Omnivore in Relationship with Vegetarian

I had an interesting conversation with the associate who sold me moisturizer at the Origins counter recently.

Karen is vegetarian and her husband is a steak chef, a challenging combination when it comes to meal times, she told me.

"Completely understand," I responded.

You see, I'm a meat-eater, an omnivore, to be precise. And up until recently, I was in a relationship with a vegetarian who ate fish a couple times a week, and an enormous amount of fruit. I'd say he's a fruitarian with vegequarian overtones.

We did most our grocery shopping together at Whole Foods; that alone was a challenge given that I'm an stimulus-sensitive introvert who dislikes shopping and he's an extrovert who is energized by the stimulation of shopping.

However, we managed: I with my list and 40-minute in-and-out strategy, and he with no list and a tendency to impulse purchase.

I say we managed, but really we compromised:

• I sometimes sat in the car and snoozed while he did the shopping.
  
• He sometimes followed me about, collecting the items as I read them off my list.
  
• In other words, one week we did it my way, one week his way.

Either way, we always came in on budget, around $120 for two for a weeks worth of groceries.

That was possible because I tended not to buy meat for me. Instead we bought fish for us, and then, enough for maybe 3 meals.

So our grocery bill was on the lower side (given that one of us was an impulse shopper), because we weren't buying meat, not even less expensive cuts of meat, only fish: tinned, fresh, and shellfish.

Ultimately, I made the bigger compromise, eating meat protein only when we ate out.

Karen, whom I mention above, confirmed that something like that happens in her family too. At home, her vegetarian diet dominates and her husband eats his steak at work.

I'm no longer in the relationship I mention above, and by the time it was over, I was under-weight and my health-care practitioner suggested I increase the amount of meat protein in my diet because I was a bit anemic.

I have to confess that was easy for me to do because I really do enjoy small portions of meat and poultry several times a week and obviously my body needs it too.

In retrospect, it really was challenging, living with someone with very different dietary and metabolic needs than mine. If the relationship had continued, my health would have required that I reintroduce more meat protein into my diet, but I'm not sure how I would have done that, other than cook two separate evening meals.

I'd be very interested to hear from others on this topic. Do post a comment if you have feedback, observations, and or ideas on how to manage in relationship when you consume very different diets.