What do I do when my mom says this? I make an argument but she always wins cause shes the mother! I cant wait to be 18 and eat what I want when i want.

Put it on your plate with a smile and a "Thank You", cut it up, push it around, dont complain (just brings attention to it) if you dont want it, dont eat it. My kids do this to me at dinner all the time (usually with broccoli...one of my kids ...teenaged boy, is a DEDICATED carnivore...I swear hes naturally on Atkins)... Eat what you want on your plate, eat slowly, stop when you are physically full. Throw the rest away. If your mom is a "clean plate club" mom...take less to start with, you can always get more if you want it.

I would tell her that it really hurts you that she cannot respect how you feel. Tell her, you respect that she believes, "animals are on the earth to eat"...that is HER OPINION. You have your own opinions and explain to her that your opinions are allowed to be different from her that is all part of life. You can agree to disagree. I think she needs to understand she is building a wall between you and her by refusing to respect your beliefs/opinions. How very sad that she is so self rightious that she couldnt even allow you to have opinions different from hers. Wow.

you could certainly try it GetNHealthy's way....It seems from your post that you did try to let you mother know that you had a difference of opinion on the meat issue, my thinking is that you are a minor and have to live under the same roof for a few more years yet...If it is made into a big control issue between you and her, what are the odds that you are going to win? On occasion, you have to look at your goal...the goal is not to eat meat, not to have (and lose) an arguement with your mother. Sometimes confrontation is not the way to go. Ive never force fed my kids anything (I do try to talk them into trying new things though "you never know...It could be your favorite food and you just dont know it yet"), and as a result they are all naturally thin and healthy, but I do recognize that there are many ways of parenting. Good or bad...the child is at the mercy of the parents. When you are an adult, certainly feel free to tell her to suck an egg...you will eat what and when you want...BUT as a teenager, I wouldnt advise that. Some parents way of showing love is giving their kids food...if the kid dosnt eat it, it means that the kid isnt accepting the "love" the parent is trying to show them and therefore dosnt value them (Ive seen this first hand and it is twisted, in most cases the parent has a weight problem as well) So in my opinion the best bet is just say thank you, push it around your plate so it looks like its been at least addressed in some way, and dont eat it if you dont want it....last thing I would want in your position amy, is a bunch of attention brought to the matter making it into a power struggle or confrontation....save that for when you go off to college.....If she forces you to eat it...you could try vomiting on your plate...lol...I talked my son into just trying a tomato once and he threw up...I never asked him to try one again...lol.

I want to clarify that I am not a veggie person yet but I am easying into it. Dont think I am hypocritical. I am doing atkins riight now but I am trying so hard to find low carb alternatives like celery. Any veggie atkins ppl out there feel free to message me about it! I am overweight and I need to lose weight. I dont want to offend anyone at all , thats not my intentions at all!

I used to fight with my mom often over the meat issue. Im trying Get N Healthy , cut me some slack and dont attack me over the issue, please take of your protest hat and look at it from my point of veiw I am sorry!

The other responses are correct she is your mother and you are called to honor and respect her. While you are doing this, and with out attitude but merely and educational benefit, educate yourself on exactly what the bible does say about what God considers healthy. Read about Daniel in the very first chapter he talks about healthy eating. Don't' stop there if you really want to educate yourself on this issue. Do a word study using the word eat, eating, consume, etc. There are online sites to help you do this such as crosswalk.com. God also aloud divorce but it doesn't mean he meant it to be a good thing. Again I will reiterate that you are called to honor her and at the right time and with the right attitude after you have educated yourself on the topic you can open up calm dialog about it

I agree with Goinggoal - she is your mom and you are living under her roof so you have to treat her with respect. The more you argue with her the worse it will get. People tend to get set in their ways and your change in lifestyle could be seen as a rejection of her values, her cooking or she thinks she'll have to cook two different meals every day and will be facing added expenses as a result of you becoming a vegetarian - it could be any number of things.

Educate yourself on healthy eating and try to work with your mom. Maybe you could explain that you want to cut back on meat for health reasons and want to lose weight. Try asking if you could come to some kind of compromise together and find some recipes together that you could cook together for the family. Maybe if you offer to help around the kitchen she would be more willing to make some different meals.

Maybe you could ask if you could have one vegetarian meal a week to get started and offer to cook it to give her a night off.

Thats how my mom was when i first went veg... basically i had to compromise with her and promised i would eat fish. So, i was a pescatarian for maybe a month and then told my mom how serious i was about this. She let me go all the way once i cried about the poor fish dying

She was very supportive when i went vegan as well. I am no longer vegan but as time goes by, once you show how dedicated you are to it your mom should feel compassion. My meat loving mom now enjoys eating a boca burger every now and then and has seriously considered going veg BUT she said she love mcdonalds too much

Just give it time!

Best of luck to you

I didn't think she was trying to attack you at all, I actually thought she was being supportive of you. Maybe I missed something?

I will have to agree. I'm no longer at the phase that you are in. I went through that and I got really sick because of it. My drs aren't sure why, but I did.

My mother was really great about it.

I would just simply sit down and talk to your mother. If her biggest thing is that God put animals on this earth to be eaten, show her all of the other things in the bible that God said to do any no one does. There are lots of things. Just be patient and if you only have to eat that one meal at home, make smart and vegan/vegatarian decesions when you are not at home. Even for now if all you can do is eat things like rice, corn, greens, and other veggies. Do that. Just make sure that you are getting enough protien.

**HUGS!!**

If you nee to talk anymore, just feel free to PM me!!

Erika Leigh

Animals are not the same as they were a hundred years ago, running around and eating a natural diet. Back then, this is debatable, but I believe they were actually healthy to eat. But today animal products are not healthy because just about every animal that winds up being used for the food industry was sick, pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, and died sick. Putting all animal rights aside- if you eat animals that were sick then...

... WE will get sick! It's a truly scientific reason you can give your mom. And don't be fooled by 'organic', 'omega-3', or 'free-range' meats, eggs, and other products. There are very lenient rules to post the organic label on a food. For instance, chicken can be labeled as 'free-range' as long as the chicken has a 1 square-foot area in an outside pen to move around (along with other chickens). That isn't a lot of space and the chicken winds up living in feces and getting sick. Then we eat it. No wonder we are laden with cancer and other diseases these days.

Also, you can tell your mom there's the environmental factor. A person eats enough cows in their lifetime to be equivalent to them driving around FOUR SUVs. The cows' natural gas is far more harmful to the atmosphere than the measily 2% of pollution that comes from cars. But the media doesn't like to report on this since it's all a part of big business.

I've gone back to being vegan not for animal rights (although it's nice that I'm not contributing to suffering anymore!) but mostly for the environment and for health reasons. You can do some research online and get more info on these topics as well.

Lots of carnivores don't understand the risks of eating 'today's' animals. It wasn't what it was hundreds of years ago when everything was in balance with nature!

Just reading some more of the responses-

Yes, I don't think your mom was trying to attack you. I just think she doesn't realize the benefits of what you want to do. Many people just think going veggie or vegan is a trendy thing or just wanting attention. If you can have a nice conversation with her and bring up some new info on today's meat and dairy industries, and also some info on how a veggie diet is safe, she'll start to see it from your end.

Lots of people ask me where I get my calcium from. What they don't know is that all dairy products, nautral or not, flush calcium reserves out of your body. So, if you already have 5,000mg of calcium in your body and you drink a glass of milk that has, let's say, 1,000mg of calcium, the next time you pee you'll flush out ALL of that 1,000mg and an extra 500mg. So you consumed 1,000 and were left with a 1,500mg deficient. There's a study that shows higher osteporosis rates in African tribes whose only difference in lifestyle is consuming dairy. The non-dairy tribes have no osteoporosis.

But like I said, just do some research (from legitimate sources) and maybe present some info to your mom. Remember, her (and I) came from the old ways of thinking meat and dairy were necessary for health.

I'm a bit snarky to my mom, and I say "Well Mom, God didn't intend for animals to be skinned alive in slaugherhouses, and to wallow in their own poop, and God didn't intend for farmers to pump up the animals with bovine growth hormone, antibiotics and other crap. God intended for animals to be treated humanely."

You shouldn't say that to your mom, but you could just say that it's a moral issue for you. But make sure to take your vitamins. Iron, B12 especially.

And a wonderful idea is to offer to cook one or two nights a week and cook your fav veggie entree.

And you don't have to be over 18 to eat how you want to. Do you have a job? You could always buy meatless food yourself. Truth be told, your mom can't force you to eat meat.

HOWEVER, you better know your information about the meat industry before you start an argument against eating meat. Do your research from a non-biased source (read: not PETA), and present it to her and lay it all down, every single reason why you don't want to eat meat. My reasons are because I don't feel it's healthy now due to the amount of pesticides animals consume, the hormones and antibiotics that they're pumped up with, and how animals are treated in the typical slaughterhouse. Plus, the meat industry contributes to pollution and global warming because of the amount of poop and methane gas the cows secrete. It also contributes to the destruction of rainforests. Companies are bulldozing down rainforest for grazing land.

You can tell her that it was once good and safe to eat meat, but you just can't trust it now. I know I can't. Once upon a time, animals were treated humanely and they weren't being killed by the millions.

I just saw this. I would actually recommend NOT to do Atkins. My dad did it and lost 50 lbs, and gained 60 once he went off of it. Unless your doctor or dietician told you to do Atkins, don't do it. One of the best ways to start losing weight is to just cut down your portions.

I have a kind of double whammy being both a vegetarian and an proud aithiest. God putting anything on earth is not someting I would even consider, with all due respect to believers. I think this reasoning is posionous because it can include all sorts of really bad scenarios. God put ________ on earth to kill ________. Is not a good game to play. Just insert any 2 groups in conflict and you will see this is not a good argument.