I was a vegan for four years aged 14-18... but during some hassles with an eating disorder (no, I'm not making excuses, but I was in a very weird place then), I became an ovo-lacto vegetarian and then an omnivore in quick succession. And I continued eating meat for over two years, and just didn't think about it, at all - no guilt, no thought. Last new years, I became a vegetarian, because I felt it was wrong not to be, and then more recently, I became a vegan again, with a few lapses. I'm recovering from an eating disorder, and when I binge I sometimes toy with the idea of eating meat, and sometimes I give in and do eat dairy/eggs.
I finally connected with my old ideals the other day, remembered, truly felt, why I gave up meat in the first place, all those many moons ago. So I don't think, even at my lowest ebb, re. the eating disorder, that I would eat meat now... but when I fuck up re. dairy/eggs, I feel horrible about it, guilty, useless, greedy, awful - but then I hop back on the wagon like MC says. You just deal with it - it doesn't undo all your prior good work, you know? Perhaps it's good to slip every once in a while, because it makes you re-examine your ideals, and might make you remember why you chose this path in the first place... |
