How did you go vegan?

[Kevster]

Very similar to Kelzie, did an environmental ethics course, read Singer and Regan, and went on from there. That also hit home that i never really got an education at school, it was just people telling me what to think and what to do, training me up to be part of the system.

Nowadays, i can't think of a good reason not to be vegan, i think the stigma is a pain for a lot of people. There is a 'label' and i don't think it is possible to be vegan and not be an activist on some level. When this changes, and it becomes easier to be vegan i think there'll be a lot more about.

[breathe]

What Kevster said, I realized early on that the educational system was rigged, that I wasn't learning anything useful, at all, and that I was just being groomed for some pathetic and boring future as a small cog in the capitalist industrial complex machine. Fast foward approximately 12 years. Then I somehow screwed up the nerve to watch The Witness, not knowing what to expect. I went vegan on the spot after I saw how poorly dairy cows are treated. Up until that point I really believed in the happy cows dairy myth. I knew that vegan was different, but I didn't know it was much better. Of course the ethical considerations for going vegan eluded me up until that point.

[Astrocat]

I was vegetarian to begin with.

My mother had not realised the inconsistencies of vegetarianism, so it had never occured to her to teach us about them. When she gave birth to me and my brother vegetarianism was pretty much unheard where I live - it was generally treated like a crazy idea and there was little for them to eat. This is still the case, so i can imagine just how rough it must have been and what a progressive decision it was for her. Here in hickland, there are no vegans so their presence was never a major feature in my upbringing. Also, i had ignorant omnivores attacking me because "vegetarianism is at an elite pole" so i had not realised there was any more ethical way to eat until much later.... i guess that would be , oh i don;t know - maybe 2 years ago or something ?

I was a big fan of dairy and junk-food so i had been kidding myself that i wouldn;t be able to give up cheese.

That all changed overnight when Phillip888 was speaking in a forum and with me, civilly but uncompromisingly, about the inconsistencies of vegetarianism.
I just hadn;t realised that the dairy and flesh industrues were pretty much one and the same, or anything about the kind of exploitation and abuse which vegetarianism supports directly.

It was a shock, but since i had ethics as a running theme of my vegetarianism it was pretty obvious that to be consistent and ethical i could not stay vegetarian.
I was probably more shocked though, to find that those ethics which i had grown up with were not only not shared by my brother, but also not shared by a great many other vegetarians.

It was also then that i really THOUGHT about what i was eating - the menstrual products and breast milk of another species.... sometimes congealed into blocks....

I had one eggy meal after hearing about the reality of my situation, it was scrambled eggs to be especially offputting.

It was easy.
I had some wicked cheese cravings, but it was easy not to give in to them i found.

I did not call myself vegan though, until about 5 or 6 months later - until i was totally certain that i would not backslide or have "slip-ups"

I don;t advise that people draw out or prolong their transitioning, as it just means that a lot of unnecessary guilt or angst is felt, since people then continue to do things which aren;t consistent with their desired ethics.

It is much easier to just do what you know is right as soon as possible, i have found, as there appears to be some truth in the saying that it is really only as hard as you want it to be, convince yourself that it is, or make it.

[herbwormwood]

']I read The Buddhist Diet (http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/Buddhist%20Diet.htm) - just a brief online document about the buddhists cae for veganism. Immediatly after reading it, I decided right then I would go vegetarian, so for a week I ate only white meat, and every time I ate it, I felt bad, and I felt disgusted having that in my stomach. So after a week I dropped the meat habbit for about 3 or 4 months, then I watched a PETA video (meet your meat) and after seeing what happens to dairy cows, I simply could *not* eat dairy products either, so I found this forum, and decided to go the rest of the way on my birthday. Now I'm poppin B12 dots, making hummus, and even making my own soy milk :D

I didn't realise Buddhism discourages the eating of garlic and onions! I thought that was a Hindu thing. I could never do that. I eat them a lot, in fact onions are my most commonly eaten vegetable. I could not cook without onions, they are in almost all my recipes. I went vegetarian when I was fairly young, and vegan about 20 years later after reading publicity from veggie groups. I just had not realised that milk and eggs involved animal suffering and death.
I do like a lot of what Buddhism says, particularly about the lack of necessity/ the abscence of the creator god, and I try to meditate regularly, but I would never give up my garlic and onions. I don't even agree they are bad for me.

[crazy_4_veg]

When I was growing up I was told by many people that meat was main part of a meal and that we would die if we didn't eat it. However When I was 7 or 8 years old I saw my sister go vegetarian even though she had to convince our parents that what she was doing was safe. I then had my sister offer me loads of her veggie foods to see if I liked them and I really did they were just as good as anything containing meat. Even though this was the case I didn't go veggie. I did a sponcered veggie week when I was 9 with my friends and of corse managed to go the whole week easier than the rest as I had alot of veggie foods at home because of my sister. I then went back to eating meat without a second thought and now wishing I had taken the step then now.

It wasn't untill I was 14 years old that I was reading an article on vegetarianism for my extra lessons in english that I thought about becoming a vegetarian. Like my sister I still had to prove that it was completely safe for me to do otherwise my parents wouldn't have let me. After weeks of me persisting I was able to convince them the day before my 15th birthday. My first day as a vegetarian was that birthday and it was was brilliant.

I was asked to do a talk on something I felt strongly for at my school for an oral presintation and my teacher said that I should do vegetarianism to educate my follow peers in my class that didn't know or understand about it. When I was doing research for it I found out about the different types and came across veganism and what it entailed. I didn't go vegan then but I had a nagging voice in the back of my brain for ages afterwards that wouldn't go away. So after my GCSE's were over and I was bored I typed the word vegan into the search engine. All the information made sense and I thought about becoming vegan. I then accidentally clicked on a video called meet your meat and that was enough to stop making me think about it but actually act on it.

I became a vegan on the 10th of September 2006 and haven't looked back as I know what I'm doing is right. I've always adored animals and don't want to harm them so my veganism and indeed my vegetarianism was and still is for the animals it saves :) .

[Zombified]

I left home when I was 21 and started experimenting with cooking. I made a steak and kidney pie (heave) and got really bad food poisoning from it. I'd never liked offal (heave) but thought it would be ok in that famous British onmi-pie. When I recovered I couldn't stand the thought of eating meat, but as I'd never even met a vegetarian, and this was way before the internet, I didn't have the slightest idea what to eat. I lived on beans on toast for 2 weeks and then thought there's got to be something else I can eat. I was imagining a life of potatoes, meat, 2 veg and gravy (what I was raised on) but a space where the meat should be, so I went out and bought a couple of vegetarian cook books.
I became Vegan shortly afterwards, but the time wasn't right for me then. I got annoyed with myself because I wanted to eat chocolate and cheesecake. It was all about food and not the suffering comes with it. I read "why you don't need meat" by Peter Cox and realised there was so much more to being vegetarian that what I put in my mouth. When I later read of the horrors involved in dairy and egg production I had no hesitation in becoming fully vegan and I've never looked back.

[grail]

baby-steps here all the way.

I was breastfeeding during my transition and had to do a lot of research into nutrition. It's very easy for a vegan to say that we don't miss out on anything. However, it's a lot harder to explain exactly HOW we get all the nutrients we need. And since I was the only vegetarian that I knew, much less vegan, it required the input of people on this board and a lot of reading to make it happen. No one showed me - I had to figure it out myself, which took more time.

[Lyns]

I was looking for some cheap wool on the internet because I was going out to buy Stitch n Bitch.But then I came across some peta articles on mulesing and the cruelty of Australian sheep, something that I never knew about before. So then I cliked on some links to other peta sites, and eventually read everything I could on the internet. Then I went to my local library and did some more research. At the same time I immediately stopped eating milk, cheese and eggs, but still ate hidden ingredients. Finally went completely vegan as my new year's resolution, and I have slipped up once or twice, but still trying! And I never did manage to get a scarf knitted this winter!

[Romac]

1 accidental viewing of "meet your meat" and my wife and i went from an almost all meat diet to a vegan one overnight. cold turkey. cya later

[gogs67]

Listening to Anarcho punk bands in the 80's like Crass and Conflict talking and singing about vegetarianism and AR got me thinking about it!:D

[moonharvester512]

I went to a band website and they were talking about being vegetarians. So i ended up going to peta and 2 days later i was a vegan.

[humansituation]

I'd been vegetarian by choice since I found out what meat was (as a very small child) and that had always been an important part of me. Last January I met and shared a brief chapter of my time with a wonderful Vegan girl who lived amongst other vegans in Nottingham. I questioned her and brought forth all manner of viscious arguments against the practise (being quite a cynic myself) but she gently, emotionally and patiently justified everything in a wonderful way.
When we parted ways I buried my cynicism and tried going cold turkey/tofu. I embraced the restriction on my cheese laden diet almost as a hedonistic form of asceticism. Since then I have been absolute in my veganism and have no desire to ever regress.

[Aims]

Went vegetarian mostly because meat was grossing me out - had been grudgingly eating chicken and fish for a couple of years by that point mostly to keep mum happy..... so then a vegetarian friend asked why I didn't just go vegetarian? So I looked at some random stuff on the net and learned all about the horrors of factory farming etc, and went veg.
About 18 months later the guilt over dairy was really starting to eat at me, so I read Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres and had to admit they made a bloody good point. So I tried their "cold tofu" method - go vegan for 3 weeks and see how it goes. I was a total cheese whore and thought it'd be horrible, but after just a few days I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Two years later and I'm never going back :)

[Jippia]

I started being a vegetarian and after some reading and conversations with other people I became a vegan after seven years. I became a vegetarian the same way, by the way. I consider my veganism as an extended form of my former vegetarism since the arguments and the emotions are very much the same.

[Justin]

Pretty slowly actually with many starts and stops; I think that perhaps where I struggled was that I wasn’t entirely sure that, if you're willing to pull the trigger or do the deed, killing or exploiting were wrong. Well, there's that and the vegan community and no matter how respectfully I try and say this I'll offend someone but, in the interests of honesty and openness, as a discrete category- veganism has a disproportionately high concentration of self righteousness. I try, probably with a minimum of success, to be more open minded and conciliatory- I’m not really convinced of an absolute right and wrong. Most of the time, humans just stumble through life- we are not fundamentally good or evil, it may be that we are not able to both play this role and understand it.

[Vegan Joe]

I came upon it, all because I wanted to beat a cholesterol test. My doctor had suggested I take cholesterol reducing pills, and retest my cholesterol in 30 day. Said the heck with that. When on a vegan diet after doing a cholesterol study on the NET. Never looked back. 31 days later cholesterol went from 246 to 167.

[KrissStress]

Stumbled upon veganism 4 years ago when a roommate of mine started dating a girl (they're married now) and she was vegan. It was a bit of an odd concept, but I watched Meet Your Meat, thought about it some and went cold turkey. At the time, we didn't have much in terms of money and I didn't know you could eat vegan properly and VERY cheap - so I lived off potato chips, horribly made burritos and even went so far as picking the mushrooms out of the meat sauce at the chinese buffet ( I look back on that particular error and kick myself in the butt each time - the sheer STUPIDITY of it! ). Eventually I broke down and reverted to a veggie at a mexican restuarant when I couldn't handle not getting cheese on the quesadilla.

Second attempt was a year or so later and it died just as quick.

The most recent attempt has stuck and I haven't looked back. Not only do I NOT miss cheese, dairy or anything of the sort, I'm looked at as a bit of an extremist (I make hummus in two versions for myself and my band mates, one for me and one for them when they dip their milk product chips in). I don't miss ANYTHING involving animal products and even find that baking soda has done loads more for my hair then any shampoo did. Also, I've never had more fun in my life cooking and trying new foods then I have being vegan. True story. I've made more scrumptous and tasty things as a vegan then I ever ate as a meat eater.

And in terms of the human condition - well, it only makes sense to me that if I'm going so far out of my way to exhibit kindness to animals, then perhaps I should show that same kindness to other people (even if I want to spit in their eyes).

Overall, veganism is a very positive thing and it effects every aspect of my life. oh yes, and it's also lovely seeing the looks on people's faces when they try a dish I make and they go "THIS is VEGAN!?!?"

[AnneCE]

Summer 2006 - I was trying to reduce my carbon footprint while at the same time improve my health - thought "I'll go vegetarian" but then "oh no, all I'll be given to eat when I am out will be cheese and eggs so I'll pretend to be a vegan to get more variety" then I looked up stuff online about what being vegan meant so as no one could catch me out - it suddenly seemed very stupid to pretend to be vegan so I decided to go vegan. Reading stuff about the dairy industry woke me up!

I gave myself a month to see how it would go, expecting it to be harder than it was, and since then it has been a process of educating myself and eliminating all animal products from my life. I have to say it is one of the best decisions I have ever made and when I am struggling in other areas of my life, I can hang onto knowing I am a vegan to give me a boost.

[Joeybee]

When I went vegan It was a quit cold turkey (no pun there way of doing it, I just cut everything out, food wise anyway, hahah except that the day after I went vegan I poured milk on my cereal without thinking (was in automatic mode! and only realised when I was halfway through eating it!
I did have leather shoes at the time, which I wore for a few months till I got some non leather ones, and it was very hard for me financially at the time to get my own vegan cosmetics and cleaning products (I was still living at my parents house at that point.
When I came to uni I had completley cut out most things, and now I would say I only make the occasional slip up, like with the After Eights, grrrrr

[xwitchymagicx]

I can't even remember. lol

:confused:

I know I had been vegan before, but gave up...and became one again mid 2005.

But now I'm better at it.

[bohmo]

i had been on and off vegetarian for several years. on and off meaning occasional birds, fish and eggs. but a couple months before having our baby girl last year, my wife and i decided we wanted to raise her without any animal products in our home. we want to create a fresh start for her, so it would seem abnormal to her to have muscle tissue or various animal liquids in her fridge ;)

this is so important because people become attached to that wich they percieve as "normal". for example, it's normal to drink milk from a cow. but not from a cat, or a human (other than your mother, lol), or a zebra, or anything else you can think of. and people cringe at the thought of drinking milk made of soybeans, or almonds, or oats. wouldnt you rather have an almond than drink from a cow?

ok, enough of my rant. but you get the point. it was the birth of my daughter that was the last straw...

[Cherry]

It was just talking that turned me vegan. My friends and I were having dinner and talking about why we were vegetarian. One pointed out that really we were hypercrites because we were in denial about animal suffering too, otherwise we would be vegan. He was right, of course, and I went vegan within the week.

[Healthy]

Bohmo I love your story :)

Children whose parents raise them vegan are so super lucky!!

One concern I'd have (I'm not a parent) is when the children go to parties and other children are not vegan. Will they get sick when consuming their first donut or pizza? Or will they simply not be attracted to those foods because their tastebuds aren't perverted?

Any parents out there with this sort of experience?

[Declan]

I went vegetarian this year as a new-years' resolution, as one of my friends had been raised veggie and I wanted to try it, "just for three months to see what it's like" I told myself. But by the time those three months were over I was too used to being veggie to stop, so didn't. Then in the summer while VERY bored I was thinking about protien, and my thought pattern went somewhat like:
How do i get more protien? -> Eggs have a lot of it. -> How come eggs have so much? -> Because they're half a baby chicken -> Ew!
But I didn't actually act on it until I came to uni in September and discovered the Vegan Society that the uni has. I started to seriosuly cut back on non-vegan foods during Fresher's week, but it wasn't until mid-October that the halls I'm staying in started to offer Vegan food. As soon as they did, that was me, and I've never looked back. I know it's only been six weeks, but we have to start somewhere, yes?

[fondducoeur]

I was vegetarian for two years and then began dating my boyfriend, Robbie, who is vegan. I was curious, so I asked him a lot of questions, but then began doing a lot of my own research independent of him. I read John Robbins- The Food Revolution, and part of the way through that I was vegan. I initially was going to finish the vegetarian-but-not-vegan food in my freezer, just not buy anything else, but after one day of eating completely vegan, I decided I didn't want to eat any more animal products period. So I gave the rest of my food to a friend who is vegetarian.

Its funny, because I didn't even tell Robbie at first. We hadn't been dating that long at the time, and I was concerned he would think I did it to impress him, or because I thought he wanted me too. He found out from someone else and acted dumb until I told him. But I realize now that he wouldn't have thought that at all, just been proud and pleased that I was smart enough to realize what was going on and not want to participate.