How soon after eating your last meat meal are you allowed to claim to be a vegetarian?

Question

How soon after eating your last meat meal are you allowed to claim to be a vegetarian?

Answer 1

right after u eat ur last peace of meat. and don't eat meat again.

Answer 2

Although one may have the frame of mind of a vegetarian it would be somewhat a contradiction to be classed as a vegetarian while still having a rotting carcass digesting in one's system. Once one has made the decision and they have no traces in their system, then they can call them self a vegetarian in my opinion.

Answer 3

Right after your last meat meal. That's what I did. I enjoyed my last steak sandwich and said goodbye to eating meat ready to enjoy my life of everything but meat! :)

Answer 4

Just like how a smoker quits smoking after every cigarette and then picks it up the next time?

Answer 5

To me, it's a matter of intention, not duration.  I ate a hamburger for dinner one night, read a book about vegetarianism the following afternoon and decided I'd never eat meat again.  I consider myself a vegetarian from the point I made that decision even though I'd eaten meat less than 24 hours before.

Answer 6

I agree with jc. It is a state of mind and most of all an actual life style. You can call yourself a vegetarian when you stop, but you can't be a vegetarian a few days out of the week. It takes time, and good luck because the first 3 weeks or so are the hardest.

Answer 7

you're claimed to be a vegetarian whenever you stop eating meat.

Answer 8

Right away if your intent is to make it your last time eating meat. Someone isn't a vegetarian if, as a joke or just mistakenly, they call the periods between meals with meat in them as being vegetarian. A vegetarian wouldn't have the intent to eat meat again, period, ever again - and wouldn't. The follow-through aspect has to be there.

Sure, someone could be an idiot and say they are a vegetarian for the few hours between meals, but that's missing the whole point. It would be like a hooker saying she's celibate because she hasn't had s*x for a few hours, but though you could mangle the definition to apply to the activity then and there, it's clear she has no follow through plan. The whole notion of choosing to be vegetarian is to stop, period, not just go without meat on and off here and there, whenever it's comfortable or convenient. Heck, everyone is vegetarian for a few hours when they sleep then.

If someone said they were vegetarian and didn't eat meat for a few hours and then picked meat up again, I wouldn't call that a temporary bout of vegetarianism, I'd call that a temporary bout of lack of will power (or just someone being very, very lame and unfunny). It's the type of joke that the one uncle that nobody likes makes at family gatherings, "Hey look guys, I've gone five minutes between ribs, I'm a vege-ma-tarian! Hee hee!"

If someone really means to be vegetarian and they'd just had their last burger and they're throwing in the towel, they're done with it, they can start saying they are vegetarian from the moment they're done eating. The implication is that they have genuine moral and ethical reasons for it, genuine health or environmental concerns, genuine religious or philosophical beliefs about it.

The reasons behind why people are vegetarian are enough to make them follow through, often times effortlessly. They wouldn't want to eat meat again. It's like having a religious belief or conversion to a different faith, it's not just how you life your life at that very moment but it's an ongoing process, a lifelong attempt to live according to your ideology.

The follow through aspect of remaining a vegetarian is inherently implied, and if the person claiming to be vegetarian fails they simply weren't being genuine from the start.

Answer 9

Immediately.  It's a choice or decision, not contingent on one's physical state.

Answer 10

There are no police going to test your blood....your colon will have backed up meat waste for about 15 years....I'd get a colon cleanse by a professional.. and congratulations for your move to a healthier lifestyle....You will be a vegetarian the minute you decide to stop eating dead animals.....

Answer 11

The day you stop.

It's not a formula, it's a state of mind and diet.

If you stopped, you can call yourself a vegetarian.

Answer 12

thats a good question

i dont think there is a definative answer

but i guess i would say, perhaps 4 weeks

its long enough to have established an eating pattern and know you can stick to your new meat free regime

but just my opinion