I want to eat meat after 10 years of vegetarianism/veganism

[Iwantasteak]

Another thread running right now has inspired this but I've been thinking about this for a while now. I feel so guilty to say that I'm considering going back to eating meat.

I have been a vegetarian and then a vegan since early teens and I feel like it's a part of my personality at this point. I don't know how people who know me will react, it would be so embarrassing to tell people.

I have a baby, who I'm not raising vegetarian, and I want to eat family meals together. I've also just been getting random cravings for meat and the eggs I let myself eat during pregnancy. I cooked a pork chop yesterday for my baby to have BLW style and it smelled so good. She loved it too.

Maybe there would be health benefits too? I don't know, I haven't eaten meat in so long that I don't remember what it's like.

I want a tuna baked potato.
I want fried eggs/dippy eggs.
I want a steak.
I want an egg salad sandwich.
I want a pork chop.
I want a proper roast dinner.
I want a chicken salad.
I want some haribo.

I was vegetarian for 20 years, then got pregnant and craved red meat soooo much from around 6 months. I gave in to the cravings as I figured my body was telling me something, and I’ve never gone back. Cooking simple meals with meat was so much easier than cooking veggie, and when you have a baby you just want everything to be as easy and quick as possible! Also breast feeding can be exhausting, and I found that meat gave me more sustained energy. I’ve never looked back, and it wasn’t once questioned by anyone I knew. Now I’m the one who rolls their eyes when a house guest tells me they’re veggie, as it’s much more hassle having to make something different. Made me realize how much effort my mum put in for me when I was a veggie teen though!

I think your veggie friends might be curious, but your meat-eating friends won’t give it any thought at all.

if you crave meat, try it a couple of times in a week and see how you feel. Women need much more protein as we get older because we can’t absorb it as well as we used to, and meat is a very good source of protein.

I was a vegetarian for five years and when I became pregnant I decided to start eating meat. I started just chicken a couple of times a week and now I’ll eat all meat except lamb, veal, rabbit and venison. Truth be told, I missed meat horrendously and craved to so much during my first trimester that I decided my body much have needed it!

My husband and I were vegan/ veggie for nearly a decade, been eating meat again now for two years and happy to have made the switch! I feel overall now our diets are much more varied and have the best of both worlds.

I don't think other people's views on it should come into account.

If you want to eat meat on a regular or one-off basis then do.

I was vegetarian from 13-20 then started eating meat again, going back to veggie a few years ago. I'm probably more flexi than veggie, as if I'm out for a meal or away on holiday and there is nothing veggie on the menu I want to eat, I will eat meat. My family are meat eaters too so I eat food that has "touched" theirs. I wouldn't say I am "flexitarian" IRL though as it sounds made up and no one cares.

Absolutely it's your choice, sadly I've worked in a slaughter house and seen the misery. I wouldnt judge you, but would feel for the animals. We can choose, thank god. They cannot.

Both my daughters have independently stopped being vegetarian in the last 12 months after many years.
Your future choices do not need to be defined by decisions you’ve made in the past. The only person backing you into a corner and making it difficult to come out is you.
Eat what you want to, enjoy eating with your baby and your husband. Make your own decisions for your life now.
No need to make any big announcements, just quietly order the chicken dish next time you’re out. Unless you’ve been militant and judgemental of others in the past then no one else should care less what you choose to eat now.

Then do. I've been veggie for 35 years, but that's my business not anyone else's. Eat what you want to eat, why deny yourself because you're worried what other people (who it sounds like aren't even veggie themselves) will think?

Indulge those cravings!
I was veggie/ vegan for most of my 20’s and 30’s. When I hit menopause, chicken ( particularly Nando’s ) appeared on my radar. That was it, I went for it. Also tuna mayonnaise, the skin on a roast chicken, chicken Balti..just yum! 😋

I went vegetarian at 14 because I didn’t like meat. I didn’t like the texture or the taste.

In my 30s, I started eating fish and seafood but still didn’t eat meat because I just did not want to and felt no lack in my life from not eating meat.

In the last few months, I’ve started to have the odd bit of bacon, mostly in particular dishes. I have to admit, it did make me question myself a bit because my dietary identity since I was 14 has been that I don’t eat meat. I still don’t want to eat most meat and could not eat a steak, burger or sausages, for example.

I’ve never described myself as a vegetarian unless I needed to when on holiday abroad or in a place where ‘pescatarian’ wasn’t a thing.

I think people’s tastes and feelings change over time.

As a vegan, I hope one day everyone will be vegan and we will find a way to do that. I still don’t care what any one person does. If you want to eat animal products, do it. If you don’t, don’t.

What I do find difficult to believe is that a vegetarian or vegan would post this here knowing the shit that vegans and vegetarians gets. This is the 4th thread I’ve seen this week that seems designed to cause division on this subject.

Do what you want, honestly people are too busy with their own stuff to care. You sound like you enjoy the performative aspect of veganism, just find something else to bang on about - hyrox? cottage cheese?

Weirdly I was a vegetarian for 20yrs, then started eating meat again, but when I was pregnant I went completely off it!!

I eat meat again now, but I think I was a lot healthier when I was a vegetarian.

Go for it @Iwantasteak You've given a decade to veganism, and your body is clearly crying out for meat. I know 2 people right now who have been vegans for 10 years and 15 years, and they have both started lapsing, and eating milk related, and egg related things (and cheese.) Just this year... Both early 30s. No meat, but they are not vegans anymore.. I think it's untenable to be a vegan all your life (for most people.)

These 2 people were quite preachy to be honest, but most people around them aren't judging or gloating, everyone around them is just pleased they have stopped being a vegan! 😆 (Because they no longer have judgy comments and side-eyes from the vegans when they eat egg or cheese, or drink milk!)

Eat what you want, it’s your choice nobody else’s. You may get some comments but just say what you said here

I was veggie for 25 years and then I started wanting to eat meat. TBH I’m bored of meat now (10years later) and now I’m mostly a veggie at home - sometimes meat eater when out - veggie food from restaurants can still be very dull. Home cooked is fabulous though.

I'm not criticizing veganism as a whole. This is just about my own personal diet. I do feel incredibly guilty about wanting to try meat again.

I haven't "designed" this thread to do anything though.

If I'm catering for friends I pretty much always do veggie with a vegan option, and that's because I can never remember what other people eat - and that's for friends I have known decades. Some go through times when they are veggie and times where they aren't - I've never seen that as a problem bevause so have I. Make your own choices and don't worry about other people's opinions.

It sounds like you've made up your mind already.

I've been a vegetarian since my teens. I actually considered eating meat again due to severe anaemia, but I couldn't face it.

Maybe go back to vegetarianism for now?

Everyone to their own. I feel sick at the smell of blood when I pass a butchers and couldn’t eat meat if you paid me and I used to love it so much. Been 34 years for me now so I see what you mean about it being part of your personality. You do you.

I’m finding your OP confusing. You say you’ve got a baby and ate meat during pregnancy but then said you can’t remember what it’s like to eat meat. You’re not a veggie, more a flexi anyway so what’s the question?

I will say (as a not-vegetarian) that the vegan haribo piss all over the normal ones, all vegan chewy sweets are superior as you're about to learn lol

Aside from that, do exactly as you want, you're not beholden to anyone, just take it easy cos they are proteins your body won't be used to processing. You might just get it all out of your system and go back to being veggie, you might not. But I see no value in denying yourself things you are really craving, we don't live long enough :)

Cottage cheese will be one thing I wouldn't be able to bring myself to try, if I do decide to eat animal products. 😂

I wouldn't say I enjoy the performative aspect. I'm not preachy and I never mention it in day to day life. Most friends only found out when we've gone out to eat for the first time and I've ordered the vegan option. It's just how I've eaten for the past decade so it feels like a big deal to do a 180 and eat a steak.

I worded that sentence badly. I ate eggs during pregnancy. I haven't eaten meat in 10 years, I've just been craving it recently.

Since giving birth, I've gone back to veganism.

You have to own your choices. For me, I always think that if I feel guilty about something, maybe I shouldn’t be doing it. We all make choices and this something you have to be comfortable with. It shouldn’t be about anyone else’s opinion. What you should understand is that some people here love threads like this, not because they want to help you, but because they want to make vegetarians and vegans look bad in some way for their own agendas.

Do what you think is right.

This happened to me. It is part of your personality that is difficult to go back on. Sounds like your body wants meat. You have grown a baby, you deserve to eat what you want. You buy and cook meat anyway, so it's not like you are saving the planet if you don't. You didn't sign up to a religion so just do it. I honestly think there are some nutrients you just can't get otherwise.