As part of the overall regimen, the miracle doctor recommended a new diet: low to no carbohydrates, no sugar, no vinegar, no dairy, no soy, no miso. This pretty much eliminates all of the joy in food for me, leaving mostly green vegetables and meat as my only option.
Since I left my parents house I've been some version of vegetarian for the past twenty years. But really, I think that I was probably born one. At age seven on my father's farm in Montana, I realized that we were eating Bessie the cow for dinner. I quite frankly preferred Bessie alive and went on a meat strike to the joy of the dogs who waited anxiously under the table for the meat portion of my dinner when my parents weren't watching. I never really liked the stuff after that.
Once I started a yoga practice in my twenties, the philosophy of yogic eating fit my eating style perfectly. I already understood the concept of Ahimsa (non-violence towards other beings or ourselves) with regards to the belated Bessie. There was nothing for me to give up.
Over the years I've experimented with different diets of all kinds: raw foods (no meat or cooked anything), vegan (no any products of any kind including eggs and dairy) , lacto-vegetarian (no meat or eggs, but dairy products are ok), ovo-vegetarian (no meat or dairy products. but eggs are ok), lacto-ovo vegetarian ( no meat, but eggs and dairy are ok), the anti-Candida and more recently Pescatarian (vegetarian plus fish). I tried each diet for long periods of time....often a year or longer. I do admit that the raw foods diet only lasted a month or two: New Mexico is an awfully cold environment for eating raw foods all the time. Yet still, after all of my education, efforts and determination to get my system right....I've failed. I've got bugs, darn it.
Now, twenty years later, several doctors of all types, including the current magic man, have suggested that I venture into the realm of true non-vegetarianism. They've suggested chicken, turkey, wild game, grass-fed beef and pork. Secure in my deeply held love for animals of all kinds, I've ignored all the advise--until now.
As I am learning to pause in order to see more clearly all aspects of my life, for the first time in a long time, I'm questioning some of my deeply held beliefs. I have several older yoga friends, who were once vegetarians, who gave it up saying they feel better. They look pretty good. I have several yoga friends who are not vegetarian. They also look pretty good. I also have several vegetarian friends, including raw foods enthusiasts, who also look pretty good. But if I'm really honest with myself, as we age the non-vegetarians are looking better than the vegetarians. This is my opinion based upon the people that I know. It may be a slanted survey and believe me, I'm not thrilled with the results.
That said, I believe that yoga is all about internal awareness and consciousness and that there are no black and right rules. Life is a flow, a journey and an experiment. We have to try new things. One day about a year and a half ago, I woke up dreaming about eating salmon. I put on a nice dress and took myself to the fancy Georgia O'Keefe Cafe for a wonderful salmon lunch. If the body craves something, especially in the realm of whole foods, I think that we ought to oblige it. This was the beginning of my Pescatarian diet.
While I can't exactly say that my body craves any of the recommended suggestions nor am I ready to sit in front of a big steak and eat it, I can say that the first chicken broth I made didn't taste too bad. I used tons of green vegetables to mask the flavor.
So I guess I am now a “Flexitarian," a recently coined term describing those of us who eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but occasionally eat meat or in my case, meat broth. I like the term “Flexitarian”. The word itself even has a pop culture yogic ring to it. In my dictionary, I think I’d like to define it as:
Flexitarian (noun)—A person who sees reality clearly and adjusts himself or herself accordingly.
Or maybe we already have a word for it: Yogi.
“Killing and eating meat are interrelated, so do we have to give up eating animal products? I myself once tried to give it up, but health problems arose and two years later my doctors advised me to again use meat in my diet. If there are people who can give up eating meat, we can only rejoice in their noble efforts. In any case, at least we should try to lessen our intake of meat and not eat it anywhere where it is in scarce supply and our consumption of it would cause added slaughter.”
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama from The Path to Enlightenment, published by Snow Lion Publications
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