Introduction

About Me:
I am a newly-qualified farm animal veterinary surgeon in West Wales. I've been an omnivore all my life.

About the Challenge:
Vegetarianism has always intrigued me. I've had vegetarian and vegan friends for many years and lived with several vegetarians. It has always seemed to me to be fairly difficult to be a vegetarian - society and shops are geared towards omnivores, our digestive systems are capable of digesting both plant and animal components and it is easiest to maintain a healthy balanced diet by consuming both.  I have no major moral or ethical issues with carnivorism or omnivorism, and fully intend to revert to omnivorism come Easter. But I am curious - what is it like to be a vegetarian? how will it affect my shopping experience? how will it affect how I feel about food, how I feel after a meal and how I feel generally? Will it have any effect on my digestion or have other physiological effects? Will it make social eating difficult? Will it cost me more or less money?
As a Christian, lent is a great opportunity to do a 40 day trial of being a vegetarian. I love meat so it will be a genuine Lenten hardship for me to go without. I will be giving up all meat and fish, but continue to eat eggs, milk and cheese, although I may experiment with alternatives. I plan to try vegetarian ready meals, meat-substitutes and "true" vegetarian foods where there is no direct mean substitution, cooking from scratch. I am also hoping to get the opportunity to eat out in both vegetarian specific and main stream restaurants, to discover what range of food is available and if there are any barriers or difficulty in being vegetarian "in public". 

About the Blog:
I thought it would be a good idea to write a diary of sorts, to document the foods I've tried and what I think of them, how the questions above (and others) are answered, and to get feedback. I'd love to know what people think of the challenge, whether their experiences are similar or different to mine, whether vegetarian or omnivorous. I'd love to hear people's recipe and substitution suggestions as well.

I'm starting early as I think even preparing for this may take time. I will need cookbooks and recipe ideas, to plan how to sensibly balance my diet and learn about labelling and sourcing of foods.

Let the adventure commence!