The no meat athlete

I don't eat a lot of meat. In fact, I tend not to buy it unless I'm throwing a party. Don't get me wrong, I love meat. One of my favorite dishes to make is puerco pibil, which is a Mexican dish that's hot and the pork just melts in your mouth. It's wonderful!

But I tend not to eat meat regularly. I always wondered if that would be a problem, and if it's the cause of my fatigue. Maybe I don't get enough iron. But I've found some great resources for running without eating meat. The No Meat Athlete has some great ideas on nutrition for runners.

Most people suggest eating beans and kale or other vitamin rich veggies and legumes. It sounds like a great idea, but it's hard to eat well here. Dad tends to get burritos on Thursdays, and chicken salads one day a week. Other than that, we pick at some things in the cabinet. We had clam chowder from a can tonight. I'm hoping that I can find some good recipes and start cooking again. It's easy to cook for two, and I'm sure he would appreciate it. I was thinking of making pumpkin bread again tonight. It just makes the house smell so good!

All things great and small

Sometimes I look at pictures of animals and think: tasty. And other times, I think: dear God, how can I eat something sentient?

I believe all things have a soul. All things, including grass and trees, octopi and platypus. Platypuses. Platypi. I love English. Anyway, I believe that each thing has a part in this world, but can speak for itself in it's own language. They've done studies where plants actually make noise or signal other plants when they're in danger. And now the complexity of the sucker on the octopus is explained. Jesus, I like calamari and all, but if even the suckers are that smart, how smart is the octopus?

It's kind of like Paul the octopus who predicted the world cup soccer tournament winners. "Common octopuses like Paul are very intelligent. We equate their intelligence with that of a dog and they love problem solving and figuring things out."

Like a dog? How can you justify eating something so smart? And pigs are smart, too. Cows on the other hand are pretty dumb, so burgers are still in. Or, are they: Cows are also capable of feeling strong emotions such as pain, fear and even anxiety — they worry about the future. But if farmers provide the right conditions, they can also feel great happiness. Yeah, that whole article makes you want to run with PETA and set all the animals of the world free.

Perhaps it's time to go vegetarian? I usually eat vegetarian unless I go out to eat somewhere, and I already don't like chicken, so there's no biggie. It would be giving up shrimp and hamburgers that would suck. But I think I could do it. I think if I think about how smart the animals really are I won't be able to eat them. Well, hell, I'm unemployed, let's try to experiment.