I became vegetarian recently. I like the taste of meat (especially chicken), so there are times (especially when eating out) when I'd like to eat some. I have eaten fish a couple of times since starting this, but even fish doesn't appeal to me like it used to.

What started this? The first thing was that I started yoga and read about the "nonviolence" part of it. I didn't like the idea of personally killing animals and eating them, so I faced up to the fact that that's what meat is. I mean, people know that meat comes from animals, but they're so far removed from it when they pick up a pound of hamburger at the store...I think that there is a subset of people out there who would NOT eat meat if they had to personally kill and butcher it. I have experience with this (helping butcher chickens), and I was not very comfortable with eating them afterwards.

Shortly after the nonviolence idea, I saw this site: www.themeatrix.com and decided that I'd go ahead and give it a try. Then I read the book "Slaughterhouse" and was so disgusted that I knew I had made the right decision. I'm actually not very happy with animal welfare when it comes to milk/eggs either (and the pus content in milk is disgusting) but I'm sticking my head in the sand on those issues for now. I don't want to give up dairy products or eggs just yet. I enjoy the taste, and I prefer getting some animal protein rather than all soy.