To be or not to be a vegetarian

I will comment on a recent FB post here:

I'm feeling...compelled to become vegetarian again. But damn! you have to eat so many veggies to get the same calories as meat. I feel like I'm stuffing my face all the time when I abstain. Any advice, vegetarian friends?
Apparently you aren’t the only one having that experience. While traveling in Europe with a group of meat-eaters, each time I ordered my vegetarian entree, my plate of food was so enormous, I had to pass it around for everyone to share. People just assume if you are a vegetarian, you will need a lot of food to feel full after your meal. Watching me enjoy nut cutlets, quiche, moussaka, vegetable lasagna and other beautiful, vegetarian kitchen creations, they all vowed they would travel as vegetarians next time.

My experience has been that after the first week or so of no meat, the body adjusts and your hunger is easily satiated with normal sized meals. You can get plenty of calories from nuts, coconut oil, avocados and, if you aren’t vegan, from dairy and eggs.

But that was my experience. It sounds to me like your body may be telling you something different.

My question is: what is compelling you to want to become a vegetarian? If you feel that it would be the healthiest thing for you to do, then ride out the hunger for a week or two and see how you feel. Maybe there are other motivations to explore as well.

It sounds like you have been vegetarian before. What was that like? Were you able to get enough nourishment and energy from your diet? Why did you go back to eating meat?

What you eat affects every aspect of your yoga practice and your life. That said, food is medicine and everyone may not need the same medicine. Listen closely to your body and don’t be afraid to explore a little.

Are you, or have you ever been vegetarian? What was your motivation and what effect has your diet had on your health?
You can leave your comment at www.smilingyogi.blogspot.com

Change is a given

Shifts Happen. So what do you do about it? Well, you can sit around and worry about what might be, losing sleep and getting more and more uptight and fearful, or you can be fully present in the moment, and marvel at life unfolding.

And if you watch very closely, you’ll notice that the times you suffer most are the times when you are not accepting what is. You are wishing it were different than it is, but it is not different, it is what it is. Once you figure that out and really get it, you can deal more efficiently with anything that happens to you. You will not be wasting time and effort grunting over things you can do nothing about. And when you do make a move, it will be more direct, with fewer attachments to outcome. It is freeing.

It’s not what happens to you but what you do with it, what you make it mean that determines your level of happiness. Zen teacher Cherie Huber used to say people are meaning making machines. Ha ha! Isn’t that the truth!?! Watch yourself as you move through your life, interpreting things. What are your patterns? One way to move beyond your own mental patternings is to say to yourself, “that’s one way of looking at this. Are there other ways?”

Byron Katie has a wonderful way with this practice. She has four simple questions and a turn around for you to use anytime you get lost. On her website www.thework.com she asks "Who would you be without your story?" Whenever you are afraid of the impending changes in our world, ask yourself that question. You can ask, “Who would I be without my money?” Or just fill in the blank with whatever fears you hold onto - “Who would I be without ______?”