For those of you who don't know I am a pescatarian and have been for the last eight months, and I had been previously for about eight or nine months. Any time I tell people that I'm pescatarian their first question is "why" if not "what the hell is a pescatarian?"
I know you're probably rolling your eyes at this point about ready to stop reading, thinking that what's next is probably a post trying to convince you or guilt you to being pescatarian, too. Rest assured, this blog isn't going to convince you to become a pescatarian, but it does attempt to explain why I am and reinforce to myself why I decided to become one.
For me, being a pescatarian started my sophomore year of college. Honestly, I really don't know what triggered going pescatarian. My mom had been pescatarian for a few years so I thought why not. I began to notice that I didn't really eat meat a lot and when I did it was only chicken. Even that wasn't my favorite. I just figured if I didn't like it that much it'd be easy enough to cut it out completely. I was right and it ended up being easier than I thought. The hardest part came when people would do BBQs or during catered events where the only options were meat or some other meat. I would find ways around this, picking at salads or other appetizers. Slowly though people came to understand that I didn't eat meat and would even make sure to have veggie burgers at cook outs. Being a pescatarian became super easy for me and I was even able to continue to stick with my pescatarian diet in China where I ate lots of tofu and vegetables.
The thing is after China I stopped. Why? It came down to what I thought was convenience. I had started a new internship basically right after I got back home where I would be working 9 to 5 and commuting 45 minutes both ways on top of that. With a new internship where I packed my own lunch every day, chicken seemed easy. Chicken was one meat that I liked so I thought it would be easier and cheaper to just grill it on Sundays and pack it with different things like rice and pasta. Looking back, it would have been just as easy for me to roast vegetables and eat pasta without meat. Eating meat again though I realized that I wasn't missing out on much. I didn't suddenly get the urge to eat burgers, pulled pork, or anything like that. Instead I really just ate it because it was available, not because I was craving it.
Once the school year started again I decided to go back to being pescatarian. Why? I liked being pescatarian and was starting to learn more about the environmental impacts. I watched a documentary on Netflix called Forks Over Knives that helped to affirm my reasons for cutting out meat. Going back to being a pescatarian proved to be harder than my first time because people didn’t think I was serious. They would offer me meat and only provide options with meat at different functions. This was probably the hardest part of transitioning back and the most frustrating, especially when people would tell me that I really wasn't pescatarian since I had stopped before.
This is the only piece of advice that I will give. Respect people's diets regardless of what they are and however long they are doing it for. We would never insist a Catholic during Lent to eat a hamburger for lunch on a Friday so why would we insist that someone who wants to be a vegetarian eats a burger? Additionally, just because someone is only dieting for a month and has previously stopped dieting does not mean that they are not dieting. We wouldn't shame them into eating a cookie because once in a while doesn't hurt. Regardless of how long someone has made a choice to become pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, or any other dietary constraint support and believe them. It's their choice to make.
Eight months in, I'm confident that my decision to be pescatarian isn't going to change anytime soon. The reason that I had stopped before was because I didn't have a real good reason to stick by it. Now that I have firm reasons, I don't foresee myself caving for buffalo chicken dip, pushed by "convenience," or switching back for any other small reasons.
Still confused? Have some questions? Ya, I've been asked a lot. Below are some of the questions I've been asked and hopefully they answer any questions you have too!
FAQ
So exactly is a pescatarian?
Being a pescatarian means that I do not eat meat- pork, beef, chicken, all that good stuff- BUT I do eat fish. Anything that comes from the sea I'll eat so fish, oyster, shrimp, lobster, all of that.
Why not a vegetarian?
Honestly, I really love sushi. It's that simple. Since the primary reason I gave up meat was because I just didn't like it in the first place I wasn't going to deprive myself of something I did enjoy.
Currently just being a pescatarian is good enough for me. Yes, one day I probably will cut back completely, but for now I really do enjoy the fish I do eat when I do eat it.
But don't you get cravings for meat?
Nope! I've always preferred things like veggie burgers over hamburgers. The one thing that I haven't found a great substitute for yet is buffalo chicken dip but I do want to experiment with cauliflower and Morning Star alternatives to find one I like.
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