The Art of Zen Living

“Be careful about changing your beliefs, because if you do, your beliefs will change you…”

My 2 weeks as a vegetarian are drawing to a close.  Or perhaps I should say that my two week commitment to being a vegetarian is drawing to a close.  I’ve seen a big difference in how I feel, my energy level and I’ve dropped 3 pounds without meaning to.  I’m guessing that’s due to the type of “whole food” vegetarianism I’m trying being naturally low in fats.  A side benefit is that almost all of the fat I do eat now are “good” fats - the omega fats, mono fats etc. etc.

My forehead is also much flatter.  I spend a lot of time slapping it and saying things like “Oh, RIGHT - pizza has cheese on it!” or “Hmmm.  Alfredo has cream in it…”.  This isn’t a problem, it just shows that I’m very new at this whole vegetarian thing.  Today I wanted to ramble on a bit, in no real order, about how I feel about this experiment, and it’s impact on my life.

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My loving kindness mantra gets good usage on any average day, but today was something special.  You’d think that perhaps I did a lot of driving in rush hour, or had a difference of opinion with a friend, or waited in line at a government service only to be told I had to go do something else first and come back.

My friend, it was nothing of the sort.  I went shopping with the intention to eat moderately healthy.  I wanted to see what the average shopper was up against in sorting through it all.  I went to WalMart - both because the prices there, according to my grocery guide, were likely to be lowest on the things I wanted, and because it was somewhere that a significant percentage of America shops.  Frugal and educational (for me) and relevant.

I wasn’t annoyed at Walmart.  The store was clean, and not too crowded.  The shelves looked a little picked over (for instance, I didn’t get the spaghetti squash that was on my list) but the things I wanted there was no problem finding.  Well, sort of.

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