Now I'm in a "mixed" relationship, too

Right around the time I started this blog, I met a couple online who live in New York City and who are a "mixed" couple. One of them is vegan, and one of them had been a meat eater, but was struggling to try to adopt her boyfriend's vegan lifestyle, with mixed success. She wrote about struggling with her cravings for meat. (Joselle, how's that going?)

If you've read this blog at all, you know that I don't advocate, necessarily, that everyone become vegetarian or vegan. In fact, I truly believe that some people need to eat meat, based upon individual physical needs. My focus has been on getting people to try veganism or vegetarianism part time and/or reduce the amount they eat, so as to cut down on consumption, and to also make changes in the meat production industry, so that the animals who are raised for food are treated as humanely as possible.

And here we are. :-) Almost a year ago, I began dating a wonderful man whom I have a lot in common with. And no, he's not a vegetarian or vegan, and has no intentions of becoming one. It helps that I've never expected him to (although I have helped him up his veggie consumption).

Surprisingly, though, he has gone "meatless" a couple of days a week when we've been together; he says he doesn't miss it for those couple of days, but he does get cravings for some meat after a few days, and just has some when that happens.

It's been tough to be around when he's cooking meat, such as when we eat dinner together and he includes meat in his stirfry, for example, but I just leave the room when he's cooking it. I can pretty much handle it when he's eating meat during the meal, since of course I haven't lived in complete isolation and have had to be around other people eating meat during certain occasions. And of course, I've had to handle my own cats' meat (I feed them both cooked and raw meat as part of their diet) through the years, so it's not like I haven't been around it.

Still, it's been interesting and has been something I've had to get used to. I'd be interested to hear how other "mixed" couples handle their dietary differences, too.