I am not a vegetarian, but my meat-eating is infrequent relative to the average North americanus carnivorous. I eat meat about once a week. According to Wikipedia, that makes me a flexitarian, which is some sort of made-up word for people who can’t commit, i.e. “a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat”. For the record, I would never refer to myself as a vegetarian and the word flexitarian is way too pretentious to ever use in social conversation. My weekly murder is usually of fish variety. And if I’m being truthful, it’s fish from the canned tuna family. I probably have mercury poisoning. Once every couple of months I’ll eat a bird of some sort. Like a Thanksgiving Turkey. A few times a year a larger farm animal, like an adorable cow with big doopy eyes, crosses my plate. I try not to think about it.
After the New York City Marathon, my second marathon in eight days, I regressed into a some sort modern predator, eating the food hunted (fine, mass farmed) and euthanized (fine, slaughtered) by others. At the Team Fox post race party the caterers offered me lovely green salads, grilled vegetables, and pasta stuffed with goat cheese and spinach. No, no, and no. Meat I said. I need to eat meat. I ate salmon. Chicken. A mini-cheeseburger. Okay, two mini-cheeseburgers. Okay, three. The waiters tried to entice me with side dishes to compliment my meat. I finally agreed to a grilled tomato covered in cheese. I only ate the cheese. For the first time ever I bit into a mysterious “food” called a pig-in-a-blanket (I was told it had meat in it), but it was so repulsive I spit it back into my napkin (discretely of course). The next day I ate a grown-up sized cheeseburger. I doubled my yearly consumption of red meat in two days. Now I have mad cow disease and mercury poisoning.
I have always been of the ‘if you crave it your body needs it’ mindset, which is why I eat so much chocolate. Obviously my cells need the antioxidants in cocoa. Who am I to deprive my needy cells? Still, my meaty binge seems excessive, no matter what my demanding cells may say. I think I need to go to the Humane Society and sponsor a kitten to atone. That said, my legs aren’t nearly as tired as they were after my Marine Corps vegetarian post-race dinner. Coincidence? I try not to think about it.
Title Reference: The Smiths – Meat is Murder. From the album Meat is Murder. 1984.
Stop looking at my burger!
I ate your burger, but I gave you the remains of my pig-in-a-blanket.
I once decided I was only going to eat red meat once a month. I wanted burgers all the time. Then my hair started falling out in clumps. (ok, it was kind of a gradual thing…) Turns out that iron is good for that kind of thing.
Moral of the story: sometimes burgers are good.
Philosophy 101. Hair is good, therefore burgers are good.
My personal credo: Never eat anything wearing a costume.
In my defense, it was heavily marked down at the Credo Store.
I will sell my morals if I ever see a running pizza at kilometre 34.
You can find me at the local burger stall after big training sessions every Sunday afternoon. I agree–if my body craves it, I must need it!
First off, best blog title ever. (Smiths fan) and secondly, heck ya, protein post marathon is the way to go. Burger and a beer, the path to recover. I am however slowy gravitating towards ‘semi-flexitarian’ how pretentious will that sound at this year’s holiday gatherings
I think you need more suffixes to confuse the relatives. Especially the ones who drink too much spiked egg nog. Quasi-semi-flexitarian has a long ring to it.
Loved this: “I think I need to go to the Humane Society and sponsor a kitten to atone. ”
I’m surprised you’re not reporting on how torn up you feel after eating so much meat, if your body’s really not in the habit of doing so. Well, I guess that happens to some people more for the extra fat content that often accompanies meat, not so much the protein itself. More power to you if it didn’t upset your stomach; I am jealous.
As a scientist-type, perhaps you should put this recovery food regimen to the test and run another marathon this weekend! Maybe stop by a barbecue shack afterwards.
I actually didn’t notice any ill effects of the meat binge, which in retrospect is somewhat surprising. I also eat a bag of “Smart”food popcorn following each marathon, so my body is used to post-race dietary mistreatment. The BBQ shack, however, might push me over the edge.
I don’t understand that flexitarian title either. Flexitarian is a person that eats meat and vegetables. It just sounds dumb.
I like your theory on chocolate though.
Flexitarian – a fancy word for “will eat anything”!
Canada has not been a factor on the competitive marathon scene since all the Canadian Ponderosa locations closed down. Coincidence or sobering evidence?
Interesting correlation. I think this observation clearly points to one conclusion – an international conspiracy operating though the Ponderosa Steakhouse chain to destroy the Canadian marathon program. Where does Meb live? Does he have easy access to steak?