Questions I get asked. Number 2: How did you become a vegetarian?

This is a little story of how one day, little Catherine, who was a voracious omnivore, turned into a pacific vegetarian.

The first sign was when I was five years old. I was watching Lamb Chops on television. By some horrible coincidence, my mom made lamb chops for dinner.

I cried my eyes out, but darn if those lamb chops tasted good.

The second sign was when I was twelve, again with my dear mom. She showed me an image on Internet that she thought was funny : a sad piggy holding a sign saying 'Will work for roast beef'. I adore pigs. I remember getting mad at my mom and crying a lot for the poor pig. But I was mostly frustrated that we had to eat meat, we had to kill them to eat - at least that's what I thought.

A year later, I was thirteen, I was in the process of moving countries, my parents were divorcing, and I thought it was the perfect time to be a rebellious teenager. I told my parents I wanted to be vegetarian. My dad told me 'If you don't eat meat, your boobs won't grow.' What sort of teenager wants to hear that? I continued eating meat.

Two years later, parents were divorced and I was settled in at Florianopolis. I'd met other vegetarians. I knew then that it was possible. So I delcared myself vegetarian and launched into an anti-meat campaign. My mom agreed with me and became a vegetarian, also. We suffered the first social awkwardness together.

But neither of us really knew how to take care of ourselves. Eating instant noodles and pizza does not a vegetarian make. My mom got anemia after five months and started eating meat again. I held on a month later, but without my mom's moral support, I lost the will to be vegetarian and started eating meat also. But I entertained the idea : One day, I'll be vegetarian again, and I'll know how to make it work.

That day came on my eighteenth birthday. My last meal was a celebration lunch, with octopus salad and seafood. It was the cut-up octopus that made me think: I can't eat him, I've seen him swimming in the sea before. This is wrong. And if this is wrong, eating cows has to be wrong, to. I shoved the octopus around my plate, got home, and told my mom that I was a vegetarian again.

The next days I spent on Youtube. First I made myself watch all those horror movies: pigs being slaughtered, stoned, tortured. Mother cows getting separated from their calves. Hens being plucked alive.  I had to make sure that this time, I would stay vegetarian. I made a promise to myself: If I ever want to eat meat again, I would watch those videos again and see if I could live with that.

The next part was research. I trawled through dozens of articles online. I visited blogs, recipe books, stories of teenagers like me. I went to the bookstore and spent hours there, reading books. I made calculations: How much protein do I need? Where can I get it? I made lists of protein-rich foods and iron-rich foods. I quickly learned that the main problem for vegetarians is getting IRON, not protein.

I planned out my meals, using my new knowledge. I had lunch 5 times a week at my university, so that was easy: I had rice, beans, salad, assorted cooked vegetables and a fruit for dessert, which is basically the perfect vegetarian meal. On weekends, I cooked. My mom and stepdad were the first to try out my experiments.

Three years later, I'm a vegan. I've never had anemia. I've actually gained weight, which is great, because all my life I've always been too skinny. My allergies have vanished and my skin is healthier. All in all, I feel great to be a vegetarian and I hope that this blog will show you, too, that is possible and it can be one of the most amazing changes in your life.