I'll Have Ahimsa With a Side of Fries Thank You

Summertime, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Time off. Beaches. June's pool. Sunny early mornings. Fresh veggies. Flip flops. Slurpees. Ice cold water. Big straw hats. Even bigger sunglasses. Freckles. Bathing suits. Watermelon. Hiking. Afternoon naps. Fireworks. Evening running. Lightening bugs. Shorts. Sangria. Cheaper fruit. Roof top evenings. Ice cream trucks. Cookouts.

Ugh. It pains me to do it, but I'm scratching (at least traditional) cookouts off my list of summertime faves.

Firing up the grill and throwing on a few hamburgers used to be the hallmark of a good ol' summer day. Add one or two generous glasses of wine and some good friends to the mix and that just might be my own self-made heaven. Alas, those days are nevermore.  I said adios to the traditional cookout last summer when I stopped eating meat altogether.

Many yogis adopt vegetarian or vegan diets because of the ahimsa. Ahimsa is sanskrit for non-violence or non-injury to all living beings. Although yogis have different interpretations of exactly what ahimsa means for everyday life, for some not eating animals or animal products is a definite requirement. Some even sweep the floor as they walk to avoid harming any small life forms in their path. It can also mean causing no harm to your fellow humans or yourself.  Whatever the specifics of ahimsa are for you, it's easy to understand that choosing non-violence is generally a good idea.

I'd like to wave my yogi flag high and attribute the end of my meat eating days to my devotion to ahimsa. But the truth is ahimsa wasn't on my mind last summer. Yoga philosophy just wasn't part of my repertoire then. Even if it had been, I'm not sure ahimsa would have convinced me to stop eating animals. Yogi or not, I don't believe humans are naturally herbivores. Our predecessors ate flesh for a reason. The human evolutionary trajectory would've been a bit different had our ancestors been able to survive off of a leafy green and berry only diet.

Going sans meat was simply a health choice for me. I'm grossed out by all the preservatives, dyes and other chemicals injected in the meat stocked in the average supermarket. The links between red meat consumption and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer don't sit too well with me either. Since I wasn't head over heels for meat to begin with, replacing it with more veggies and tofu just made sense.

So, on a hot and humid July evening I took one last savory bite of a big, juicy burger and then vowed to never do it again. I opted to eat a mostly plant-based diet with the occasional fish dish. Pescetarianism was a compromise, omega-3 fats are important and the thought of living without sushi was somewhat devastating to me.

Turns out that day to day being a mostly-vegetarian (or pescetarian if you prefer) is easy as veggie pot pie. As long as I plan my own meals or preview the restaurant menu before plopping down in the booth, my belly is usually happy. Of course, there were some things to get used to. Loving and living with meat-eaters means sometimes prepping both meaty and veggie options.  I also learned very quickly to bring my own fruit, nuts and veggies when traveling. Chicken seems to be a prerequisite for almost all airport grab and go food. Unless you are willing to have a few potato chip meals, you learn to make room for the snacks in your carry on. And accepting a dinner party invite means either hoping the host is a fan of meat-free dishes or pestering them with your dietary restrictions in advance.  Albeit sometimes annoying, these are small sacrifices to make for a healthier body.

That is, until cookout season. Thanksgiving was hard too, but it was just one day. Cookout season is months and months long. You might think the chances of bumping into a cookout in the concrete jungle of NYC would be slim. Just the opposite, here public spaces are everyone's backyard. You can fire up the grill on the open sidewalk if you so desire. On any given weekend run, I'm sure to sprint past a cookout or two.

It's always the smell that gets me. As soon as that meat on the grill smell hits my olfactory bulbs, visions of burgers start dancing in my head. Bonafide 100% real meat burgers.  Clean and healthy veggie patties don't exist in that little daydream. There's no denying it, the smell of meat on the grill is captivating even for a mostly-vegetarian like myself. It takes every little bit of self-restraint I have to keep from giving my never-ever-going-to-be-a-vegetarian boyfriend the please share with me eyes when he enjoys his deliciously fragrant burger within nose reach.

My choice to go meat-free didn't start with ahimsa, but somehow that's where this summertime cookout temptation story ends. I didn't mean for it to happen, but resisting the burger cravings has become one small way for me to embrace non-violence. With two convincing reasons, my health and non-violence, I have a stronger defense against that alluring grilled meat smell.

No matter how you choose to interpret ahimsa, it takes considerable time, effort and buckets full of patience to live a life of non-violence. I won't go so far to say that humans are innately bad, but it only takes a quick glance a the front page of any newspaper to remind us how easily humans can act violently. All of our acts of violence might not be front page worthy, but they are equally tempting and challenging to resist. So we put our minds to practicing ahimsa and hope that someday it will come with ease.