She’s been vegetarian for a long time, but is trying veganism as a sort of cleanse. Sure, she thinks her body is revolting, but I think it’s just the light. Sorry, can’t resist a groucho marx bit!

She’s also giving up booze for a bit. I can understand doing that as well.

I like to play with these same things. When I originally gave up meat, I did it because Sam and I had overdone it so much on a trip to Las Vegas that we couldn’t look at flesh without feeling ill. We discovered that if you stayed away long enough, you didn’t miss it. Anything that you think you crave, that consumes you – that’s a thing you want to be careful around. When I’ve found myself constantly out drinking with folks and having a wonderful time, that’s when I eventually want to pull back and show myself that I can have a great time without all that.

I think we all move in waves of moderation and indulgence and asceticism to some degree. It’s healthy to pour yourself into joyous pleasure. It’s also healthy to take a break, to pull back and realign yourself. Recalibrate. Give the old machine you ride in a bit of a cleanup and workover.

The saddest part of her excellent post:

Unless you can explain that you have a problem (and they’ll probably try and talk you out of that as well) if your friends drink, they will be highly disturbed by this decision. Just telling them I wanted to clean myself (read: liver) out a bit and get into shape brought on looks of ridicule. My partner has absolutely no problem quaffing beer while I drink sparkling water or unsweetened Iced tea but others will not even hang out with me one-on-one if I’m not drinking and they are. I think that’s sad.

If you find yourself being this person – it’s a good time to take a look at why you need someone else to take a drink.