Your personal vegan story

[Korn]

Re diet and ADHD, I just found this:

"A vegan diet for ADHD is truly weird and truly great!" (http://www.adhdaction.com/diet-for-adhd.html)


I know I know, your thinking "I can't live without cheese" but faced with a life of the symptoms of ADHD. All while knowing that a change in diet could improve that.
I had to try.
Armed with the new recipes and knowledge I gained from my vegetarian diet. I needed to train a little before I embarked on another 30 days. It was going to be hard to make the switch. I had to know that there were some yummy things to look forward to eating every day.

I learned a lot of new recipes and I set my timer again for 30 days I would stick to my vegan diet for ADHD.

Then something interesting happened.
My curiosity was rewarded!

I was never a morning person, always grumpy, miserable. Once I finally made it to work it was very hard for me to get going. In the afternoons I would become sleepy and my ADHD symptoms would kick in. It was almost impossible to concentrate and get things done.

Within two days of starting my vegan diet for ADHD I noticed a huge difference, especially in the morning. The second day I was jumping and singing in the morning.

This was very encouraging.
In fact it was way awesome!

I completed the 30 days on my vegan diet for ADHD. I found huge improvements in my ability to concentrate during the day. I had more energy and was more vibrant.
I was happier.
Many of the ADHD symptoms that I would deal with every day of my life were lessened. In some it cases they almost completely disappeared.

I was sure that my love of chicken wings was nothing compared to the gain in vitality, increased ability to concentrate, to pay attention and get things done that I achieved.
And the ability to the control of my symptoms of ADHD that is gained.

Although I did miss cheese to.

[onfiregirl]

Re diet and ADHD, I just found this:

"A vegan diet for ADHD is truly weird and truly great!" (http://www.adhdaction.com/diet-for-adhd.html)


im on the site now , and i find it interesting to say the lease but not surprising .

[For The World]

My story? A strange, long story.

I can't sleep. Well, i should say i CAN sleep now, but it's still not as much as i want.

Early last year i left Australia and went to work in the US. I was working at a summer camp, and spent the best part of 4 months teaching kids how to wakeboard, waterski and kneeboard. I also played in a band on Friday nights. Being a summer camp, i thought that the food would be good, because it's for children. Not a chance. The weekly rotation included tater tots, these mini hotdog things, BAD pizza, boneless chicken wings (it still boggles my mind) and Gatorade and soda for miles. There was some salad there, but i couldn't bring myself to eat peppers and lettuce for the 6 weeks the kids were there.

Camp finished, and i felt sluggish. I thought i was just tired from 10 hour days of skiing and swimming. So i hitch-hiked across the states (east to west) in about 5 weeks and stayed with a girl (now my girlfriend) in Washington state. The diet got a bit better, but i was still feeling crap. I went home for a few weeks before coming back and living in Canada. When i came back, i attributed my low mood and lack of sleep to the season (winter). I tried melatonin to get me to sleep, but it didn't help too much. I just got to sleep quicker.

Fast forward through stress, frustration and no sleep. I started searching for things to help me sleep based on diet. I found the Vega Whole Health meal replacement. I started having a smoothie for breakfast, along with fresh fruit. I searched the PETA website and found some ideas for vegan diet. After reading the Thrive Diet, i switched from eating a semi decent omnivorous diet to raw. After three weeks of eating raw, i was sleeping better, feeling less stressed, and i can sleep for 4 to 5 hours a night before waking up. Better than the 1 to 2 hours.

Once i switched to vegan/raw, i started looking at things differently, and had a new found appreciation for my two pugs (even though i love them already). I also listened to the song "Potemkin City Limits" by Propaghandi (one of my favourite bands) and it caused me to look at the animal kingdom in an entirely different light again.

http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/propagandhi/potemkincitylimits.html

It's a song written in the second person about Francis the Pig. When you listen to it, it's just... well... i get emotional. My mindset has changed so much.

Now, i'm feeling better in myself, and my girlfriend has decided to go vegetarian (she says she saw how i was feeling better and looking healthier) as an example to her family. They're stuck in their ways and laugh at her, but she just lets them be and enjoys eating and feeling better. I'm not 100% raw, because i do like cooking rice & beans, tofu (every now and again) and sometimes i have almond milk.

One thing i will say. Going from a can of soda a day to nothing is eye opening. I was drinking them because i couldn't stay awake, but now i haven't had any in 3 months and i'm wide awake.

[mariana]

hello all ,

Im a proud 2nd generation vegan and my children are 3rd generation vegans and we are all very very healthy so i dont have much of a story to say except that my whole family, sister, brothers , father and mother are vegans as well.

if anybody needs any tips advice , im sure that i can help.
Like harpy, I hadn't heard of any 3rd generation vegans before. That is so amazing! Congratulations to your family. :)

[wendy]

How did you experience growing up as a vegan? What were the reasons your parents gave you for being vegan? How did you cope being a vegan teenager, when fitting in is so important? Nobody in the family falling of the wagon?

[onfiregirl]

How did you experience growing up as a vegan? What were the reasons your parents gave you for being vegan? How did you cope being a vegan teenager, when fitting in is so important? Nobody in the family falling of the wagon?


it really never bothered me , as for anybody else in the family falling of the vegan wagon , no its never happened.

[wendy]

Can you tell a bit more about you handled being different? What you told the other children at school? What did your parents tell you were the reasons for being vegan?

[baby_vicuña]

I know this thread is a few months old, but I don't think I ever told this to you guys...

I went vegan in April of last year...for the second time. I had tried once before. In 2007, I saw Meet Your Meat. I was horrified and went vegan overnight. It lasted for a few months. As a result of the diet, all the fruit and veggies I was eating caused my fructose malabsorption to flare up, which exacerbated my mental health symptoms.

Long story short, I became severely depressed. I bought and ate whatever I wanted regardless of what living creature was killed for it. I stopped caring. About anything. Though my vegan knowledge still nagged at me a lot when I would eat an ice cream sundae. I knew it was wrong, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.

I soon got out of my depression. But I didn't go back to being a vegan. I knew all the horrors of slaughterhouses and such, and yet I still continued to eat animal products (use Proctor and Gamble shampoo, etc). I was actually fitting in with my friends, doing whatever they wanted to do, eating whatever they wanted to. I was having fun. I had the vegan knowledge, but I dismissed it in the name of social acceptance.

But by April 2009, I was sick of not thinking for myself, sick of feeling crappy all the time, and sick of the extra 40 pounds I had gained. So I picked up a little book called Skinny Bitch. It reminded me of why I had first become a vegan. I became a total veggie overnight. I wanted to stop there because of social pressure. Being a strict veggie is hard enough with omni friends in high school, let alone a vegan. But a few weeks later, I saw Earthlings and I changed my mind.

I wanted to say this because although social pressure isn't an excuse to kill animals, it is a reason lots of people continue to (even knowingly). I was one of them. But I learned from this experience and it greatly humbled me. Now I've been thinking for myself since 4-25-09 :). Go vegans! :D

[ecovegan]

(Warning: sad story) I flirted with the idea for many years. One day while in college, my boyfriend (still to this day :D) and I were having a conversation, and totally off topic I said, "Have you ever wanted to try vegetarianism?" His reply was simple yet powerful, "Yes!" So from that day forward we were vegetarians.
So about a year later we were eating at our favorite Chinese restaurant and I asked him if he would like to try veganism? He was a little less enthusiastic about this one. He wasn't quite sure on how he felt. He thought it would be really difficult. While still in the discovery stage of my vegan curiosity, I said ok and left it at that. A week or so went by and I was still contemplating whether or not to make the jump. So I decided, I would wait for a sign.
And no more than a day later, I got my sign. We were driving back from the store with a delicious looking chocolate cake in hand. As we were rounding the corner to my apartment complex, I saw it. There was a duck that got hit and it was lying on the side of the road. And there sitting next to it was his friend, looking down at him, as if saying, "What happened to my friend?...Why?":sad: It was the saddest experience that I have ever encountered! I cried for over an hour! And that was it! I went though all my cupboards and fridge, gave all my food, that had any trace of animal product in it, to any willing neighbor. And chucked the chocolate cake!
To this day I still get choked up about that duck and his friend. But I am extremely thankful for that duck and his friend, because they showed me the way to a life that, now, I can't imaging not living:smile:
It eases my heart to think that because of that duck, I have saved thousands of other animals lives, simply because I choose veganism.
Rest in peace my little friends:down:

[baby_vicuña]

^ Wow, that's powerful. Thanks for sharing :)

[wendy]

Great stories. And I agree that it is hard to be vegan in a non vegan world, because of peer pressure. But not to be vegan knowing that you are paying for the suffering of animals for me is much worse

[helen105281]

That's a lovely story ecovegan. I have never forgotten the sight of a mother duck looking on as most of her ducklings had just been run over by a car after she led them across a busy road. There were people helping her and some were saved but is an image that will haunt me forever. I was veggie at the time I think.

[ecovegan]

Wendy you are absolutely right! I wouldn't have it any other way! It a wonder to me how anybody could live an omni life with all the educational tools out there. It is our duty, as citizens and human beings, to ask questions and wonder why?!
Its crazy, every time I sit down to eat with my omni co-workers, they discuss how to eat healthier or lose weight or watch what they are eating. And they're conclusion is to eat ,for example, pulled pork with the bbq sauce on the side!?! WHAT?! How about skipping the pulled pork altogether! As I try to control my urge to reach across the table and shake them, I passively continue to eat my hummus bagel or tofu sandwich. I have tried to explain the wonderful benefits of a vegan lifestyle to them numerous times...but it is so hard to get people to understand:rollseyes_ani:

Thank you for sharing Helen:) It is very sad how some people just look the other way or don't even care. Just imagine what this world would be like if everyone thought and cared like the people on this forum:D The world would be such a beautiful and peaceful place!

[turtle_girl]

I've been a vegan for one year today :)

[ecovegan]

Congrats turtle girl:D That is awesome!!!!

[turtle_girl]

thanks ecovegan! This past year has been the best year of my life :)

[African_Prince]

At 22 (August of 2008), I saw 'meet your meat' on youtube and decided to read more about animal rights and stop eating chickens (I stopped eating mammals over a year earlier for health reasons). I still ate fish/marine invertebrates because I didn't believe they were sentient (or so I tried to convince myself). About a month later I stopped eating them as well.

My interest in evolution softened me up to the pro-AR argument.

[MCMLXXXVI]

-

[wendy]

wowwww, great story!
and very well written, thanks

[fooldramaqueen]

There was a duck that got hit and it was lying on the side of the road. And there sitting next to it was his friend, looking down at him, as if saying, "What happened to my friend?...Why?":sad: It was the saddest experience that I have ever encountered! I cried for over an hour! And that was it! I went though all my cupboards and fridge, gave all my food, that had any trace of animal product in it, to any willing neighbor. And chucked the chocolate cake!

It was very similar for me when I went veggie - 2 or 3 signs in as many days you might say (that I wouldn't want to go into as they are equally sad tales :() suddenly I saw things differently and haven't been able to see things any other way since!

Funnily enough, when I went from veggie -> vegan it was much less dramatic - I was staying with a friend of mine, and because she is very health/allergen conscious (though not veggie/vegan) she made my porridge with soya milk. It occurred to me that it still just tasted of the skimmed milk porridge I was used to, and that there was no excuse for me to carry on eating dairy & eggs. I've been vegan ever since :)

[MoonDance]

@ MCMLXXXVI -

Wow, indeed as Wendy said, great story and very well written.

It's amazing what so called 'health experts' say in regards to diet, particularly in the case of someone like your cousin isn't it?

I really, really hope that you can teach those 'doctors' a thing or two in regards to your veganism and all the best for your studies!! :D

P.s the world needs more people like you! (and everyone else on this forum of course!) :D

[Soesja]

my story is a bit different, and I am fascinated by the stories above.
it tells me I am also doing the right thing, but here goes.

in my teens I went vegetarian (lacto because they told me I "needed" the dairy), went on until in my mid-twenties.
suddenly became omni again for a few years, dunno why, probably frustration.
in the time I was vegetarian, I had considered becoming vegan but decided it was way too extreme and hard to do ...
when I became an omni again I did notice at first the taste of the meats, and had a hard time not thinking where it came from but the longer it lasted (four years) the more numbed I became.
but in the back of my mind that little voice was still there.

last october, 2009, I bought a cookbook (I like cookbooks, especially nice ones styled well, with pics) and went out the shop.
one hour later I was having a coffee and browsing the book.
I found out it was VEGAN!!!
suddenly, it all came back, from long ago...
one week later, I found myself eating vegan without even actually thinking about it.
now it's almost five months ago.

since becoming vegan, I feel more "open", have become more sensitive, in a lot of ways. also in ways I thought I had lost (spiritual/ paranormal depending on how you look at it), and feel more relaxed in general.
the longer I am eating vegan the more I start thinking about other things I do.
I am taking it further and further without even considering whether it's logic or not, it just FEELS right and I am starting to see more points of veganism that I didn't consider at first.

to top it off: I am a foodie, I love to cook.
I am learning to cook in new ways and I am finding out how EASY it is to cook vegan meals most of the time at home.
how EASY it is to have just storecupboard ingredients that don't spoil so fast, and make a meal out of it.
how much money I am saving.
and that I am NEVER EVER, feeling heavy or fully after having eaten a meal, no matter how substantial it is.

yes, in my country netherlands, it's rather hard on vegans when trying to eat out.
you have to be REALLY wary...so I try to pick places which do have some items on the menu I CAN eat but I rather would like to go to a restaurant which knows what to make for vegans.

what I am happy about is that veganism is becoming more into the open, more public, and that more and more people become aware, that veganism is the way to go for a better planet, be it sustainability, environment or for the people or the animals...

and to each their own, whatever reason you had to become vegan, it is good in itself THAT you turned vegan!
so for me, it was just something happened and when I look what's happening in my life now, I also see the logic of it.

what do I say when someone asks why I have become vegan.
I honestly tell them it happened overnight.......and how much I LOVE it and for me, sustainability, environmental and the people are good enough reasons.
and that all directly affects the animals too........in my way of thinking.

no need to kill living beings because we need food, no need to test on them because there are other ways to do so, no need to kill animals for fur or leather.

I will be interested to see where it takes me, further down the road. :)

[Shepherd Mom]

A year and a half ago, I read Martha Grime's Biting the Moon and then Dakota. I began thinking hard about the truth regarding the factory farming industry. I soon lost my taste for meat and rarely ate it. I began researching Peta's website. One day I received an e-mail from Peta promoting Ingrid Newkirk's Practical Guide to Animal Rights. The book had a picture of a mother pig and her piglet and I saved the e-mail and kept pulling it back up to look at the picture. Every time I craved pepperoni pizza or anything else, I pulled up that e-mail and stared at that picture. A few days later, I ordered the book and gave up meat forever. I began to learn the truth about the dairy industry and quickly decided that I was going to be a vegan. When my dog died, I promised her that I would do something great in her honor. I now attend anti-fur and anti-puppy mill demonstrations for In Defense of Animals on a regular basis. I e-mail my legislators regarding animal welfare laws and I write and e-mail businesses that are not cruelty-free. I leave literature behind me wherever I go and now my mom and my husband have made big changes to their diets! They are not vegan yet, but I predict they will be. Several of my neighbors have switched to soy milk on my recommendation. Now that I know the truth, I want everyone to know it!

[NuVegNC]

I became a secular humanist at around 12, came out as gay, and eventually began to develop a highly liberal perspective. I went on a flex/OLV diet for a year and lost 142 lbs that I had gained from emotional eating past the divorce of my parents and decided to port my immense awe and respect for the natural world into a logically consistent manner of life. I have been a strict dietary vegan for exactly 2 days now, and intend upon making my lifestyle match within the next couple of weeks. I'm so new to everything that the learning process is just fascinating to me. The whole process has been wonderful.

Currently I'm looking for allies/helpers in my new journey. Hope this place is a good place to relate with people 'cause I live with 3 unhealthy meat eaters and it's very difficult to keep myself together with them around.

[Shepherd Mom]

I became a secular humanist at around 12, came out as gay, and eventually began to develop a highly liberal perspective. I went on a flex/OLV diet for a year and lost 142 lbs that I had gained from emotional eating past the divorce of my parents and decided to port my immense awe and respect for the natural world into a logically consistent manner of life. I have been a strict dietary vegan for exactly 2 days now, and intend upon making my lifestyle match within the next couple of weeks. I'm so new to everything that the learning process is just fascinating to me. The whole process has been wonderful.

Currently I'm looking for allies/helpers in my new journey. Hope this place is a good place to relate with people 'cause I live with 3 unhealthy meat eaters and it's very difficult to keep myself together with them around.


Hey, good for you! I've been Vegan for about 6 months and I love it. Don't let the meat-eaters frazzle you. I was really surprised how quickly and totally my cravings for meat, sugar and junk food disappeared. The hardest part for me is discovering animal ingredients in products you'd never even think of! Eating out was a challenge at first; my husband is not Vegan and is pretty picky. My dog, however, begs for veggies and will do tricks for tofu!