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Bacon.

Bacon! I slowly went back to having meat in my diet. I was a vegan, and so I one day had milk (that glass of milk was so good...better then any soya milk out there!) Then I had cheese...you just can't have something like brie when your a vegan. It all went rolling from there...Bacon was the real turning point...lovely lovely bacon...To make a long story short. After having a few things here and there I realized how much I missed these foods. And actually my health is alot better since I went back to eating meat and animal products. My diet is now balanced.

In 1998 I tried after reading John Robbins's Diet for a New America. I started on New Year's Day and lasted to Thanksgiving. Tradition called for the eating of the turkey, and my housemates at the time peer-pressured me into it: "You can always resume vegetarianism tomorrow." Yeah, right.

I was only a vegetarian for about two months. I ordered tofu bbq at a joint in Austin, and it was so awful I realized what I was missing.

I was vege for 13 years and then I decided I wanted to be a chef. One of the chefs I worked for pointed out that I had to eat what I was serving my clients, and so I ate duck and rabbit and have never looked back

i became vegetarian one night while tripping; i watched my roommate pierce meat onto bamboo skewers and it revolted me. that lasted about six months. i started having dreams about hamburgers. that was 10 years ago and i'm an avid hamburger and bacon eater since.

I was veggie for a few years, and then went to college. My school was convinced that the only things vegetarians ate were chickpeas, which I can't stand. You can only eat so many peanut butter sandwiches and hard boiled eggs... Since I wasn't veggie for moral reasons, about half way through the semester I gave it up and started eating meat again, since it was clearly the only way I was going to maintain a healthy diet while I was at school.

I'm with megnut though.. I'm an omniverous moderationist now - I just like food too much to go back to excluding complete categories!

I refrained from meat for a couple hours one day...and then it was dinner time!

I'm not a fan of bacon. Don't shoot me!

Initially I want to say "that's messed up!" but upon further thought it just means there'll be more bacon for me to eat when we have brunch, and that's what really matters. :P

I never liked meat as a kid, but was forced to eat it anyway. I'm a big animal lover, and the thought of eating them, combined with all the tastes I didn't like anyway, made me a vegetarian for several years. When I was in my mid-20s, I was posted to Moscow, without access to most of the foods I was accustomed to eating (including fresh vegetables, bread, dairy products, etc.). I soon realized that I was on an all-potato diet. I finally decided that, in the interests of my health and sanity, I would have to start eating meat. When I finally returned to the US, I got married to a meat-eater, and then had two kids. I haven't gone back to my vegetarian ways, but I generally eat only a small amount of meat and fill up on vegetables, pasta, rice, etc.

I also would like to know about problems encountered in switching back to eating meat. I would really appreciate any advice on making it easier. I had to quit eating beef and pork due to gall stones, and I have been avioding red meat, and pork ever since ( for 20 some years). Just had the gall bladder removed, but I have concerns about changing my diet. I have heard that eating meat after an extended period can be difficult and painful experiance. So any suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks

im 21 and have been a strict vegetarian since i was 13, before that having never like red meat and slowly giving up poultry. as of now, i don't eat eggs (but eat food with eggs in it), still eat dairy but drink soy milk. i have also, thanks to friends and family, realized how unhealthy i am since i dont get adequate protein from any other sources, aside from beans, dairy, and occasional peanut butter. i would like to go back to eating small amounts of humanely raised, organic chicken and salmon - ive lost too much weight, no senior in college should be almost 100 pounds! im concerned about how to go about doing this, i know i should start out slowly...but im also having moral issues which im not sure how to overcome. if you have any advice, i'd gladly welcome it!

Never been a vegetarian, but I think of it from time to time. Mostly because I'm struggling with the ethics of eating meat; the conundrum of considering myself an animal lover and then digging into some animal-steaks off the grill at least once a week. I also love food in general too much to be able to say, I will never touch "_____" again.

While in college my sister became a vegetarian. I went to visit her once and she looked like sh#t. So I cooked for her. I kept it vegetarian. I made a batch of red sauce. Cooked some pasta. Topped it with a healthy amount of grated parm. And steamed/sauteed three different green vegs. After she ate. I had a long talk with her about her decision to be vegetarian, which no doubt she was doing because her friends were. First I told her she looked like sh#t, 2nd, if she was gonna be vege then she needed to do it right, make sure she was getting enough calcium, iron, protein, 3rd, if she didn't do it right, I'd come back and shove a chicken down her throat. By the end of the week, she was out of red sauce and greens so, she went and had a pepperoni slice at Piccola Italy.

I was a vegetarian for over 4 years, and then I decided to move to the ROK. It's possible to be a vegetarian, but it's difficult. And I had issues in the states making sure that I was getting an adequate supply of iron and protein, and I knew it would only be more difficult here. So I've started incorporating fish and chicken. Still no beef or pork though. I'm working on it :)

I was a vegetarian from age 6 when I was a stubborn brat and declared myself a vegetarian to avoid having to eat a hamburger one meal. Flash forward to being 18, at my boyfriend's house, and the smell of flank steak on the grill. I pointed out how good it smelled, and he asked, "why won't you eat it again?" and I realized I really didn't have a reason. I just didn't even see it as an option since I had completely forgotten what it tasted like. It wasn't for animal rights reasons, or health, it was just habit at that point. I had a taste, and now I am a fiend. RARE steak. I think i'm making up for lost time, although that was 8 years ago and I'm still just as into meat, hah!

BTW -- after 15 years as a vegetarian I broke my vegetarianism with two plates of rare meat. Felt great. I don't know why they say everyone gets so sick to their stomach.

i was a vegetarian from the age of 18 to 22. what did me in was a plate of prime rib at a hotel in kansas city. it just looked so good, i was starving, and the alternative was a crappy looking industrial iceberg lettuce salad and an anemic little roll. i had always been a meat lover, had embraced vegetarianism in college during the 70's after reading frankie lappe´, and always struggled against my carnivorous inclinations.

interestingly, years and years later, i find myself not especially wanting to eat meat at all these days. i haven't consumed animal flesh, except for the occasional tuna sandwich, in months. although generally i am a very healthy eater, and in addition to the fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains i eat daily, i eat plenty of nuts, seeds, yogurt, eggs, and cheese, i am bemused to report that my ability as an athlete seems to have suffered as a result. i don't recover as quickly after my workouts, i can't run as far or as fast, and i can't lift as heavy weights or complete as many sets as i was doing as a meat eater.

a few years ago i was in a relationship with someone who insisted on having meat at every meal, and when i left, it was such a relief to not have to cook and eat it all the time. i'm much thinner and happier basing my diet on salads and veggies, although i am somewhat concerned about my workouts deteriorating. we'll have to see. i don't call myself a vegetarian right now, because i don't want to label myself or call attention to my private eating habits {i live alone, so there's no one to please but myself}.

Being a poor student! I was happily veg for 4 years of high school, first 2 years of college while I lived in the dorms. Then I got an apartment. I have no problem cooking a totally vegetarian diet for myself in my home - I never buy meat ingredients at the store. And I still very rarely pay for meat when eating out, unless I'm really sick of just ordering the freaking veggie burger. But the number of free food events at my university and my poor student budget make passing up free meaty meals seem wasteful. I call myself a freegan now (vegetarian unless it's free). I've heard others use the term too.

I becamse a vegetarian for a while in high school, but it was really only to annoy my grandmother, who I was living with at the time. She only had 4 stock dinners that she rotated over and over every week: meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes; roast beef, salad, baked potatoes; broiled salmon, broccoli, roasted potatoes; and spaghetti. She liked her meat and potatoes. There's only so long one person can deal with that if they're more adventurous. So I went veg.

These days I still only really eat meat twice a week. I feel like the US has a serious meat overindulgance problem.

I was a vegetarian for a while, maybe around 8 years, one of which was spent in India, where it is supereasy and superdelicious (if you love Indian, especially South Indian, food like I do) to be a vegetarian. A few years later, I moved to Brasil where it is a lot harder to be a vegetarian, but I lived in Liberdade (Asian neighborhood) in Sao Paulo, and with all the access to cool mushrooms, noodles, seaweeds, etc., I was pretty happy.

I remember reading that book "Eat Right for your Type" which theorizes that people with type A blook do better with a predominantly veg. diet and people with type O blood do better with a carnivorous diet, and perhaps there's some truth to that.

Later, I was taken to a Brazilian rodizio (meat until you can't no more) place here in NYC and all that beef was delish, although my stomach rebelled.

Since then, I still don't eat much meat - small portions and lots of vegetables. Eating meat in huge amounts seems to only perpetuate the dominant model of a few lucky people getting the lion's share of the world's resources, and the factory farming of animals to be eaten still continues to be inhumane and motivated solely by profits. Mad cow disease is still much more of a problem than the major media and the government will cop to. I'm careful where I get my meats from, and still ya never know.