Ask HN: What prompted you to convert from non-vegetarian to vegetarian?

Practically speaking though, just eat meat whenever you want to: it's not a binary process (unless you're doing it for the approval of others).

After eating chicken or ground beef, even if supposedly high quality more expensive offerings from grocery stores, my stomach would be upset (similar to how you might feel after eating four bags of fast food french fries).

Then around 2010, one after another big meat manufacturing recalls occurred in the US. Then I either watched a movie or read a book about a long time cattle rancher who became vegitarian, and his reasons. I forget the name, and I may not be remembering the exact background; but the gist was that this was a true meat person, and they left meat.

As I was serious about fitness at the time, particularly long technical single-track mountainbiking adventures, I wondered about how fitness might suffer without meat. I did some searches for professional athletes who were vegetarian, and I was surprised by the results. Suffice to say that not eating meat doesn't seem to prevent some people from being true top physical specimens.

So I went to the grocery store and decided to try no meat for a while. I started making big stir-frys in a wok, with lots of veggies. I got pretty good at that, and I could eat as much of that as I wanted without worry about calories. I also ate a LOT of salads.

I found it very satisfying, and I came to love veggies. I still love meat, but I almost never eat it... maybe once every few months, and usually just a small taste. No fish either, due to concerns of what's in fish and how it might be detrimental for my body.

I am not a fan of meat replamements. Those are often disappointing and relatively unehalthy (manufactured). And frankly, well prepared vegetarian dishes can be so good that my dining pleasure is at peak anyway... nothing would make me happier at the time.

Health-wise, there's strong evidence that cholesterol and other measurements which we think are important tend to be worse for meat eaters than vegetarians. So by not eating meat, I feel a bit less guilty sometimes eating some junk food. That's not my motivation though.

Lastly, I had a period of a couple of years after becoming vegetarian where I was doing pretty serious weight lifting. I was just shy of being at a competitive level. I did drink protein shakes a few times a week, but they were plant-based (not whey). Whether the shakes helped or not I cannot say; but being vegetarian didn't seem to prevent good quality muscle development.

I view meat now like I view chocolate. I am not self banned from eating chocolate but I certainly do not need to eat chocolate every day. I am basically sometimes vegetarian, sometimes vegan until I want to have "cheat meals" and sometimes enjoy meat like I sometimes enjoy chocolate.