Why weren't you vegan before you became vegan?

[Shepherd Mom]

Thank you!! I am so happy that I've changed my awful ways and I wish the whole world would go vegan. I get discouraged a lot by the things I see, hear and read regarding animal suffering but I try to remember that every little bit helps and that by living a vegan lifestyle I am making a small difference.

[colleengirl95]

Well, when i was in Grade Six ( i'm second year high school now) i tried to be a vegetarian. I don't have a problem when i'm at home but i usually have a problem when i go to school. It's because i usually have packed lunch and the food got spoilt. I looked around the food stalls but there wasn't any vegetarian food stall at all and i ended up starving. I stopped being a vegetarian after 2 or 3 months. It took me about 1 year to think about going vegan and i did when i was 13 ( i'm turning 15 this year.) and i still am a vegan.

[Laura]

I went vegan on my 14th birthday (3 years ago.) For 3 months before that, I was vegetarian. Then, when I did my reading, I realized that not eating meat wasn't enough.

Before that, I didn't have any real interest in vegetarianism. I didn't know how much animals suffered, or how bad animal products are for your health, or any of the other reasons. But one day, I was eating a piece of pork, and I was suddenly disgusted by it as it hit me that it had once been a real living pig with feelings. After that, I never ate meat again.

[VeganLion]

wow I can't believe there are some vegan young'ns out there! kudos to you guys!!
To be honest I really don't know why I didn't become vegan earlier. Perhaps because I didn't even consider it. I was too busy with my life to worry about anything as a child and besides I didn't cook - so i didn't see the raw ingredients. I just ate it! By the time I was adult I was set in my dairy eating ways. Luckily after an epiphany I'm now a very happy vegan!

[rxseeeyse]

childhood, I ate what other fed me, didn't think about the link between meat and animals. Then, my grandmother influenced me with her buddism ideas. She eats meat but she doesn't on the first day and 15th day of every chinese month. So I started to doing that too. Then when I turned 18, I realized I need to change my life. so I did and became vegan. I think all the years before I turned 18 I just didn't give much thought to the question and didn't feel it's right to change and take charge of my life. I didn't even start to read about animal issues until after I turned veggie.

[adl]

I didn't think I had the strength to take control of what I was eating without going overboard (into an eating disorder).

[Adena]

I didn't think about it or consider it in the slightest. I always loved animals as a child, but never saw meat as animals, just saw it as food. Pigs were my favourite animals when I was about fourteen, so I stopped eating pork because I thought pigs were so cute. Then I realised that no animal deserved to be killed just for me to have meat in my dinner or sandwich, no way was a certain "food" worth something's life! So I turned vegetarian. And actually I thought that was me doing my bit. I thought "well hens have eggs anyway, and cows produce milk anyway, so vegans are extremists" . I hate that I was ever that stupid! I read up on Peta and Animal Aid though and became a member of both, and then of Viva!, and SPEAK, and the more I read all what I was sent, the more disgusted I was and realised what I was eating and where it really came from. Not the happy country farms with the happy animals in the big fields, but the confined, caged, malnourished, animals completely raped of any quality to their lives. So there was my 2007 new years resolution - to be vegan forever after!

[RumpusParable]

I grew up omni and didn't encounter veg*nism until I was in my 20s. And then when I did it was mostly really obnoxious veg*ns, so I was put off the idea for a while.

Then, I got to know online and in person some veg*ns of various sorts that were pleasant and shared info and stuff in a nice way and it started to interest me... from there it's been a transition from omni to lacto-ovo to vegan for me. :)

[gmc]

Because I used to think cows and chickens etc weren't harmed in milk/egg/etc production... :\
How wrong I was.

That's how it was for me. When I became dairy intolerant I went online looking for recipes without dairy, and accidentally came across all the information about the way cows/hens are treated. I was vegetarian for years before, but that was a turning point for me. Until then I thought there was no harm in eggs/milk/cheese.

I wondered how I would get on, but it's fine. I still miss Heinz salad cream though.....................................

[maggielassie]

I did not know any better then. I'd been brainwashed by my family & culture into believing that meat & dairy were "good for us". I knew killing animals was wrong, but I did not think about it that much, until I met a vegan online who sent me a link to the Meat your meat video :eek: It was definitely an eye-opener, I went onto veggie websites, heard about veggies being in good health, and I became lacto-ovo 2 years ago. I was already planning on becoming vegan then. But vegetarian food was so easy to come by that I 'fell asleep' for a wee while re veganism. I then listened to Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's podcast which partly made me change my mind & opened my eyes wider. Then, 6 months ago, I saw Earthlings :eek: which basically made me go from veggie to vegan overnight; I did not want to take part in any of the cruelties that the documentary was showing any more.

[Iroh]

For me it was the same as alot of people: I never really thought about it.

I had been raised to love animals and to respect all life by my mother. I remember as a toddler I intentionally killed a bug on the wall of our house. My Mum found out and I got in alot of trouble. We always had pets around and my Mum loves her dogs more than life itself. Looking back it seems weird that I had never been taught of vegetarianism or veganism. I guess my Mum just didn't put much thought into it either. With being raised in such a way I had always been against the killing of animals. I knew my food came from animals but was still somehow detatched from it. I decided to become vegetarian about a year and a half ago after watching a video on pig slaughter. My intention at that point was always to become vegan, vegetarianism was never a solution for me, just a stepping stone. I kept telling myself I couldn't go vegan as my diet was (no exaggeration) 90% cheese. I had it on everything and regularly spend £15-20 a week on cheese. So for a few months I was just coasting on the veggie diet but not really making any effort to go vegan. Then, as a few others have said, I watched Earthlings and went vegan overnight. I think going 'cold turkey' (if you'll pardon the expression) animal produce is probably the best way, otherwise you're sortof teasing yourself.

I have now been vegan for about 8 months. A few months ago I started a vegan society for Preston which meets regularly with about 15-20 attendees each time with the facebook group having 65 members. I have tried to start one for Warrington too but not had much of a response but I'm working on it!

EDIT: Within a week of me being vegan my Mum said she saw the logic in it and has turned veggie :D.

[Clueless Git]

I have a slightly guilty feeling that the reason I was not a vegan before I became a vegan may be something like this:

The light had never dawned on me that being a vegan rattles the pram of the non-thinking person even more than being a vegetarian does.

T'other reason may be that the last of arguments I held on to for not going the next step, as it were, had stopped making sense when I was having one of my frequent debates with myself.

Bit worried right now that the last of my arguments for not progressing towards raw food fruitarianism are also shortly going to fall ..

[Clueless Git]

EDIT: Within a week of me being vegan my Mum said she saw the logic in it and has turned veggie :D.
'Lo Iroh :)

From buddhist texts ...



"I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two? Your mother & father. Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. Why is that? Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world. But anyone who rouses his unbelieving mother & father, settles & establishes them in conviction; rouses his unvirtuous mother & father, settles & establishes them in virtue; rouses his stingy mother & father, settles & establishes them in generosity; rouses his foolish mother & father, settles & establishes them in discernment: To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father."


I would say that what you did for your mums fits.

[Oveeja]

Because I had never heard of such a thing. I had heard of vegetarians but had never actually met one (still haven't) and also I never knew why they were vegetarian. In my 16 years of life the first time I ever came across something that explained the reasons for becoming vegan (I saw earthlings) and I immediately withdrew from all animal products just like that. It was so easy I haven't thought about ever going back.

[khadagan]

probably because I didn't think about it before then. When I thought about it it made perfect sense to become vegan and I changed my life immediateley, have never had any doubts. There are not many things I'm sure of in this life, apart from being vegan being a good thing for me.

[VagabondVegan]

Discovered it a few months before University and couldn't be bothered with the hassle of doing it while living at home with my parents. Soon as I left went Vegan. Easy. :)

[The Queen]

I've been vegetarian since conception and irst thought about excluding all animal products when I was about 6. I asked my mum and she said, "they're vegans, but they can't hardly eat anything and have to take vitamin pills"

I basically thought it would be really hard

And when I first seriously tried, it WAS hard because instead of adding new things in I jujst cut things out

[memomow]

I wasn't vegan before I became vegan probably because I was too scared to genuinely comprehend the gravity of my animal consumption. I had been vegetarian for several years as a teenager and then as I entered my twenties I allowed others to detrimentally influence my choices. I take full responsibility for my choices - even the bad ones I've made - because it allowed me to cultivate and deepen my convictions. Veganism makes so much freaking sense to me that my previous way of being in the world seems so thoughtless!

[fiamma]

couldn't be bothered with the hassle :confused:

[TXvegan]

I think it was pure ignorance. I wish I'd done it years ago!

[Lady Mozdust]

I've been vegetarian for 15 years, but last year I tried going vegan, and failed. This year, I tried again, and I've found it much easier as I've done it gradually.

I've knows about all the cruelty for dairy etc for a while, but initially found it quite difficult the first time I tried. But this time I know I'll be sticking with it. :)

[Chester]

I had never thought that killing animals to eat cold be wrong. The first time I realised that, was during an argument with my parents about bullfighting (and I was 18 years old already!). Mi posture was that killing an animal as a "sport" was terribly wrong, just as hunting. Then they said that then, why did I eat meat? At fist I didn't know how to answer that, so I said the typical "It's not the same. Our organism needs eat to live". Nevertheless, after that I thought about it, and one month later later I went vegetarian. I carried on with the consumption of eggs and milk but, after about one year with this diet, I saw "Earthlings". I went to the fridge and throw to the garbage the only 3 yoghurts I had at that moment. Thinking about it now, I regret that, i.e. throwing away food, but at that moment I felt terrible and couldn't think about eating them.

[deer]

I simply didn't know that people can survive without meat and other animal products and imagined that animals were raised just as picture books for children. After getting to know the truth I went vegan and really believed that everybody else will make that change if they learn how the meat comes to the table and moreover that biologically we don't need animals. Though most of my acquaintances are ignoring the reality as long as it doesn't happen to them, I am sincerely convinced that we should concentrate on those who don't build wall around them and outside world and listen. I don't pay any attention to protein, plant feelings and other trolls, not going to answer them any way.

[aliaslotte]

Way back, I probably didn't give it any thought. I have never known another vegan and vegetarianism was seen as pretty extreme.
Living at home, my parents were not interested in veganism and my trying to follow a vegan diet was a constant struggle.
Thoughts about improving animal welfare with careful buying of welfare products etc.
Working in a supermarket on the checkouts and in the cafe, handling non-vegan food all the time.

[Back-Space]

I watched about 20 seconds of Glass Walls almost a year ago and immediately became vegetarian. About a month later I was doing some more research and ran into some milk and egg articles and immediately became vegan. I read a lot about the "ignorance" of omnivores. I'm not quite sure how to take that though. Is it ignorance in the sense that everyone knows what goes on, but they just ignore it? Because I don't think that's the case with everyone. Unless you go looking for the information, it isn't exactly going to jump out at you one day... The only reason I ran into Glass Walls was because it somehow came up when I was looking for Beatles music. It's weird to think that if that hadn't happened I could still be an omnivore :( Aside from that, it was basically the same as a lot of others. You needed meat for protein, milk for calcium and so on... You never thought to challenge the idea that it was any different.