See, I’m not quite sure how to sum up a year of my life in 500 words. I stopped eating meat at the beginning of 2013 – cold turkey. (Pun completely intended.) I was told that there was no way I could do it; I ate too much chicken. So I proved that person wrong, and was a vegetarian for a whole year.

When I first started my meatless year it was hard, really hard. The first time I wanted to give up was on the night of the Super Bowl. Everyone around me was eating chicken wings and I was eating cheese pizza. I wanted a chicken wing so bad, but I didn’t give in. I wanted to make it a year no matter what obstacles got in my way. Like, for example, going out to eat and choosing between a Caesar salad and fettuccini alfredo, or having to eat beans so I can get enough protein in my diet. Overall, I did feel better; I ate more vegetables and fruit. So that’s always a good thing, right?

At home it was a harder adjustment than at school. My mom didn’t want to buy special food for my new diet. So whenever my mom cooked, I ate the sides or ate something completely different. Toward the eight-month mark, she jumped on board and bought me meatless meat, and for Christmas she even cooked me meatless lasagna!

The date of my one year anniversary of not eating meat has come and gone, and I am eating meat again. The day after the one year mark, I went out to eat and ordered a steak. I’m not going to lie, I was very nervous to eat it. I mean, I hadn’t eaten meat in a year and I was going to eat steak. So I took a bite, and the texture was weird. It didn’t set right with my stomach afterwards. I didn’t think it would, but I was not feeling well for the next two days. I’m now slowly easing my way back into eating meat again. I can eat chicken and turkey no problem, it’s the beef that is not going over so well.

I don’t know if I will continue to eat meat or not, being a vegetarian was definitely a different experience for me. It was completely frustrating for me at times, but how many people can say they were a vegetarian for a year because someone told them that they couldn’t do it. My guess is not many.