Vegan?
Posted by Vexierspiegel on Jul 30, 2007 · Member since Dec 2006 · 142 posts
I've been vegetarian for about three (I think) years now...but I'm thinking of becoming vegan and I'm curious about how other vegans became vegan.
For me this has popped up because I've realized that most of the food I consume nowadays is vegan anyway. I just prefer vegan things. All the baked goods I cook are usually vegan (unless I'm cooking them for other people), due to taste I prefer soy ice cream, soy cheese, soy milk, soy yogurt, carob and nayonnaise. The only thing I think I will really miss is cottage cheese...
Anyway, I'm interested in hearing some other vegans' becoming-vegan stories. Any suggestions about what I should look into are also welcome!
Congrats on going vegan, i swear you wont regret it
My story:
When I was 12 i became a vegetarian for the first time, and then i went on and off and on that diet til i was 18 and decided never to touch meat again.
I used to write about music for my school paper, and one night I went to a gig to do an interviw with this experimental electro musician callet Kaffe Matthews, and in hindsight I'm not sure if this is true, but i remember her carrying this bo of soymillk around to have with her coffee, and i was like *lightbulb above head* "that's what i've been looking for!" and i went vegan the following morning.
see, all the vegans i knew from my school were of the sort of grungy, dreadlocky, not-so-nice-smelling kind (and no offense to any dread-heads, i love you people, i just didn't see myself as one)
i guess i'd just been adding up on my prejudice and thought that i had to be like that to be vegan, but after meeting this musician woman i realised that i'd been very narrow-minded and that veganism was for anyone and everyone.
for me, it was a very smooth transition. i've always loved cooking after finding this place i knew i'd never hae to look back. i don't miss meat, milk or eggs, i'm a lot healthier all over and my food taste so much better.
occasionally i make exceptions, i have a piece of non vegan chocolate or cake, but you know, you can't always play by the rules...
i guess it's just about thining one step ahead. oh, and to never stop playing with your food
There is a cottage cheese recipe on this site you could try. It calls for nayonnaise and you already know you like that.
I tried being a vegan for several months, ultimately it wasn't for me. I learned a lot though and I'm very glad I tried it. I went back to being mostly a vegetarian- which I was for many years. Now I also eat seafood every now and again. I'm pretty happy where I'm at and don't see making any major changes to my diet anytime soon.
You know what I'd do if I were you?
I'd become vegan... start reading ingredient labels and learn all the ingredients you want to avoid....and start adding things to your diet that you need to kee it balenced (if you haven't already) .... BUT keep eating your cottage chese as a treat once in a while! I bet that you'll find you eat it less and less and when you feel ready, give it up. If you don't ever give it up then, you're still better off.
Springtime: Thank you for the story and the encouragement! My whole family dissaproves of my vegetarianness, so I'm a little afraid of announcing that I'm going vegan. I'll be leaving for college in three weeks, though, and I know it will be warmly accepted there. So I'm thinking of waiting until then to become full-out, officially vegan and just avoiding what animal products at home that I can--in order to maintain household peace for the last few days I will ever live at home (not returning here for breaks, that I know).
Lauranc: Thank you for the cottage cheese recipe suggestion! I didn't ever think, or some reason, that it would be possible to make vegan version of cottage cheese. I wrote the recipe down in my bringing-to-college recipe notebook and I'm really excited to try it!
Jenniferhughes: Thanks for the suggestions :). I've been slowly drifting toward veganness over the past few months, which seems very obvious in retrospect, and I know this is how I became vegetarian. So I probably will end up giving up the cottage cheese (I don't eat it very often anyway now, and whenever I do eat it I realize it's not as wonderfully delicious as I thought it was going to be).
Thanks everybody!!
If you want to go vegan- watch the documentary "earthlings" (available on youtube) Thats what did it for me.
I was vegetarain-ish through Jr High and High school. Basically, My parents insisted that I eat meat with my family at dinner (if I was home) but couldn't force me to eat it at any other time. I went pesco-ovo-lacto vegetarian the day I graduated from highschool in 2004. (although I defined myself as vegetarian at the time I would now say someone who eats water dwelling members of the animal kingdom is NOT vegetarian) Then in march, I saw the movie earthlings and swore off all animal products. Id call myself vegan but every now and then "relapse" into eating dairy. I love being vegan.
Go vegan! You wont regret it. You can always go back if it doesn't suit you! ;)
in your case, as in mine it is probally a good idea to wait until you are under your own rule. My parents were not too keen on the idea either. When I went vegan in march or whenever- I told them all that way they wouldn't think I was being a snot next time they saw me and I refused to eat eggs and dairy. No, they were not happy about it at all. But now they have accepted it. Sometimes they even ENCOURAGE me to become vegetarian again. hehehe. So at the very least, you could get them off your back about vegetarianism.
VegheadZelia: I have seen Earthlings, actually. Well, half of it before my old computer crashed. From what I saw, it's a very good, sad, moving documentary.
I'm really excited about this change!!
hint: don't tell your parents.
ok, honesty is great, but sometimes peace and quiet is helluvalot better.
you can be vegan for three weeks without them noticing. if anyone asks just tell 'em you're trying new reciepes and ingredients.
I was vegetarian before I went vegan. I did it for health reasons, to be honest. Not at all for animal reasons. The places where I got my milk and cheese anyway were all small, happy cow farms. So, I didn't really see how milking a cow once a day was doing any harm.
So, for me, the health reasons did it. I read so many articles in various journals about dairy and adults. Then I met my current S/O. He is what I like to call a "vegan" meat eater, lol. He won't touch dairy or eggs due to health. But, he'll eat organic meat here and there. His health is just phenomenal. He's much older than me, and more healthy with more stamina and energy than I have. It's amazing. And it really convinced me that dairy is not something I need. So, for a year now, I've been vegan.
I'm about halfway through "Earthlings" and I feel physically nauseous. Coupled between that and thinking about my poor rescue babes who could have been scooped up for dog fighting, I can't imagine ever not transitioning to vegan.
I went vegan by trying it off and on. So I would take two weeks and eat totally vegan. Then I would take two weeks and eat Lacto/Ovo. If I recall correctly it took about 12 weeks, three full transitions before on the final Lacto taste I got sick and cut out all dairy permanently.
For things that I thought I could never give up, snickers bars, I cut back to the L/O weeks and even then sparingly. Give it a try and to put your family at ease, read up on nutrition so that if your parents fret about you getting proper vitamins and minerals you can calmly and clearly explain that you are.
Good luck and welcome aboard!
I don't know if this will help at all, but you asked.......
I went vegetarian when I was 19, just because it dawned on me that I didn't really like meat and didn't have to eat it anymore. It did take me a while to phase out chicken and fish, but eventually I lost the taste for them.
When I was 20, I had a vegan roommate, and had been very involved in animal rights and also was reading the Dr. McDougall books. So, I gave being vegan a whirl. I remember craving a few things for a couple of months and relapsing (cool ranch doritos, of all God forsaken things) but I finally learned how to cook, so that helped. This was 16 years ago (1991-I am 36 now), so the vegan options were pretty slim back then where I lived. After years of cooking, it actually became my vocation! The more I ate that way, the more I enjoyed it. To this day, after 16 years, I have never regretted it or craved animal products. I just really enjoy the taste and feel of vegan foods so much more.
It also helped that some health issues cleared up upon going vegan: bad skin, chronic strep throat, low iron, etc....
That's my story. :)
Depends on your bigger motivator. If you are into animal rights check out some of the PETA stuff explaining how inhumane the dairy & egg industries are. If you care about your health, read the China Study, it will explain how bad dairy is for you. If you care about the environment, check about some books/websites linking dairy & egg production to global warming & excess usage of water and fossil fuels.....If it will make you feel more comfortable, don't label yourself as vegan right away, simply think of it as trying to avoid dairy/eggs/and honey. This is still how I think of myself because I am not as strict as most vegans.
Here's my story...
I weaned off of meat over the course of a year or so, gradually cutting each different kind of meat out until I was down to chicken and turkey. Then I read Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz and was fully convinced to go vegetarian. My family was not supportive, but whatever. Moved to Madison, WI--amazingly veg friendly city--and met a woman involved in the local PETA chapter. She was raising a vegan child at the time and we talked a bit about substitutions and the like. Then she told me what made her switch over to veganism, that someone else talked to her about if you are vegetarian and still having dairy, you might as well be eating veal due to the separation of the calves for the veal industry. That idea bounced around in my head for a couple weeks, then one day I decided I was done. Went vegan in a day and haven't looked back, LOVE the way I feel and the food I get to eat now. I've always been a label reader, so that part wasn't hard, just had to add animal products to the list of things to avoid, in addition to artificial anything.
I say just give it a try, see how it makes you feel. Given that you are already on most of the alternatives anyway, you will likely find yourself falling quite easily in to the vegan lifestyle. Best of luck and my main advice is to try as many new foods as possible--that really helped to open up my palate to all the wonderful vegan goodies!
When I was 11 or 12 years old I learned that meat comes from cows. I said no way I'm not eating that again. I felt sorry for the animals. And around 14 years old I became a vegan milk and eggs just grossed me out. I'm 39 now, I've been a veggie for 28 years now and I love it. I think it is the most tastiest food in the world.
And I used to eat alot of meat when I was younger I remember the roast beefs I used to eat yuck, the white castle burgers a double yuck.
I have been vegan for the past six months and I absolutely love it. I thought about being vegetarian after I read Morgan Spurlock's book Don't Eat This Book. That week, Vegan Outreach volunteers were handing out pamphlets at my school. The sight of the skinned pig left me breathless. I would never eat meat again. I started being vegetarian in October 2006.
I started my vegan diet in January 2007 and planned on being vegan until Valentine's Day. I wanted to look as sexy as possible in my Fredrick's lingerie. I pretty much ate mostly vegan food before, so the transition was not difficult. Three days into my veganism, I knew I wanted to live the rest of my life completely cruelty free.
I have a new found love affair with cooking and especially baking. I love making cute cup cakes and fruit pies. Vegetables are irresistible to me now.
When I made he transition to veganism, I started going to the gym everyday. As a vegetarian who did 30 minutes of cardio four days a week, I weighed 135 pounds. Now, I do 30 minutes of cardio everyday and weigh 120 pounds.
If you are interested in being vegan just try it out. There are substitutions for EVERYTHING. If you love Ben and Jerry's (like I did) there are soo many yummy soy and rice ice creams. My favorite is Good Karma's carrot cake rice cream. It is simply delicious. Good luck :)
I have been a vegetarian for over ten years and have tried to go vegan a few times, all of which failed. Ultimately I love cheese so much and I really have not found an acceptable substitution they all taste strange to me. I eat 95% vegan diet sneaking casein free cheese once or twice a week but I am happy with my diet. I think it is all personal, just commit or don't but do not beat yourself up over your decision!
I was lacto-ovo veggie for 4 years before going vegan last August. I went veg*n for health reasons at first. Now, add the cruelty to animals to my reasons. After I watched the PETA stuff last month, I am STRICT vegan, diet-wise (I was a not-so-strict vegan for the last 10 months). Plus I have a skin allergy, so I can't wear silk or wool and don't wanna wear fur or leather.
If you want to go vegan, try it out. Every little bit helps. But no is going to put you down here if you didn't like it.
i never told my family (mainly my mom) when i took steps in my diet. i decided to become a vegeterain in highschool, and i just stopped taking the meats at dinner. after a few days my mom finally asked, " ok, why aren't you eating your dinner anymore?" so i told her and she was suprised (i hated my vegetables when i was younger ::)) but very accepting and supportive because she knew i would cook for myself and wouldn't have to end up making two dinners. then when i was nineteen i got a job cooking in a vegan restaurant when i left school for a bit, and loved it, and about a year after working there i felt like i was just ready to give up all animal products. i had gotten a great training in vegan cooking, so it wasn't hard at all. again, didn't tell my mom, just dropped stuff out of my diet and she caught on. really love being vegan; my family is still a bit skeptical sometimes, but making delicious food for them that "just happens to be vegan" ;) is making them come around more.
as far as vegan at college goes, i think the food selection is getting better. i remember being so sick of the food my freshman year, but my college switched catering companies and the selection got much better ( i didn't have to live off of hummus and iceberg lettuce wraps anymore!) just be careful to make sure you get all the different nutrients you need; i found that the cafeterias are great at making sure students get everything thing they need on a conventional diet, but aren't quite as good at the vegan diets.
good luck at school and veganism!
:'( *shell-shock'd*
Today for the first time I'm seriously considering going vegan (from ovo-lacto-vegetarian). Yeah, last night I watched 'earthlings'... my eyes went all scratchy from crying, and I got my cats all confused and upset too. It's so easy to lapse into thinking things like "oh, I eat barn raised chicken eggs - they must be okay compared to the rest"........ NO.
Before I suspected, and now I know, that the only way I'd ever happily, completely be an OLV is if I could raise and keep my own happy, healthy chooks and cows, knowing they had enough, and not being greedy for the precious food they could give.
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