Oma and opa meaning1/8/2024 Many of us were unhappy with how thin our bodies had become while playing basketball.I think there are a few explanations for this: For some reason, many of my teammates and I talked about how, once our careers ended, we would get “jacked” or “shredded” or “yoked”, which requires lifting heavy weights and eating a lot of food, to build a strong, muscular body. There’s a strange phenomenon in college basketball culture, and probably other sports as well. But in my own experience, and in observing others, it seems that it’s as much an identity badge as it is a commitment to ethics. I’m still persuaded that eating meat from factory farms is unjustifiable ethically, and that vegans and vegetarians often have the moral high ground. I, too, had told everyone how great I felt being a vegetarian, but when I took an internship in Peru the following summer, and had no choice but to eat the meat that was served to me, I remember feeling energized and better than I had in months. My other roommate claimed that some late nights, hours after the vegan had dominated the kitchen cooking lentils and vegetable curries, he’d seen him sneaking back into his room with a bag of Chick-fil-A. His behavior and commentary about veganism reminded me of my former self, which triggered me and made interactions with him intolerable. Later, after returning to meat, I lived with a vegan roommate who was like the ghost of Christmas past. And the fact that I sometimes snuck meat when nobody was around shows that the shift was as much about how people perceived me as it was about a belief about ethics or my own health. It gave me something I could do to stand out. It also made me feel different and special. The change offered hope of better days to come. No consultations with doctors or nutritionists, and no thought as to how this radical change would relate to my needs as a college athlete. It only took one evening of binging vegetarian docs on Netflix ( Forks Over Knives and Cowspiracy) to be radicalized into a brand new lifestyle. I was a failing college basketball player at the time, ashamed to not be deserving of my full scholarship, and lost without my secure identity of “successful athlete”. I returned from my liberal arts college one Christmas break armed and ready to explain to my friends and family why not eating meat is imperative for health, happiness, and morality.
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