Tag Archives: vegetarianism

by | August 30, 2011 · 7:42 pm

New Post on the Veggie Stand, “Confessions of A Vegetarian: Before and After, My Two Selves”

As a biased free spirit, I am rooting for the Frida on the right. This painting strongly reminded me of an event in my life that occurred the other day when I picked up a pizza.  I scanned the menu while I chatted with the hostess. On the menu the buffalo chicken pizza caught my eye. It had roasted peppers, onions, hot sauce and homemade Gorgonzola dressing- oh and chicken. It was certainly the most delicious buffalo chicken pizza I’d ever heard of. “Your buffalo chicken pizza sounds really good. I don’t eat meat, but I used to lovebuffalo chicken pizza- before I became a vegetarian,” I blurted to the hostess. Our conversation ensued and she suggested I get it sans chicken because it would likely be just as delicious as with the chicken, I concurred and went on to tell her that when I used to eat meat, like buffalo chicken. I thought about buffalo chicken for a moment. Maybe she was right. I loved the hot sauce, the fried crispy breading, and the dressing, but never truly liked the chicken part. She nodded her head in agreement knowingly as we continued to discuss this issue.

I walked out with my vegetarian pizza, crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil, I thought about our conversation.  As I spoke of my former self, the one who loved buffalo chicken pizza, It felt like I was talking about someone else. Indeed we were no longer the same person, but how could that be?

Read More At The Veggie Stand

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by | August 22, 2011 · 5:16 am

Confessions of A Vegetarian: Carnivorous Cravings

Please check out my newest article on The Veggie Stand, “Confessions of A Vegetarian: Carnivorous Cravings.” 

Last week I wanted a filet mignon. The next day it was salmon. I don’t think us vegetarians are suppose to say this out loud (especially those of us who are vegetarians for ethical reasons). Aren’t we suppose to be so married to the cause -the principles of ethical vegetarianism- that we wouldn’t dare admit to missing steak? Well not really… Maybe an outsider would expect that from us, but those of us who are active veggies know that we sometimes get cravings for meat or fish and that sometimes it can be borderline unbearable.

Most of the time abstaining from meat isn’t much of a struggle. However, since becoming a vegetarian eating has become more of a chore than ever. My meals have become more elaborate and take more planning that when I was an omnivore and could just grill up some chicken, throw it into a salad, and call it dinner. Though food is still a very big part of my life, my feelings for it have changed since committing to my vegetarian lifestyle.

Before becoming a vegetarian, I was a very different person. When I traveled, food and beer were as exciting and pleasurable as the atmosphere of the destination itself. For me, overindulgence almost always went hand in hand with vacation. In this I am not alone, as many people give weight to the sampling of ethnic or regional food and drinks when traveling. Some people travel for the food and drinks alone!

Follow the link to The Veggie Stand to read the rest of the article

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by | August 14, 2011 · 12:49 pm

Harassing the Vegetarian

Check out my new post on The Veggie Stand: “Harassing the Vegetarian.”

Since becoming a vegetarian I find that many non-vegetarians are offended by my very ethical standpoint. Though I have never rubbed my ideologies or explained to them why I find the slaughtering of animals for food offensive, they still find something about me intimidating. The very idea of my vegetarianism has offended a handful of people within my friends and family circles. But why?

None of the offended people have ever had the intentions of becoming a vegetarian nor the slightest interest in vegetarianism, so why does my choice to be one offend them? I have had people make fun of me and tease me. Okay well that might just be playful… I have also had people describe in detail the gutting of a deer and how delicious the meat tasted. Now that was meant to annoy me. Most recently I had someone send me a Youtube video of a person chasing a wild turkey into a busy street. Why? Why do they send me such videos? I promptly wrote back- you do know that I LIKE animals don’t you? They haven’t answered me yet.

You can finish reading it here. 

 

 

 

 

 

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by | July 30, 2011 · 2:05 pm

I’m Launching a New Site: The Veggie Stand

Since vegetarianism and animals rights are such specific subjects, I decided to branch out from Hayley’s Comments and create The Veggie Stand; a site devoted to both those things! I will still write about these subjects on Hayley’s Comments but I will be writing more extensively about them on The Veggie Stand

I will be officially launching The Veggie Stand on Monday August 1st. The Veggie Stand is going to be a place that not only supports animal rights, discusses the benefits of vegetarianism, and shares recipes, it will also have comic strips, discuss some of the spiritual aspects of vegetarianism and nature, and sometimes have environmental discussions as well. If you are interested in subscribing to this blog please enter your email address into the righthand corner at The Veggie Stand.com and hit subscribe or you can follow me on Twitter @TheVeggieStand.

Have a great weekend!

Hayley

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by | July 28, 2011 · 12:07 am

The Lonely Vegetarian: A Weekly Comic Strip

The Lonely Vegetarian: A Weekly Comic Strip.

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by | · 12:03 am

The Lonely Vegetarian: A Weekly Comic Strip

OK. So tonight my brain is fried from all the writing I’ve been doing this week, so I decided to try something new- a comic strip! I would like to make this a weekly addition to my blog, Hayley’s Comments: Introspection on Healing, Life, and Vegetarianism. I noticed tonight I have barely written anything about vegetarianism in weeks—maybe even months, so I unveil my new comic strip, “The Lonely Vegetarian.”

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by | June 1, 2011 · 4:03 am

Hunted

Someone once told me that rapists scope out their victims and deliberately choose certain type of person; who they view as easy prey. By sizing up their victim in this way, they gain control of the situation. When I heard about this, it really upset me, and I wondered if my persona could make me the victim of this violent crime once again. Once a rapist selects their target, they stalk him/her and plot their attack. Then they ambush their victim in a variety of ways such as coercion, date rape drugs, and violence.

There is a common misconception that rapists rape for sex. This is wrong. In fact, it is noted that rapists have access to legal sex; many of them have wives or girlfriends. Rapists rape for power. Serial rapists might even do it for sport, for some type of twisted thrill, that is perhaps comparable to the jolt of excitement kleptomaniacs cite to explain their addiction to stealing. After committing a rape, the rapist does not care that they just traumatized and possibly destroyed a living and breathing being. The rapist didn’t even consider that their victim was an individual with thoughts and feelings. The rapist only cared about one thing: getting what they wanted through control and domination.

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by | May 25, 2011 · 5:02 pm

Simplify: Removing Alcohol and Meat from My Life

What happens when you remove both meat and alcohol from your life? Some people would consider living in this type of existence hell. I myself once felt that completely removing alcohol from my life would never happen. I liked my frozen drinks and microbrews. To be clear it wasn’t anywhere near alcohol dependence, just social drinking. Somehow social drinking was a part of me that I didn’t feel the need to give up, drinking once a month or twice tops. In fact, when I turned vegetarian, I remember being excited that I could still drink beer. Somehow even drinking a few times a month can turn into a problem.

When I cut out drinking for dieting purposes, after a month my motivation levels increased. I became more persistent and much less apt to give up. This weekend I watched alcohol ruin an otherwise wonderful relationship, and I cannot help but think that without the drinking it would’ve been fine.

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by | May 9, 2011 · 3:26 pm

The Two Hayleys

"The Two Fridas," by Frida Kahlo

Above is one of Frida Kahlo’s most famous paintings, “The Two Fridas” or “Las dos Fridas.” She painted this shortly after her beloved husband asked her for a divorce. The Frida on the left of the painting is dressed in conservative attire; likely the acceptable societal clothing of her time, while the Frida on the right dons bright colored clothing that resembles her Native Mexican lineage. Who is Frida? Is she torn between what society expects her to be and who she truly is? The division of herself as two separate entities certainly suggests she has two faces, the true Frida, which likely sits on the right, and the Frida she presents to the world on the left. Somehow her impending divorce  has caused Frida to spilt and come forward as two very distinct selves in this painting.

If you look closely you will see that the conservative Frida in the white dress has cut her vein with scissors. This snip implies an end to the circuit that keeps the two Fridas together. But who is leaving who and which personality, each so different, will prevail?

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by | April 8, 2011 · 5:53 pm

Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month

It seems to me that not being cruel to animals should be a no-brainer , but given the fact that April is officially titled “Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month” I am obviously wrong. Animal abuse is a common practice that comes in many forms, from animal testing, to “fake fur” production. Each year between 25 to 100 million animals including chimpanzees, monkeys, beagles, dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, birds, farm animals, are used for experimentation in the U.S. alone.  Every year roughly 2 million dogs and cats are killed to produce “fake” fur coats.   While many other “fur producing” animals are skinned alive.

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