Food For Thought

If you are what you eat, then I am eel wrapped in seaweed, rolled in rice, dressed in black caviar. Yum. Well, that's what I ate for lunch today anyway.

Every Wednesday, I have a lunch date with my friend, Alice.

I sat there, chopsticks in hand, listening to her story idea for a fiction piece she plans to write in the next few weeks. We begin to talk about everything, plans for our Chicago Filipino American Film Festival outing, Spanish class memories instigated by her random sighting of our awesome professor, my recommendation for Cut Copy's first album, Bright Like Neon Love, which by the way I'm starting to love more than their second album, In Ghost Colours. I'm not sure how the conversation turned, but suddenly she mentions that she's a vegetarian. At this point, the chopsticks are put down and I begin to ask her what seems like a thousand questions.

First let me say this, do you ever think you know someone, like truly know someone, and then they reveal something about themselves that you would never have guessed on your own? I love learning new things about my friends, it's so refreshing. Anyhow, when she divulged this, I stared at her in shock and admiration, it was as if she was telling me she volunteers at a soup kitchen. I really look up to individuals who try new things to live to their fullest potential, especially when those choices take an extra amount of effort on their behalf.

Alice has been a vegetarian for seven years, deciding to go sans meat in her sophomore year of high school after watching a PETA video. Don't get me wrong, she's certainly not hardcore pro-PETA, but the video really did affect her. The same shocked look is still plastered on my face as she tells me this. She then goes on to continue to answer all my questions. I've been interested in trying it out for a few months now, I like that it's so detoxifying and it's good for your body, if done properly. She tells me she always feels so light and refreshed, which I would love to feel nowadays.

After completely changing my diet around this time last year, I've become more healthy both physically and mentally, having lost a little over 40lbs now. I do feel however, that it's time I take the next step, like my body needs something more. It's so difficult to try and go vegetarian living at home with parents who are constantly cooking pork, beef and fish. Fish, I love fish. I could write a poem about fish. Going vegetarian would mean no more sushi with fish, crab, or eel. That would definitely be one of the hardest parts I'd have to overcome. There are always avocado and asparagus rolls, but will it be enough?!

So I've decided to start next week on Monday. No meat, fish or poultry. I'd have to really make an effort to include my protein in my diet, thankfully she's given me many tips and ideas. I'm only going to do this for a week to see how I feel afterwards and evaluate if this is something I could benefit from in the long term. I'm so excited to start though!

She mentioned this vegan ice cream hot spot in NYC, that she promises to take me to when I'm ever there, to get "the best ice cream" she's ever had. Oh, I should probably mention that Alice is planning to move to NYC after graduating, she is one of my pro's on my list of why I should go, the writing scene and the music scene are among others. But we'll see what happens when I get to that point, as for now I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for seven days without meat, fish and poultry. Who am I kidding? I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for seven days without sushi that has crab, eel and tuna! One day at time, right?

Thanks so much Alice, you're my favorite rockstar. I hope you know that in the next couple days I'm going to be bugging you day and night about what's okay to eat!

P.S. Oh! And last week, I wrote about the lyrics to "Hands Down," that I saw written on the wall of the women's bathroom in Stevenson Hall. For some strange reason, I ended up in that same stall today and just so happened to have my camera on me.