I've been vegetarain since April 1st this year and am working on becoming a vegan.

How about you? Have you ever thought about it?

As close as we have come to becoming vegetarian is we have stopped eating beef and pork. We still eat chicken and turkey and most seafood (certain types of fish we will not eat).

All I've done so far is try to incorporate more veggies and less meat in my mealplanning. Don't think our family would want to stop eating meat.

Did you have a hard time making that change CJ? I know you feel bunches better for it.

Darlene, no I went cold turkey and have never looked back. I do feel way better because of it. I just incorporate it into my meals. Dh and the kids have not gone vegetarian, but more and more of my main meals are vegetarian without them even realizing it. :D

I've been vegetarian for about 5 years. I gave up meat because DH had high cholesterol and although he'd cut out a lot of fat from his diet, his cholesterol levels stayed high. And he wasn't cheating either, DH really is a health nut. So I suggested that he give up meat to see if it would make a difference, I volunteered to do it too to make it easier for him. He lasted about 6 weeks, LOL! He cracked one day watching some kid eating McDonalds!! Ugh. I'm still not eating meat or chicken and I just started eating fish again in the past nine months. I decided to add it because when I was working and travelling around it was extremely difficult finding quality food to eat at hotels and places I stayed at. Up north, where most of my work was, they look at you as if you're a nutcase if you say you're vegetarian. I also take Emu Oil capsules daily, which takes me out of the vegetarian category, I think. I decided I didn't want to be vagan because you have to wear plastic or non-leather shoes and you also need special tyres for your car. Apparently car tyres have animal products in them. Also, I could never live without milk and cheese.

So my version of vegetarianism works for me but it might not for many others. I have continued it because I was never comfortable with how we treat animals as food. It seems such a cruel thing to raise cattle and chickens in often inhumane conditions only to take them to a slaughterhouse. I don't believe that is their purpose. But I don't go on and on about it. Many of my friends don't even know I'm vegetarian, it's just a personal thing I do for myself (and for the animals of my acquaintance).

Bethany, I also have added fish into my diet. Its has Omega 3 & 6 which we need so badly.

Just recently though, my dh has decided to eliminate pork from his diet as soon as it is gone from our freezer. I'm so happy about that, because the stuff they give the pigs is incredible. So for him and the kids, they are now going to be down to chicken, fish & deer meat, because I haven't cooked beef for about 2 years now. Glad I took that out of their diet since way before the BSE crisis.

Congrats to those that have made this change. At our house, we are still meat eaters. Mel does not like hardly any veggies and dd is not much better (though she doesn't like meat either - she doesn't like anything). I could eat primarily vegetarian and be okay but don't think I could go 100%. I prefer veggies and fruits over meat or grains anyday.

One of my sons is vegetarian, although he will eat organic meat. He's vegeratian because he doesn't like the way most animals are treated when they're raised for food. Organic meat producers here in Australia have a reputation for raising happy healthy animals. My younger son is a confirmed meat eater - he told me once that he knows where he stands on the food chain!! LOL But a few weeks ago, just after he had to prepare and cook 20 racks of baby lamb at work (he's a chef), he informed me that he won't be eating lamb or veal ever again. He said: "I don't want to eat babies."
It will be interesting to see if he continues his stand when he wants to eat roast lamb in the middle of winter.