Vegetarian? (again)

A long time ago I posted that I was "leaning toward" vegetarianism. Over time things have only continued on the way they were heading and now I am officially done eating meat. Most often when people learn this about me they just really can't imagine why I would want to do such a thing. Here is a fairly typical conversation:

someone: "You really don't eat meat?"
me: "Nope."
someone: "Like, not ANY meat?"
me: "Um...no."
someone: "What about _____?" (You can fill in this blank with every type of meat you can imagine because we usually go through them all.)
me: "Well seeing how ______ is meat....no, I don't eat that."
someone: "why not?"

I don't mind the questions, I know people are just trying to understand. I do find it amusing though, I must admit. I think that I am more concerned with people understanding my reasons for not eating meat rather than anything else.

While many people choose to be vegetarian for moral reasons (and good for them) I am not in that group. I think my cattle-rancher grandpa might disown me if I told him I believed we shouldn't kill animals for our own purposes. (which by the way I don't really believe. I mostly go with the "moderation" in all things theory). And I really don't want to be disowned by my grandpa!

I don't eat meat for 2 basic reasons; 1. It really makes my stomach turn to think of eating the flesh of another living creature (but I don't care if other people eat it...go right ahead!) 2. It tastes gross to me.

For a long time I have been adverse to be called a vegetarian. I'm not sure why I cared, but I think mostly I just didn't want to be labeled. But now I am feeling more confident in saying: I am a vegetarian.