I do not eat meat (including fish,) and I tend to avoid consuming milk and eggs in their straightforward forms. To some people, this is an affront to the natural order of things. Relax, I am not a radical, but one need not be a vegetarian. Things like animal abuse and the environmental impact of factory farming certainly weigh on my mind, but my reasons for forsaking animal muscle mass are a little more personal than that.
I worked at a McDonald's during my formative years. Handling those frozen meat patties all the time made me gain a slightly different feeling about my dietary patterns. Before my time working, I loved bragging about how much I loved meat. I thought vegetarianism was stupid. But after making Big Macs with my hands without gloves (they are not required in Waukesha County,) meat started looking gross.
Soon enough, I gained an aversion to red meat. I could not eat it in front of people; I thought they would judge me, but really, I was judging myself. A few months of going red-meat-less, I went to college (Go Badgers!) and woke up one day with absolutely no desire to eat meat. I literally woke up one day a vegetarian. To this day, I have had absolutely no desire to eat meat.
Two lessons: 1. I gave up meat as a personal Kosher, and I feel better. 2. I gave up meat because I had lost all desire to eat it. If you ever want to give up something completely, it is always easier to do it when you don't want it.
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