Oct 13, 2021 3 min read

I remember reading a humor column a long time ago by one of my favorite writers, Erma Bombeck. She was the best and always made me laugh.

In the column, she mentioned how she always enjoyed reading public opinion polls because it made her realize how far out of the norm she really is. That sounds a lot like me.

I like to think I’m a late bloomer or someone who is skeptical of fads at first and who may or may not try them. I’m definitely not a trend setter or early adopter. Sometimes I’m so late getting into the new thing it is already out of style or maybe even coming back in style for a second time.

They do that a lot with clothing.

What we called stirrup pants in the late 1980s became “leggings” by simply snipping off the stirrups.

Every once in a while, I’ll try a new fitness or diet fad but usually don’t stick with it for long. When I heard a co-worker mention recently she was a pescatarian, I had to ask what that was. She said she only eats fish, but no other meat. It occurred to me that I become a pescatarian every time I go on vacation to a coastal area or beach: All fish and shellfish, no other meat.

When I return home, I say so long to the seafood.

A few months ago, someone else sprung another new term on me saying they were a flexitarian. Upon looking up the definition, I learned a flexitarian is a person who has a primarily vegetarian diet but occasionally eats meat or fish.

I thought about that for a while then realized that I have pretty much become a flexitarian and didn’t even know it.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I love a good burger or some juicy chicken as much as anyone else. I pretty much lived on boneless, skinless chicken breasts during the whole pandemic lock down until I got sick of cooking altogether and tired of eating the same old things.

Over the summer, I began gravitating more often to salads and veggies and sometimes didn’t even cook a protein to go with my meal. I started eating a lot of tofu and portobello mushrooms on the grill. Now, I may not even eat meat twice a week. I still love and enjoy it but just don’t crave it so much.

While I’m a flexitarian, my boyfriend is absolutely a “meat-a-tarian.” His favorite food in the world is steak. By contrast, I could live on chocolate ice cream alone. French fries and pizza would come in second and third. I always suspected that you could be an unhealthy vegetarian by living on pizza, chips, ice cream and french fries.

Now that is a meal plan that I could easily follow.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.