Vegetarian Diet in 2009

I became a vegetarian when I was nineteen years old. It was a decision I made during my freshman year of college. I thought it was something that I would only be able to commit to for a month or two. Now I am proud to say that I've been a vegetarian for almost a decade. It disappointed my mother and former step-father but I was determined to stay on course. Luckily, my mother has been extremely supportive in the last few years. She even goes out of her way to make meals for me with a variety of delicious "faux" meats.

When people find out that I'm a vegetarian they say to me, "I just love meat too much. I can't give up chicken or beef." I think to myself that there's plenty of meatless subsitutions for any variety of meat dishes. There's a wonderful "meaty" world beyond tofu and lettuce these days.

Over the last decade I have noticed a big improvement in the foods available to the vegetarian diet. There's also a lot of people more open to offering vegetarian foodat parties and other gatherings. It makes the vegetarian lifestyle much easier to manage. Even when I go to the local grocery store, I see that there's an entire section of vegetarian or even vegan food. Morningstar farms has a huge selection of fake meats, including sausage, bacon, chicken and burger substitutes! The good news is that they are extremely tasty, low fat, low carbohydrate (unless you get anything with breading) and cholesterol free!! That makes this vegetarian vixen very happy!