After planning for months, my friend Jessi and I were on a plane to Europe! We were about to spend 35 days touring 9 countries, a wicked trip that we had been looking forward to nearly one year after graduating university. Right before the trip I noticed I didn’t have a book. I surely needed one for my upcoming travels...I found one on Jessi's table and was warned if I read it, I would not eat meat again. I had heard about this book and I decided I was ready to hear the truth. I stuffed it in my bag and we went on our way down to Miami to catch our plane!

As we scurried about the Miami airport like little girls about to go to Disney land, we finally made it on our plane and took our seats. For the next 10 hours we were on this plane and there was plenty of time to get to reading!

I would say I was only a few hours in to the flight and I was reading furiously. Really? Does this really happen to our meat?! I was appalled. It was like being smacked with a dirty filthy slab of meat in the face. I felt so naïve and dumb for not knowing more about my food before. Needless to say I was becoming vegetarian on the spot and cutting out most dairy products. I couldn’t eat any meat after what I had just read. I was always someone who loved food and was never picky. However, that was about to change.

At this point I needed a nap to sleep off some of the hours of the uncomfortable plane ride. When I awoke my breakfast was waiting for me. Jessi woke up to find hers as well. Jessi is already a vegetarian and when we opened our breakfast we were horrified. There laid a grey/red/white -ish looking piece of 'bacon' that was drenched in oil. That oil was seeping into the chalky looking eggs beside it. We began laughing so hard, 1. because the long hours on the plane and sleepy meds were making us delirious and 2. because, well, Jessi and I laugh when we are in most situations together. We made sure to take a souvenir photo of this piece of bacon, our first good laugh of the trip, as well as my first day of becoming a veg. I haven’t ate meat since that plane ride 5 years ago.

Since reading that book, I researched more about the meat production in The States, which has only furthered my disgust towards it. Now, I make sure to request a veggie meal when I book my flights as well! Even if you're not a vegetarian, you must agree that airplane food, especially the meat, is just sick!

In case you were wondering, the book I read was 'Skinny Bitch.' A cliché way to start? Yes, probably. However it did open my eyes and made me look further into what I eat.