Don't hate me for this

I have been veg for a few years. Very recently I decided to start eating meat again and feel incredibly guilty for doing so (for obvious reasons). My question is this...has anyone ever gone back to meat and felt kind of sick from it? 

 

I have no idea why I even tried it again. Just thinking about chewing it makes me sick. I'm going crazy!  

I'm not a vegetarian, but I have had three friends who were start eating it again. All of them complained to me that they felt sick when they would eat it. However, all three will now share a steak with me and no longer feel sick.

 

I would say you're not crazy, and if you wean yourself back on meat you will probably stop feeling sick from it after a few months.

YES.

I was vegan for 3 years, then ovo-lacto for for about 4 years. I lapsed into eating meat for about a year... first fresh wild Icelandic salmon from Whole Foods, which I felt ok about. Then occasionally I'd eat leftover poultry scraps from prep foods [I worked at Whole Foods], which lead to me eating pretty much whatever. I gained 20 pounds and felt lethargic and miserable, and had a lot of digestive upsets that lasted past what I would consider an initial readjustment period. I faced most things with a negative attitude. I'm not saying that the meat itself made me a grumpy a-hole, rather that I just stopped caring about things that were once important to me, I felt like I really had no ethics anymore.

I went back to being vegetarian January 1st 2007, then back to vegan after a couple of months. I have lost 24 pounds with minimal effort, I feel much happier and more energetic, and I am passionate once again about the reasons that drove me to veganism in the first place- my health, the environment, the animals, and then some.

Having been both veg*n and omni in my adult life, I can honestly say that I have never felt worse [physically, emotionally, mentally] in my life than when I was consuming meat. When I went veg the second time around, I read some good books that helped with my decision. Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; The China Study by Dr, T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

I encourage you to check out any or all of those books and weigh the information with the reasoning behind your decisions to eat meat again. Then, if you still decide to eat meat, at least you will make a very informed decision.

why are you eating it if it makes you guilty and sick?

Original Post by ewwxroflzz:

why are you eating it if it makes you guilty and sick?

Yeah I don't get it either. I'll bet you a dollar we hear something related to protein, though.

To be fair, I weakly justified my "meat holiday" [ick] with a lot of BS information I picked up on the way while I chose to ignore the cold, hard facts due to being lazy, selfish, and apathetic. That said, though, sometimes people get off track for reasons that others won't understand.

I was very militantly vege for about 4 - 4 1/2 years and when i started to eat meat again i too felt guilty and nauseous and sick.  If you do wish to continue eating meat then make sure you eat only small portions until your tummy is used to digesting it again.  It only lasts a little while :)

disease_of_ease: Congratulations, you have earned yourself a dollar. I know we aren't required to have as much protein as most Americans consume on a meat-based diet. I am actually more concerned about how much other crap I eat on my veg diet. There are way too many things out there that are vegetarian and complete junk. 

My schedule is super hectic right now until the beginning of May so I need to come up with good, healthy options that are filling. 

The more I talk about this, the more I feel like a smacked ass.  

lexabear: Thanks for the info. I definitely need to do more research. I agree about feeling lethargic when consuming animal products. Like I said before...I need to come up with better alternatives. I have cookbooks and I know there are websites out there that will help. I just need to find healthy alternatives other than soy.

Any tips are appreciated. 

when you stop eating meat your body stops producing whatever it needs to break down meat. so if you eat it again your body basically "forgot" what to do with it and yes you'll get sick.

 i don't understand why you'd eat meat either if it makes you sick?  wouldn't it be  easier to seek out alternatives then to eat stuff that makes you sick?  i've been a vegetarian since i was about 13 i think so i went through high school being very involved in sports and activities, college where i also worked and had a hectic schedule and then working full time now at 25.  it can be done, you just can't rely on grabbing a big mac from mcds on the run.  if you have to rely on fast foods then plan ahead things you know you can get at certain places and balance out the rest of your meals.  if you have access to microwaves/refrigerators, bring foods that are easy to heat up (either frozen foods like amy's or things you make yourself), cook food in advance and freeze it or break it into tupperwares so it is ready to go.  if i needed too i just left a cooler/ice with the food in my car to keep it good until i could eat.  eating meat just because your on the go is not necessary. in fact a lot of the meat on the go foods i see look less healthy then any veggie foods i see.

ur right, french fries and pizza are veggie and junk.  i'd look around for healthier alternatives before you just gave it up. good luck.

Original Post by rw_designer:

disease_of_ease: Congratulations, you have earned yourself a dollar. I know we aren't required to have as much protein as most Americans consume on a meat-based diet. I am actually more concerned about how much other crap I eat on my veg diet. There are way too many things out there that are vegetarian and complete junk. 

My schedule is super hectic right now until the beginning of May so I need to come up with good, healthy options that are filling. 

The more I talk about this, the more I feel like a smacked ass.  

You can keep the dollar and use it to buy yourself some beans! :D

Well after one or two years of vegetarianism, i became anemic (due to EA, not vegetarianism). So with the hectic life i led, i went into lazy i-want-to-be-healthy-but-not-make-real-choice s-about-my-diet mode. I remember what it was like to eat meat. At that point i only ate meat like before i got tattoos or piercings, cause i found it helped not to get blood pressure drops. Still, going back to it felt just nasty. It's like you feel all the horrible fat in your body and it's just gross.

Nowadays i'm back to vegetarianism and i'm pretty much as healthy as i can be and i just try eating basically all the time and never skipping meals... trying to get a reasonable amount of protein (and getting it in at the beginning of the day so i don't let anything 'happen' meanwhile that would make me skip the protein).

But yeah, you'll find that the 'easy' way to be a vegetarian is having carbs all the time... having fries and sweets and all. You'll have to make some choices if you want to avoid it, but it's pretty much easy nowadays. I mean where can you not get soup and salads... Not to mention all the vegetarian alternatives.

(Also try eating nuts and beans - of course more soy, seitan, tofu, blabla)

I don't know why you would post your return to eating meat in the vegetarian forum and expect pats on the back.

Maybe you should try seeking advice/sympathy with people who don't have their own political/ethical agendas?

Well i try not to judge anyone who is not as passionate about it as i am and i expect others not to judge me if they're more passionate about it than me.

I guess this should apply to everyone?

Also i don't think people that eat meat have ever had the 'getting back to meat' problem. It's the only place to place the question, is it not?

I didn't think it was posted in any way offensive as well.

It may take your body a while to "remember" how to digest it. It's like people who get out of jail and go eat a pizza. Their bodies are not used to digesting it, and it makes them very ill. If you are choosing to eat meat again, do it very slowly. I just went vegetarian a few weeks ago. I have never felt better in my life. I have lost 8 lbs too.

Not to offend anyone, but being veg comes with an implied responsibility (which can be confirmed by cruising the vegetarian message board here, some people can be very self-righteous) that can project guilt on people who are not as passionate about the moral aspect.

I stopped eating meat about 7 years ago because the meat and dairy was making me physically ill. Most people I meet assume it's for the moral reasons and I don't like going into a spiel to explain otherwise, I think our choices are our own and don't require justification from others.

The first 9 months I was vegan, but I missed cheese too much, so I just make sure to keep my dairy consumption down now. At the end of that first year I felt so good, I thought, "Gosh darn it I have earned a BLT!"

I only made it through half of the sandwich because I started to feel ill. Not from the bacon (though that did come later), but from the guilt that I projected on myself for failing. Failing to stick to my guns and not eat foods that make me sick, and the anticipation of disappointment (or in some peoples cases glee) of those friends and family who assumed I'd made that change for moral reasons.

I do agree with many of the posts here about your body not being used to digesting it because that can go for any food you haven't eaten in a long time, but I also think you should consider whether there's some guilt playing into your stomach ache.

Nonetheless, if you want to eat meat be happy with that decision and do what you need to do.

I should also note that aside from the occasionaly bacon, I rarely ate meat in my pre-veggie days because I couldn't stand the taste of it.

I don't understand this. Just thinking about eating meat makes me sick. Just think about an animal screaming from pain and bleeding out while its most likely still alive, some poor miserable animal kept in a tiny cage, hell I'd be running the other way. No one needs that much protein, too much protein can cause health problems. Protein can be found in many other things.