A Half-Vegetarian Experience

Yay, it’s the last day of the Nine-Emperor God Festival today or also known as 九王爷 (Jiu Huang Ye). Why am I so happy? Because I no longer need to be on a vegetarian diet anymore. You see, hubby was on a 3-day strict vegetarian diet, and I joined him for lunch and dinner. Yes, only lunch and dinner and I’m already complaining ;P

I don’t know why, I’ve joined him for the last few years, but somehow this year, my hunger pangs were somehow more profound. Could it be because I’m still breastfeeding? But last year I was too. I didn’t recall feeling so hungry then. This time, it was so bad, that even after I finished my meal, I didn’t feel full at all! I even had gastric pain, sigh. Another immediate side effect that I experienced was low breastmilk supply. Funny, I have a vegetarian friend who's still breastfeeding - I wonder how she managed? Hmmm...so in the end, I cheated – I took some non-vegetarian food as snack (LOL!). Well, not really the meaty stuffs, just the dairy products only. They are so strict that not even diary products are allowed – even the utensils used for eating shouldn’t have been touched with meat/diary products before.

Just yesterday morning, I was buying breakfast for hubby and myself. I went to tapau something from the Jiu Huang Ye stalls for him, and then I gleefully went to the stall besides that to buy some other non-vegetarian food for myself. The lady seller told me that she also sold vegetarian nasi lemak. I hastily told her that I didn’t want vegetarian nasi lemak, but the normal ones! She smiled at me understandingly, and pointed to a variety of nasi lemak with ikan bilis & egg, with fish or with prawns. I chose the one with ikan bilis and egg, and my, how satisfied I was with my breakfast that day, before having to go for another round of vegetarian lunch later.

Well, last night however, hubby bought a variety of vegetarian goodies for dinner. We had vegetarian curry me, with thong sui. He also bought some vegetarian delicacies, gong tang. And surprisingly, I was full immediately, and there was still a pack of vegetarian rice waiting for me – I guess my stomach had adapted to the new lifestyle afterall. In the end, we only ate that rice for supper.

No doubt, being a vegan is very healthy. And good for the soul too. But then again, I still think that what comes out of the mouth matters more than what goes into it. Which is a very good excuse for me, whenever I failed to fast or abstain during the Lentern season.