I Am Still Living With Your Ghost, Lonely And Dreaming Of The West Coast

Alleluia Christ has risen, Christ has risen Alleluia.

If you want proof that old habits die hard there it is. I have no idea but for some reason that is the only thing I remember from my time in Sunday school and despite the fact that I am not overly religious anymore I feel a need to say it on Easter Sunday.

 So the fact that I just went through the previous spiel means that lent is over. This year for lent I decided to give up meat, but not for religious or moral/ethical reason. I gave up meat because I wanted to challenge myself and experience just for a little while, the challenges that vegetarians face. I also inadvertently managed to learn stuff along the way thanks to various people from University students to  former vegetarians.

One of the first things I realized is that eating out can be nearly impossible unless you go to a restaurant that  you know has many meatless options. I am glad I decide to keep fish and seafood in my diet otherwise I would be hooped if I ever felt like not cooking at home and eating out. If you eliminate seafood I  found that almost every restaurant has 2-3 meals that don't have meat in them however one of those options will be bread sticks, one will be some unholy concoction of your least favorite foods and 1 option will be something you might enjoy. Add in the fish stuffs and your up to 5-7. I purposefully left out any meals where you can theoretically just pick the meat off and leave it on the side, because you fill like walking into traffic afterwords. I also left off salads because 9/10 times they are a huge rip off or fall into the category of picking meat out.

If I decided to try this out again I will not eat fake meats AKA anything that says meatless then a meat product. These things taste nothing like the originals and make you crave the original harder than you did before you had the imposter. I suspect that if I decided to go meatless for life I would accept these abominations since my tongue would someday forget what the real thing tastes like. The only exception to this is veggie meal (fake ground beef) and veggie burgers which are surprisingly delicious mainly because they offer an alternative to hamburger instead of imitating hamburger.

While going meatless I found that certain fast food places were better than others. When I first started I found solace in McDonalds Fillet O Fish. Before lent I would have one of these occasionally now that lent is over I hope to never put one in my mouth again. I rarely go to Tim Horton's but during lent I went at least 3 times on my way to work for a bagel and a fruit smoothie and possibly an egg salad sandwich. If you have never tried their egg salad sandwich I would suggest you never do it leaves a lot to be desired. Burger King has a decent veggie burger however I have never been a B.K. fan. One place that I found to be incredible useful was Booster Juice since they have various smoothies and some decent wraps. I am unsure of how good subway is. On one hand I went there a few times for tuna and seafood sensation subs. Tuna was fine however seafood sensation is rather perplexing. A six inch sub was not quite filling enough and a twelve inch was too much seafood to handle and there is a chance that it made me violently ill at least once but seeing as how I had it more than once I can't confirm if it was the sole cause.

After everything is all said and done this has been a more or less enjoyable experience and one I am not against trying again in the future for longer lengths of time and after finding out about the effects that meat has on the planet I will definitely be consuming less and will probably do something similar to meatless Mondays. Now that lent has run it's course I will probably wait at least a month before I tackle something else. I blame A.J. Jacobs for my almost need to be challenging myself in some way. If you have not read The Year of Living Biblicaly or The Guinea Pig Diaries I suggest you go out and read one or both of those books. I am not 100% locked in but I may take another run at radical honesty in the near future.

Also I am glad to report that my body didn't attack me after eating a sausage mcmuffin for breakfast and hopefully there isn't an intestinal revolution until well after Easter supper.

You're A Top Ten Kingpin In The Borders Of Your Hometown

Well look at this I have actually managed to do something I said I would do in my blog. Before I get into how much fun I am having with lent I will bore a potion of you to death. March is a wonderful month, spring starts, my birthday is in march, and the federal and provincial budgets happen in march. I am not entertained by the budgets as much as all the hullabaloo that surrounds them. The provincial budget had a surprising amount of fanfare in comparison to other years. I believe this may have something to do with the fact that is an election year. I haven't really looked at it but so far nothing jumps out as evil unless you happen to be an opposition MLA in that case you are paid to think today's budget will destroy the province and give cause the sun to explode, likewise all government MLA's are paid to tell you this is the best budget in the history of finance and that it contains the cure for all the worlds diseases. So just like all things that politicians take it with a heavy grain of salt. Of course Federally things aren't quite as hunky dory thanks to the joys of a minority government that could implode upon itself if someone has baked beans for lunch. As if by clockwork all the pundits and people "in the know" are saying that an election is imminent. These are the same people who say an election is imminent at least 3 times a year. I'm beginning to think it is part of  their contract to whip people into an election frenzy whenever the word budget, coalition or government is uttered. True all the parties have said that they will not support the budget however it wouldn't be the first time nobody claimed to support the budget even if drastic changes are made and then suddenly wholeheartedly support the budget after a few minor changes. Unlike many of my peers I will not get on the election bandwagon unless I am trying to knock the wheels off until a date is set in stone.

Now onto the reason I am blogging instead of being productive. If you are remotely religious or used to have an inkling of religion or know of religion you know about Easter and possibly lent. For those not in the know lent is the 40 days before Easter Sunday in which you give up something you enjoy. Despite the fact that I am not overly religious anymore I still enjoy and partake in lent annually mainly because I enjoy challenging myself from time to time. In the past I have given up such things as coffee, video games, and last year the hardest challenge to date lying. This year I decided to give up something I have numerous times a day but others never even think of touching. This year I am giving up meat. That includes chicken as well as beef and pork however I am still eating seafood. As well because I am giving up meat specifically I still enjoy eggs and milk on a regular basis which makes it easy. So far the most difficult thing is forgetting to plan ahead and having to eat out. There are non meat options but ,any of them are just rip offs. Such as a veggie sub from subway or mr.sub. I refuse to pay for something it is only "complimentary veggies" and priced the same as a real sub. So far the best options are McDonalds fillet of fish or Booster Juice as well as anything you can find in Superstore or Sobeys. After 3 weeks the only thing I miss is bacon however by Easter Sunday I will probably be willing to do horrible horrible things for meat. Also I learned watching epic meal time videos is a very bad idea when you can't eat meat so for those of you who are meatetarians enjoy this because I can't

I'm not sure how appetizing this would be if I wasn't going through meat withdrawal