before caused me to take the next step and start becoming a vegetarian.

This was not as big of a push for me as it might be for many others that I know as my family ate vegetarian meals every once in awhile throughout my life, and I already knew about some really tasty stuff. The idea of fish didn't bug me as I felt it was still in respect to the fish (sadly I do know about fish-farms, don't remind me, I really don't want to give up fish as it has incredible health benifits) I'm struggling with the idea of fish right now as you can tell from my little comment. Eggs, can be taken unfertilized without harm to the animal, this does not bug me and they add an extra source of protein which I need lots of since I am also very active.

As for health concerns, I did ask a doctor last time I went to primacare, she said that it was good that I had not given up fish and eggs, and that I just also needed to up my carb intake a little (whole fiber carbs are best). It should be noted though that eggs have lots of cholestrol, but with as much fiber as I eat it kind of balances out. I eat whey protein powder and I frequently snack on almonds, peanutbutter, and things such as that. I eat a lot of asian food, I cook it up in my wok (it doesn't take long, it tastes good, and its easy... not to mention I can monitor how healthy the ingredients in my food are). During the summer I drink lots of smoothies, I don't drink much milk (too many hormone additives, besides I was raised with soy). I also encourage buckwheat noodles, as they are super good for you really tasty, and have a little bit of protein in them.

Amusingly, about a month ago I decided that I was being overly sensitive so I went to one of my favourite restauraunts and ordered my favourite steak fajita tacos. To my dismay I discovered that I no longer even like beef. I haven't tried any other animal since, save for fish which I never gave up, and most of the time when I eat fish it is sushi.

EDIT NOTE:  Please realize that while I do love asian food, there are times when pizza is healthier, so if your interested in this for health reasons than you will still want to watch that.