Day 8

Day 8, it’s been a week and a day since I started this experiment. I’ve gotten progressively more use to the whole lifestyle. The starvation still hasn’t entirely disappeared. It comes and goes, honestly. Some days I’m freaken starving, regardless of how much I eat (like right now), while other days I barely eat and I’ll be fine all day.

One very nice side effect of working in a restaurant, particularly one that caters to a select group (vegetarians) is all the small freebies I receive. It drastically cuts down on the amount of cooking I need to do. I get closing-shifting left overs, order fuck-ups, cooking mistakes, etc. All of it feeds me and for free! For example, we can’t really keep sushi for more than 1 day. So our options are to either throw it out or eat whatever’s left. They usually give it to me and I get a few free pieces, like I did tonight.

I had another strange event tonight; I actually told someone I was vegetarian. I didn’t explain to them this experiment, which I've done up to now. To a certain extent, I was simply telling him this so we could relate and wring tips out of him (it kind of worked), but I was also being honest at the time about it. Whether or not I’m plan on sticking with this long term, at the moment, I am a vegetarian. And telling him that, without any other info felt really...weird. Almost like I was coming out of the closet, “Hey mom, I love you...but...I’m a vegetarian...”.

It might just be me, but I get the feeling that people regard you different when you eat differently than them. You’re suddenly “one of them” not “one of us”. I’m not sure how clear that is, but it’s the feeling I’ve gotten from strangers and acquaintances.

I definitely need to start cooking at home more. I can’t eat at work or elsewhere all the time. Which, I admit, I’ve been doing too much this week. But, I just haven’t had much time to do so lately because of my working hours. I don’t feel like coming home late at night and cooking nor do I want to do it between shifts. I also am sometimes short on ideas, so I might spend a night doing a bit of research or spend a bit of money on a good, yet simple, cookbook. We have a few vegetarian cookbooks here but I’d like one of my own that would suit my tastes better.

I think my post is long enough for now. Also, I wanted to thank everyone who has supported me and giving me advice so far, it’s much appreciated.