This is a subject warm to my heart. I was vegetarian for years, actually. I first stopped eating meat at 14 years old because my heart couldn't take knowing the food on my plate demanded an animal, a breathing, living thing had to be put down in order for me to eat. I only started to eat meat again at the age of 22, at 21 I started to eat fish and then later, on very, very rare occasions eat chicken. The reason for me to start eating meat was my health, really. I broke a toe that just would not heal and I was running on it for almost a year before doctors asked me to at least try to eat one portion of meat a week until it healed. And it did, it was all good, but I had a terrible time trying to eat meat after all these years without it. I felt like a dirty person, I felt disgusted by myself and I felt like curling up in fetal position during that first meal.

I got over it eventually, the plan was to become a vegetarian again after my toe healed, but I just found a new love of food, a love of food I lost years ago to my anorexia, so for the benefit of keeping ana at bay, I put veggie-me on ice until I could sort myself out. The problem for me is that vegetarianism is in two ways connected to me the anorexic, on one hand it's in a subconscious state to where eating meat used to drive me to tears, even just seeing it would make me shake. On the other hand, it was a very good excuse to not eat, "I can't, i'm a vegetarian". Please don't think I don't love animals, I do. Even when I pick out what kind of meat to eat these days, I'm very picky, I don't eat halal meat because I want the animal to be unconscious and numb or preferably killed before the bloodvessles are being opened up. Same with kosher (although that is not as widely spread because of the three day rule), I only eat swedish chicken and meat, or meat from countries where I know the rules around animalslaughter are as hard as possible about the animal not suffering. I still do not eat meat every day, I can go many days without eating meat still, but I do enjoy a homemade Bolognese here and there.

During a difficult time
I'm still at war with myself often, both with ana and the veggie me, sometimes they collectively turn against me, ana to make me stop eating and veggie me to eat vegetarian when we're serving a meat dish at home. Anas voice is getting weaker and I try to listen to what I want, instead of falling back into what I was. They are both telling me I was skinnier and happier back then, but I wasn't happier. Every day was an internal war with me losing a piece of myself every day. I know I will always want to weigh 99 lbs, but I know it's unrealistic for a healthy 5'6 23 year old to weigh that little unless I were to have an abnormally small frame. If I could weigh 110-120 lbs, I'd be extatic. That seems a lot more reasonable than 99 lbs, especially 120 lbs. If I can find a lifestyle where I can drop all my weight worries and just eat normal, work out as a treat for my body and completely block out ana of my everyday life, I achieved something big.
The healthiest I've been
So here's a toast (of water) to achieving my goal; be happy and content. I'm 23 years old, I've been blessed with a beautiful child and I still have (hopefully) 60 more years of trying to achieve even more. Time to stop being silly about food and focus on something more important; Catpocalyps. It's gonna happen!
Soon.....
/Lilita Luv
P.S, if you know swedish, visit my swedish blog here!