“Since sixth grade, I’ve been a vegetarian,” said junior Ainsley Dye. Compared to my ten days of being a vegetarian, she shows an enormous amount of self-control. Five years of no meat seems impossible for anyone to do, but Dye has done it, which should be an inspiration to all — myself included — who at least aspire to be a vegetarian.

Meat is something I have always had since I was a child. A sudden change in my diet was something I thought would be hard to do. However, because of my busy schedule filled with homework, projects and more homework, I barely noticed what I was eating during these ten days last month.

Becoming a vegetarian would be a big change for anyone. People become vegetarians for many reasons, including taking a stand against animal cruelty, bettering one’s personal health, empathizing with world hunger concerns, and lowering risk for developing certain diseases. According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a vegetarian diet lowers the chances of diseases such as heart disease, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

An interesting fact is that studies show that the human digestive tract is built for a vegetarian diet. According to Celestial Healing, studies show that the shape of the digestive tract is built to digest mainly vegetables unlike carnivores whose digestive tract is shaped completely different from humans.

At first eating without any meat may be a challenge, but there are substitutes to meat such as tofurky, soy sausages and other soy-based substitutes. You can’t really taste the difference once you get used to the meat substitutes.

The first day of my 10-day vegetarian diet was the hardest because my refrigerator was practically filled with meat, and I was really hungry. I considered actually quitting and then starting again the next day, but I knew if I did that then there was no way I would be a vegetarian for ten straight days. I immediately closed the refrigerator door and started eating some oranges and crackers.

For dinner, my dad made a kind of soup filled with bean sprouts, carrots, celery and tofu. I actually liked it eating but I cannot say the same thing for my mom or my cousin. My mom said, “I’m really hungry so I’m going to eat some fish.” I thought, “Thanks for the support, Mom.”

My cousin also decided to betray me because he started eating the fish that my mom put on the table. I considered that it was a good thing that I am not very fond of eating fish, especially the tuna that you get out of a can.

Throughout the week, most of the food I ate were just vegetables, fruit and more vegetables. My after-school snacks consisted of more fruits. Because I was so focused on my school work, I hardly had any cravings for meat.

During my ten-day experiment, I also gave some thought about why one should give up meat. According to Dye, many people do not give much thought to their food choices. “There is a disconnection with a lot of people,” she said. “People have pets but they eat meat.” She makes a good point since many people have pets, but they don’t see that the meat they are eating was once a living animal; instead they see it as food.

Some people start out to decide to become vegetarians because they idolize a celebrity like Ellen DeGeneres, Natalie Portman, Olivia Wilde, Paul McCartney or Mike Tyson. Others become vegetarians because they just choose to or they see the videos of slaughterhouse online.

“It spoke to me,” said Dye, after I asked her what inspired her to become a vegetarian. She first said her mom, an animal rights supporter, inspired her to consider being a vegetarian because her mom has always made mainly vegetarian food. Second, Dye saw videos of animals in slaughterhouses which only furthered her support of a vegetarian lifestyle.

Becoming a full-time vegetarian helped me exercise my self- control. I had to stop myself from thinking about meat, and I knew that it was only a matter of time before my body got used to my new diet and I would no longer think of getting a midnight snack.

My self-control was truly tested on Saturday and Sunday. During the weekends, my mind was free of all stress of homework and school. Because of that, when it was time for lunch I was concerned what I should eat. I knew I shouldn’t eat meat but it was so tempting to order some vegetables mixed with some meat.

So when my family and I decided to eat at Panda Express, I forced myself to look away from all the meat-filled dishes. I ended up ordering chow mein, vegetable spring rolls and steamed vegetables. It was really tempting to not reach over and grab a piece of meat from one of my parent’s plates, but I guess they knew thought ahead and knew what I would be thinking because they ended up ordering spicy food.

I was rather happy with myself when I was able to manage the weekend without eating meat. I had help from my parents, of course; they kept a close eye on me. It helps when there is someone to support you. My parents decided to become vegetarians with me so I wouldn’t feel alone. Most of the the meals they ate with me were just filled with vegetables.

Even my parents agree that being a vegetarian is much better diet for all of us. I knew my dad has diabetes and my mom has high blood pressure and becoming a vegetarian would help them. With my parents having those conditions, the diet we have in the house already cuts down on a lot of meat, so becoming a vegetarian just meant a few more restrictions.

I found a benefit of becoming a vegetarian besides the benefits that already become with being a vegetarian. I got to try out new foods. There were some I didn’t like but most of the foods, I did like. Some of the new foods were fresh lumpia, which is a Filipino food and it is basically a vegetable wrap with some peanut spread in it and it is not fried. Other foods were some Korean rolls that my mom found in HK Market. They are seaweed rolls filled with rice.

Becoming a vegetarian is actually a slow process. According to Dye, the best way to become a vegetarian is to cut down on the consumption of meat little by little every day. Of course, it varies depending on your original diet. If you are a big meat eater then you could start by cutting down the amount of meat little by little, like eating ten pieces of bacon and then the next day to eating only eight. If you have a diet where you don’t eat a lot of meat, then cutting it out of you diet is much easier. Later on you will become a pescetarian, meaning you can only eat fish and then you can move on from there.

Another tip is that if you plan to be a vegetarian for the rest of your life is that after a couple of months, you should not try eating meat again. The reason why is because your body is so used to digesting vegetables that when you try to re-introduce meat to your digestive system, it will reject the meat and you will get very sick.

I was only a vegetarian for ten days and that was enough, but I have also decided to include more vegetables in all my meals.