This morning was the usual weigh-in day at our fine household and after a disappointing set of results for me last week, I have positive news to report. I drop 1.1 pounds! Hooray! Let’s celebrate… um… no. Celebrating usually involves chocolate cake… can’t celebrate. We drove out to a national park that is very close by and went for a run/walk this morning. Of course that was after I made the most awesome grits and steak breakfast I’ve ever had. The interesting thing is that the last few days as I become more mindful of the meat that I am eating, I am thinking that going vegetarian won’t be that hard. In fact I kind of feel guilty eating meat now even though we haven’t reached the May 1 deadline. Sorry, let me rewind a little bit. I am going vegetarian May 1. Why vegetarian? Why May 1? I’m going vegetarian for several reasons, for health, for social change, for the animals, but mostly for my religion. In the past year, I have become Buddhist and part of Buddhism is that one should refrain from taking the life of any creature. I have been very good about not stepping on spiders and trying to save earthworms when I can, but I think that going vegetarian will be a profound change for me. As for the May 1 deadline. Esther and I have a lot of meat stored up in our freezer and I don’t want to waste it. We are gradually eating our way through the stores of meat and meat products that we have so that on May 1 we can start with the vegetarianism 100%. All in all, I’m feeling pretty good. Esther and I had a great breakfast, an excellent weigh-in and a good workout, definitely worth celebrating sans chocolate cake.