Temptation everywhere!

Meat is everywhere! I’m officially finding this really quite hard; every M&S food-porn ad is like torture, and even food shopping is like running a temptation-gauntlet.

There have been 2 specific incidents where I’ve really had my will-power tested to the max in the last 2 and a bit weeks, and they revolve around the same weekend… I had known for a while that I would be attending a big work conference / awards thing in Brighton, and the decision to go veggie really hit me when I had to RSVP with a “special dietary requirement” for the first time in my life. On the night, I was dreading a nut loaf being put in front of me, but the reality was far worse… a STEAK! An amazing looking steak – I almost cried. I had to ask the servers to replace it with the vegetarian option which was really disappointing gnocchi - is it usual that far less effort is put into veggie options btw? I’d be really interested to know... So, while everyone else was delighting in telling me how delicious the beef was, I was sulkily chewing on tasteless potato lumps in watery tomato sauce, not a great start to the night.

By the next morning, after an ocean of wine, all I could think about was bacon: delicious crispy, salty bacon, mmmm. I walked around the buffet and thought fuck it, I want bacon, I’m going to have bacon, and I popped some onto my plate. When I got back to my table however, a very wise person pointed out that if I ate it, it would have essentially wasted that gorgeous steak that I turned down, and I would be so disappointed in myself when the hangover cleared. She was right. The result being, I DIDN’T EAT THE BACON! (See evidence below...)

Now, that might seem like a very small victory, but it really isn’t. I’m finding I have to think so much harder about every meal I cook, and I’m convinced that I’m thinking about it all the time. I’m pretty sure that this is actually because it’s something I’m denying myself though, rather than a complete preoccupation with it. Or at least I hope this is the case...

I’ve also come to a bit of a decision about what I want to get out of this… While I’m pretty sure I won’t be a convert after this experiment, I would like to rely far less on meat to make a meal, and eat it less – instead buying better quality meat as a treat occasionally. Who knows if that sentiment will last though, I really would like a bit of bacon right now…