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Re: Your personal vegan story
Hi! (I'm new here)
I became vegan at 12. I began thinking about what I was actually eating
when I was eating that McDonalds hamburger at around 10......decided I did not want to eat meat, but did not know how to go about telling my parents. I did not know anyone who did not eat meat. I am Catholic, and the lent before my 12th birthday I decided I would give up meat, eggs, cheese, milk.........and tell my parents I was doing it for lent and then just never go back to eating it.
It did not go over too well. My parents panicked and when they could not get me to go back to my meat eating diet, they took me to a psychiatrist!! I was SO upset that they could not understand me and where I was coming from. They never did try to understand me or see the compassionate person I was, even at such a young age.
The doctor told my parents that I was either depressed over something, or had an eating disorder!
The next few years were horrible. They tried to force me to eat meat and every dinnertime was a nightmare.
I stuck to my guns though. I have been a vegan now for 35 years (I"m 47), had 7 healthy kids (3 over 9 1/2 lbs, and 4 over 10 lbs.......and my normal weight is 115 at 5'5) My mom panicked with ever pregnancy, thinking I would have a child with something wrong with it.
Instead I had 7 great pregnancies, and rather easy births.
However, my husband at the time, father of all 7, would not let me bring my kids up vegan, since he was not and felt the children should be able to make their own choices as I did. So, I have 7 meat eat kids, which bothers me terribly. I talk to them all the time though and hopefully they will learn frome example.........I can only hope : )
I do want to say, and I'm sure all who read this will agree, that being vegan is SO much more than a way of eating. It is a way of looking at the world, a much deeper level of thinking and feeling. I respect all life, from the tiniest creature, to a tree, to a human being. I am a Christian, so that plays a huge part in my thinking as well.
Anyone who is just thinking about becoming vegan or just starting to make the commitment, fill your head with all the knowledge you can about it. Read, read, read! That's what I did. Read anything I could get my hands on so that I could learn to live without meat.
You will face a lot of people who think you are crazy, but let them. I'm happy with the person I am. I am compassionate and sensitive and caring, appreciate nature and really stop to "smell the roses".
Just in case you are wondering............35 years later.........my mom says to me on the past Memorial day, while she was eating her big hamburger........"don't you ever get a craving for a big juicy hamburger?!"
LOL..........they'll never get me! : )
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I've always felt that eating meat was wrong. I've never been able to look at raw meat, or eat it if I thought about where it came from. When I was 8 I decided to become a vegetarian (knew nothing about veganism at that point). This lasted three days. I broke my wrist while sledding and my mom made some instant soup, just to get something into me before heading to the emergency room. Half way through I realized it contained cow. That was the end of that.
About a year ago I started thinking about vegetarianism again. So, I checked out a stack of veg*n/ animal right books at the library, thinking to at least start doing some research (on beholding my pile, my mom said: "I don't want you to read those if they'll keep you from eating meat.":mad: ). Well, I did read them, and concluded that I had to become vegan.
That weekend my mom went out of town, and upon being asked by Dad what I would like to do, I said that I would like to plan and cook some vegan meals (I learned that kale cooks a lot faster than tofu:rolleyes: ). On returning, Mom had a fit. I ended up eating meat for another two days. Once she became somewhat reasonable again, it seemed that her arguments were 1: It would be too much work, and 2: It would be impossible for the whole family to convert ( I don't know where she got the idea I was trying to pressure them into veganism). She came around (I gave her Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat) and I've been happily vegan ever since.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Good Morning All,
I said at the start of the year that I would try to go vegan by my birthday which is today and I have so thought I would write my story which is not particularly exceptional but it just sort of reaffirms what I am doing.
About 10 years ago I turned veggie (almost vegan) for health reasons - having read fit for life (Harvey Diamond). I immediately felt a zillion times better but always intended to return to meat as I had been a big fan of meat and dairy and had absolutely no interest in animal welfare. When I came to try meat again I could not face it and so remained veggie but continued with dairy and eggs altho no fish. I sort of had inklings over the years that I should be looking into animal welfare but denial is a very powerful thing. After reading fit for life I thought that veganism was the healthiest way but sort of thought it was very restrictive and you vegans were a load of extremist militant tree hugging types!
For some reason this year I decided to stop talking about things I would do and finally put my money where my mouth is and just get on with it - so I have passed my motorbike test, turned vegan, stopped asking for birthday presents and get family to donate to oxfam or wherever, organised to get a tattoo and made the decision not to have kids - and still got 6 months of this year to go!!!!!
I have, unlike many, no sentimental attachement to animals at all but find I am more and more against cruelty (particularly unnecessary cruelty) whether it be to animals or people. So although I turned vegan for health reasons it is certainly the animals cruelty element that would stop me returning to eating animal products. I have been truly horrified at what I didn't know about the meat and dairy industries or rather what I chose to ignore.
Actally being vegan is quite easy - although it took a good month of research to get to grips with. Attitudes to veganism have been a surprise (not a pleasant one) but am certainly old enough and ugly enough to stick up for myself. My partner is totally supportive and is a vegetarian/vegan in training, my family just think I'm odd anyway so nothing new there. The surprise is my very health conscious brother - his comment was - why would you do that to yourself? and my otherwise open minded politically aware good friends whose comment was - don't even try to convert us - I hadn't and wasn't intending to!!!! Oh well I am leading by example!!!
That's all really, I am very happy as a vegan for all the reasons you already know. Would also like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your contributions to this site which has helped me enormously (and entertained me for hours too!) and especially to Korn for his level headed intelligent answers to serious questions.
Wishing you a happy day
Hetfield
:D
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Re: Your personal vegan story
since about the time i got into punk rock (about 14, 15) i'd been exposed to the idea of animal rights and i knew about how animals suffered in slaughterhouses and in factory farms, though for some reason the idea never really clicked with me. i tried to go vegetarian in high school several times, but i got really hungry and didn't know what else to eat since there was practically nothing in my house that didn't have meat. however, even back then, i knew it was wrong and that i was only eating meat because it was convenient for me and i liked the taste.
going to college really opened my eyes to the idea of veganism. mostly the reason why i considered it was because i hold a deep resentment towards non-thinkers and people who are politically apathetic, and i saw a lot of this in my fellow students. i always wondered why, and i started thinking about my lifestyle choices. that was the beginning of my venture into veganism. around january of 2005, i made the decision to try my damndest to stay vegetarian, which it did, because four months later, i became vegan.
i was watching a peta video of the raccoons (i think it was raccoons) being beaten and skinned alive, and it made me cry like i had not cried before. it also made me very angry, and i realized that there was no difference between this sort of injustice and the sort of injustice inflicted on animals that i ate, so i vowed that i would go vegan cold turkey (no pun intended) even if it meant i would starve, because at the time, i had a hard time finding vegan food. thankfully, my health has only improved since then and i am still as passionate about veganism as the day i converted.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I’ve been animal & animal rights obsessed for my entire life, but I didn’t make the switch to vegetarian until a summer vacation when I was a middle schooler. My family went up to Iowa and spent some time with my dad’s parent’s on the farm (by this time my grandparents just raised Standardbreds and crops) and my grandpa was renting some of his land to a guy who wanted pigs. When I saw the pigs I desperately wanted to send them to some happy haven full of warm fuzzies, but realized that they would instead end up in the meat aisle, so I decided enough was enough. On the drive back home we stopped at a McDonald’s for lunch and I remember I was extremely nervous about telling my parents about wanting to become a vegetarian. I was eating a cheeseburger while I explained (in my long, rambling fashion) my decision to Mom. She gave me the ok, convinced Dad, and I was good to go, on the condition that I could NOT become a vegan. Fast forward to Junior year of high school. I had cut back dairy in all situations where it wouldn’t be a fuss purely because I had decided it was unhealthy for humans to consume other species’ milk, and I minimized eggs because I had cracked open two that had blood in them (eww). My brother had been telling me every time we talked (he’s off at college) that I just had to watch Napoleon Dynamite. So I finally did. Anyone else who saw it might remember the seen in the egg factory? Yeah. That was it for me. The fact that the cramped cages and picking up a chicken (I think he held it upside down by the legs, but I have a horrid memory) in whatever manner the chicken was picked up that somehow managed to offend me was normal and acceptable inspired the switch. So I e-mailed my mom (we never discuss big issues without e-mailing our points first as we tend to get off topic) and she decided I was nutritionally careful enough to make the switch, and I've lived veganly ever after.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I became vegan because of animals. I've always been an animal lover, but I was blind as to how animals (all of them) are actually treated. Last October I wanted a companion for my dog, so my boyfriend and I went to the pound and got a stray mutt. When I walked into the pound and heard all of the dogs crying and barking, the sense of sadness and loneliness and despair from all of these animals completely broke me down. That was definitely a life changing event. At that moment I vowed to never buy a dog from a breeder or a pet store.
Fast forward to April of this year, and I was driving home, and I came up behind a car, and 4 dogs were being pushed out of the door. The car just sped off, and I was too shocked to do anything but go to the dogs to see if they were all right. I took them all home, found homes for 3 of them a week later, but no one wanted the skinny, scruffy, black dog that didn't look like any particular breed. She became my special girl, the one that no one wanted, but I did. So I kept her for myself.
So now I have 4 dogs. I have a huge backyard, but my house is somewhat small, so having more isn't very ideal, for me or the dogs. But there will always be room for me to temporarily take care of a dog I might find on the street, and I can take as long as I need to find the dog a good home.
Ever since then, my eyes were opened to how cruel humans can actually be. I still didn't realize the full extent until I went on PETA's website and saw the most horrifying videos I've ever seen in my life. The experience I had with dogs in the past year pushed me to research on animal cruelty, and that's what made me to go to PETA's website. Dogs, racoons, cats being skinned alive for their fur, cows and pigs being strung up by their feet and having their throats and tendons slashed, chickens having their beaks cut off and being boiled alive, these images have permanently etched themselves into my brain and they will haunt me every day for the rest of my life. How could I possibly be a participant in this gruesome barbaric practice, and at the same time be horrified by it? I couldn't.
So that's when I became vegan. Cold turkey.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
You sound like a wonderful caring person sarahblue. We need more vegans like you in the world :)
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I became vegan in November 2005. I had already been vegetarian for 5-6 years previously because of animal rights and it sounds terribly ignorant, but I really didn't know about the suffering involved in - e.g - the dairy industry.
I happily ate eggs and dairy because I believed 'it didn't harm the cow to give milk' and thought that they needed to be milked! Similarly I believed that chickens were not killed for their eggs and they would only go to waste if they weren't eaten. Oh the shame! :o
I then got to know a vegan who enlightened me about some key facts and I did a lot of research myself - read lots of books, checked out VIVA's and Animal Aid's websites etc, joined this great forum...and never looked back. :D
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Quote:
i_like_deer
i grew up in wyoming. if there's a worst place to be vegan... i was not vegan in high school but i hung out with vegan straight-edge kids. they were the unhealthiest people ever. when i read "why vegan?" & told them i was becoming vegan, they said "DON'T DO IT, it sucks" & i tried it & it sucked. .
I can't get over that quote.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Unfortunately Fruitbat's story rings true for me too. I was badly bullied in primary school by a ridiculous amount of kids, i remember one time after school I had about 8 or so on me. My dad was late picking me up and drove towards my school only to find me running towards him crying covered in spit.
The bullying stopped after that year because I moved onto High school/College. I made some good friends however I took advantage of now having control over what I ate at lunch and used to get hamburger and chips, curry chips, or go mad on the vending machines and buy 2 packets of crisps and chocolate bars (all in the one go) Many people would say I was treading a thin line on the healthy weight perhaps a little over. But I was never a big big person. Just under 10 stone and at 13yrs old or so, I told my mum I wanted to lose weight. I tried weight watchers, slimfast you name it and had dinners of salads, soups, quiches, omlettes, pasta. All sort of healthy things and dropped burgers for sandwiches at school. I dropped to 8 stone and I was happy.
I'd always loved and cared about animals and after reading articles on the internet I told my mum I wanted to try being vegeterian. She was OK with it and so was my dad, I could still pretty much ate what I did before. Except my dad insisted I still ate Tuna and Cod for protein. I wasn't really educated on how to get enough protein at that age so i agreed.
(Sorry this is so long!!)
Anyways I still lost weight and lost and lost. It got really bad one summer when I used to lock myself in my room and play the computer and not eat anything. Things went black, my heart raced and I couldn't walk up the stairs without stopping midway for a breather. My teachers notified my parents when i went back to school. They already knew but the phonecall made them phone for help. I was in therapy for nearly 3 years after that. At 5 stone and dropping I was admitted to hospital and blackmailed to eat with threats of a tube going into my stomach.
Along the way though, understandably I wouldnt eat eggs or cheese or drink milk because I was scared to death of the fat and calorie content so I suppose you could say I was vegan since the beginning of my illness. Minus the can of tuna my dad used to force on me every month or two, which the dogs appreciated when i gave it to them.
Anyways sorry about the long story. Mines not a very happy one. When I turned 18 last year the therapy stopped by law and i refused to go voluntarily. I still have anorexia and probably will for the rest of my life, it has destroyed me. I (to the amazement of my teachers) just about passed my GCSE's and barely my A Levels.
I'm a happy vegan and have been properly for over a year now, though at 19 yrs old and 6 stone (it fluctuates so rapidly)
I'm learning Japanese which is my dream come true and planning a visit. Hopefully in the long run to live there. I have got rid of all my old leather clothes and follow a diet which I now believe is NOT for my benefit but for the animals. Though living on fruit and vegetables it's scary to think of what my calcium and protein levels are.
Im sorry i took up so much time and space with this i just wanted to share my experience.
Thanks for your time,
J
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Thanks for sharing your story Sproutpout, I'm glad things are getting better for you. I'm envious of you learning Japanese - it's something I'd love to do, and a place I'd love to visit! You could do the JET programme and go and teach there, I think it would be a great experience. Anyway, thanks again for sharing your story and welcome to the forum.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Take good care of yourself, Sproutpout. It looks like you have a bright future
.... and the animals need folks like you!
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Wow, there are really some fascinating stories here, makes me feel boring in comparison. lol
I've been an animal lover for as long as I can remember. There are pictures of me as a baby curled up asleep with my likewise sleeping kitten Mousie. The first time I ever stood up for an animal though, I was seven.
There was a beautiful long-haired orange tabby cat named Tigger that lived with my dad(my parents were divorced at this time, mom was the person with dogs, dad was the one with cats), and it was mostly him that I was going to visit if I'm going to be honest. Well...neither of my parents are too bright when it comes to animals, no one thought of neutering tigger...and it was a beautiful fall day so the window was open, just a screen between him and the outdoors.
Now a girl cat in heat comes up to the window and starts doing that pitiful meow that they all do, and Tigger looked like he was about to tear through the screen to get to her. I was terrified that if he got out I'd never see him again. So I told him, "Tigger no! Get down!" He was a wonderful kitty who listened to me, he turned around, jumped out of the window--only I was in the way. His claws sliced my scalp causing me to need 24 stitches, and have my waist length hair shaved off. I've got permanant scars on my chest and arms too--It all totalled to around 50 stitches.
My parents had a fit, were angry at the cat and wanted to have him "put to sleep". I argued with them(while having a doctor stitching me up, which must've been hard for the doc now that I think about it), and my dad saw my point first. Then they wanted to give him away to someone else that didn't have kids, because he was "dangerous for children". I yelled and yelled at them telling them Tigger was a good cat, he was listening to me and I was just in the way, that cats can do stuff on accident too. To calm me down they agreed to just declaw him(if only I'd known how much this was going to hurt him...but my parents assured me that it wouldn't hurt him at all).
We skip foward a bit. I skip school on dissection days starting at 11 years old, I instead go to the woods and write in my journal, stories about worlds different from this one where people don't have to eat animals to live(always in a sci-fi setting, because at this time I wholeheartedly believed I would die if I didn't eat animals--omni parents suck.)
Then we skip foward a bit more. I'm thirteen and volunteering at the local SPCA. I love animals of all kinds by this time and am the only volunteer who'll touch any of the reptiles(except the frogs, most people were alright with them). I find out a couple of weeks after I've started volunteering that not all euthanization is humane, in fact, sometimes it involves drowing a littler of kittens. I wasn't supposed to know this though. I quit volunteering. I offered to take in any snakes they couldn't find homes for.
Then we get to my fourteenth year...I'm a vegetarian because I've read quite a lot and I'm rather fond of leaning on a cow and talking to her. I'm taking care of 21 snakes(one boa even slept with me at night), 7 cats, and various rodents--my mom is ok with this. She supports me being a vegetarian too, which I find weird because a few years ago she hated it when I tried to do anything other than be normal.
I'm sixteen and go to visit my father in Florida, I haven't seen him since I was nine--I wasn't even sure if he remembered my name. My best friend has just committed suicide a few months earlier(he was gay, his family was not happy with that), and my life is in shreds. I want my fathers approval desperately, and since he's not letting me have any food at all while I'm there(for 18 days)unless I eat meat, I give in.
I don't go veg again until I'm 19. My mother passes away this year at the age of 40. I'd been spending my time home taking care of my little brother and siste--since our dad didn't believe in paying child support while he was in another state, mom had to work to much to take care of them. I have no where to go, so I go back to my father. They put the pressure on, and once again I'm eating meat. I also have to get a job within two days of my mother passing away--but there's nowhere to run.
At megacon down here in Florida almost two years ago, a friend I'm with runs into an old friend of hers. He and I hit it off very well, and he happens to have been a vegetarian for a few months. Within days the two of us are dating, and I'm a vegetarian again, not taking meat for an answer. I find that with his support I'm stronger in my convictions--my dad and stepmom start going out of their way to accomadate me and my dietary needs.
I have real breakthroughs with my stepmother a couple of months later. She wants to lose weight, to eat healthier. I haven't convinced her to be a veggie yet, but when she goes out to eat, she often opts for the veg choice--and they eat out about five nights a week. She even went to the lengths of getting them to sell veggie dogs at a fundraiser they had at work(mind you, she works for city lawyers..*shudders*), and then a couple of months later makes tacos for the whole office that they all rave about...and then she tells them that the secret to her hamburger meat having such good flavor is that it's not meat at all. lol
Several months ago both my fiance and I cut eggs out of our diet, we knew it was disgusting, but we said we'd still eat cheese until a good fake cheese was available.
I won't say this is my first attempt at veganism--it's not. It seems that I have to try everything a couple of times first. As people were saying before, it has to click. I tried to become vegan for the right reasons before, but didn't really fully comprehend it all. Then a couple of weeks ago, without anything to trigger it at all, I started seeing the cheese on top of my enchiladas as little shreds of veal. Nevertheless the thought made me literally sick.
That's when things clicked for me. How dare I value the happiness of my tastebuds over another living beings life? I ask people the same thing all the time, and by consuming any animal product at all, I was still killing intentionally. I stopped, I never want to again. Those who can't speak for themselves have always had me to speak for them, and now I can do so without any guilt or chip on my shoulder(other than the fact that I was so knowledgeable and took this long anyway).
Tonight at dinner I spent about 30 seconds explaining the cheese=veal thing to our regular waitress, who is used to our weird vegetarian orders, but was completely new to the vegan concept. She looked pretty grossed out when I explained to her exactly the conditions the calfs are kept in, finishing up with a, "So I decided not to have baby for dinner tonight." My fiance', the hardcore cheese lover who'd already had a cheesy meal planned out, changed his mind instantly and said, "Um, same as hers for me too."
I think he'll be vegan with me in about a week. Now to just get the omni in the house to go veg--he's been my best friend for about five years, and moved here to go to school. Since he's jobless now, and probably won't have time for one for a few more months, I have the money, therefore control the food in the house. *evil laughter*
For those who wish to know the current status of animal companions...we also share our home with five dogs(three of which are puppies that we dug out of a collapsed building one sunday evening), and five cats(one of which who loves salads and veggies so much I swear she wants to be a veg). These are all strays that were rescued, the youngest feline being only a week old when she came to us, and involving many, many, many bottle feedings. I'm glad for such a big place(thanks to my father-in-law to be for renting it out cheap) and a well paying job...but I find that when I'm doing alright by the world, it does very well by me.
(sorry, I'm always pretty long-winded, with a hobby like writing novels, it's to be expected)
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Thanks everyone for your strong support, it's probably very insulting to most of you to hear how i became vegan, but I honestly believe that I refuse to eat animal produts for the right reasons!
I went to lunch today with an asian guy (he asked me before you ask lol) but kept asking about veganism (which i was more than happy to explain) he was very surprised at what I eat but when i asked what his favorite meal was....( I was expecting some sort of chicken dish) he said HORSE MEAT I was utterly disgusted and understandably refused lunch and drank for the rest of the day.
It's times like these I'm utterly thankful I live by a guilt-free diet!
Minus the cigarettes and alcohol....:o
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I've been vegan for about a month now.
I'm a philosophy student enrolled in a class with Dr. Steve Best. He's a very outspoken human and animal rights activist and he's even banned from a few european countries. Anyways, I was critical of his way of thought but once he brought in a guest speaker -Gary Hirousky (sp?) it changed me forever. I had even made chilie that day before class and made left overs but after that class I never ate meat again a few days after that I kicked the dairy habit. I realized that my way of life up to now was wrong and it's the right ethical choice to be vegan. My best friend has even become a vegetarian (he refuses to be vegan though :rolleyes: ).
That's pretty much it, and I've decided to never again live an exploitive lifestyle. I love life too much
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Quote:
nickn505
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I'm a philosophy student enrolled in a class with Dr. Steve Best. He's a very outspoken human and animal rights activist
nickn505, hello! Just wanted to say hi and that I did a search on Dr. Steven Best, thank you, I'm glad I did! I did not know of him before, now, I know much more of him and what his beliefs are. I will be purchasing his books soon (specifically, "Terrorists Or Freedom Fighters?: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals"), we need more people to hear his voice, whether we agree or disagree, it is always good to hear different sides of the spectrum.
thanks again,
Steph
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Wow, Ceshtanen, it's true what they say about tough lives make great stories... with a happy ending, thank goodness!
About the Guilt-Free Diet that Sproutpout mentions... I still have guilt: my vegan marg detroys Orangutan habitat, my soya drink tetra-pak is non-recyclable, my spanish strawberries are drying up wetlands...
We are all just doing the best we can given that we are all flawed humanbeings. Personally, I wouldn't fuss anymore over a horse-eater (non-factory farmed) than I would over a fish-and-chips lover. Ya, it's gross but suffering is suffering and I can't call myself lilywhite over my choices:o
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Pat,
some local recycling schemes take Tetra-Paks. Magpie in Brighton is one of them. I'm not sure about Bath, but it might be worth asking around.
Cheers
Mike
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Re: Your personal vegan story
and I have a bushel-load of carrier bags to recycle...
I'll keep looking, Thanks Michael.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I just became a vegan 5ish days ago actually...
I have always loved animals but have also always been a huge meat eater (loved steak and chicken). Then I picked up a book called "Skinny Bitch" thinking it would just be about nutrition and give me a few tips on how to lose some weight.
I got to the chapter called "You Are What You Eat" and it described what goes on behind slaughter house doors and talked about what goes on with milk and eggs.
I cried while reading that chapter and for a good half hour or so after that. I realized if I loved animals so much I should really stop eating them and the things we, as selfish humans, are stealing from them.
I did some research on veganism after that and it only re-enforced why I was giving up meat and other animal products.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
My wife and I hardly ate meat to begin with so I decided to take it a step further and cut it out all together. I really didn't have a reason to do so as I was very uneducated about vegetarians and vegans. I decided to read a book so I picked up Diet for a new America from the local library not knowing the impact it would have on me. The day I stared reading that book is the day I became vegan. The book literally had me in tears. I am now in the proces of reading his new book The Food Revolution and it too is very powerfull. I never realized how uneducated I really was about what my family ate. I really was brainwashed by the meat companies like the books say. Now I don't take anything for granted and stive to think before I do.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
wow. mine is a bit of a sad & confusing story.. i was in building 2 on 9/11/2001. i remember that day, but not the months after. i lost almost 40 lbs. in a week due to shock, and was COMPLETELY out of my mind. if my friends had told me to go rob a bank, i literally would have done it.
luckily they did not! :)
but when i started coming around in late november, i noticed severe changes in myself & could not pinpoint. i kept saying things like 'yeah, i am a different person now after what i have been through' and all that stuff, but it was more.
in a bar in williamsburg, brooklyn on the night of september 20, 21, or 22nd (no one is really SURE), my friends convinced me to go vegan & after a 10 year habit, to quit smoking. from what i hear, i did both of those, on the spot, that night.
***(disclaimer: these were two things i had been talking about doing, not them pushing views)
so i really WAS a different person when i came around! i did not really know/remember i took all those months off and joined a gym! i looked great, felt better than ever, and was sooo happy to not be addicted to anything anymore! at the perfect time, i felt completely empowered!
weird, but true! :)
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Re: Your personal vegan story
My turning vegan was from slow germinating seed of connectivity. When I was about 4 my brother curled up on his bed naked (we shared bunkbeds) with his head between his knees and his arms at his sides and said 'look at me, I am a chicken' from then on I felt uncomfortable about meat and had dreams where people were eaten as if they were meat. Having said that I didn't turn veggie until I was 16 and it took another 11 years before I made the leap to veganism partly through finding vegan literature and partly from meeting Vegcurry and his vegan friends. It seems so natural and normal that I am constantly surprised that others don't 'get it' and either don't care or don't want to know about what they eat.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Hi Carivan, scary times .... glad you made it through and are happy n healthy now ...
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I became vegetarian after viewing pictures of tortured chickens and animals on farms and cows in dairy farms. It was a commercial on MTV that prompted me to look up the website. I always knew the conditions were not the best, but I never knew how bad it was/is for these poor animals. Being an animal lover, I couldn't live with myself or claim to be an animal lover knowing the torture these animals are put through to feed people. I became a vegetarian( sometimes a pesco-vegetarian) at that moment because being Japanese, I thought I could never give up sushi.
2 months later, I gave up fish, eggs and dairy. Correction - I stopped eating animal products all together. I didn't give it up, because I'm not missing out, its my choice. :D I didn't want to be promoting an industry that harms animals. At that point, I stopped purchasing any products with animal skins as well.
I have been vegan now for almost a year and I must say the happiest I have ever been. I'm at peace knowing that I help save the lives of animals and don't promote violence.:)
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Re: Your personal vegan story
For me the turning point was reading something on Viva website (I think it was) and it said every 12 seconds a pig gets its throat cut ...
I have always been a huge animal lover and pigs were always my fave. It seemed wrong to claim to be an animal lover then eat them and I stopped there and then.
I have a daughter of 19 and she had a similar experience, actually she saw something on a myspace profile, went from a link to a link - got very upset by what she saw and hasn't eaten meat or dairy for a month and I am so very proud of her.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Quote:
veganlinda
My turning vegan was from slow germinating seed of connectivity
I was speaking to my sister a few days ago about veganism. She is convinced that it stems back to when we were in France when I was about 5. She said that she recently had a vivid flashback of me being presented with a plate full of sea food, me bursting into tears, and Dad shouting at me. I was the kind of child who patted snails and liked watching woodlice, so I can imagine that all the dead prawns and things on my plate would have been quite disturbing. I don't even remember it though.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
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Re: What Made You Become Vegan?
It all happened to me in 1993 when i saw images of bears incarcerated in tiny cages in China. I had nightmares for 3 nights and decided to try and help those beautiful Moon Bears. I took petitions in the streets of Newcastle and three months later went to Norway to do the same thing. One year later I went to Sweden to carry on my work and that is where I met my wife to be. We met by chance one year later and after that we got together and eventually married. We were both animal rights activists and she convinced me to go vegan, that was in 1995. The health benefits have been enormous and I feel good knowing I am not contributing to animal suffering. Unfortunately I am no longer with my Swedish wife, but my work goes on to help animals and spread the vegan word.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I saw 'lamb brains' as a product on a woolworths shelf while shopping with my mom in the meat department when I was 12. Once I realised what meat actually was (animals!!) I vowed not to eat meat again. My family were against it, but I never backed down. I'm now almost 22 and became vegan last year because I have always poorly understood it and it kept coming up (on sites, etc). Once educated on the crueltly of battery hens, dairy cows I transitioned. :D
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Re: Your personal vegan story
Well, while in our teens, my sister and I decided to go vegetarian, and growing up in what can only be described as a redneck (New Zealand) neighborhood, vegetarians were few and far between.
A couple of years later I met a (now good friend) who was (straightedge) vegan. Vegan? At the time I had never heard of the term, vegan or veganism. When he explained what it was to me I thought it was a bit outlandish - I mean how can you survive without dairy, right? But after spending more and more time hanging out with him and reading his copy of "A Diet for A New America", I was convinced.
I found the initial change of becoming vegetarian, much much more difficult than moving to a vegan diet. At the time I enjoyed the taste of meat - but couldn't reconcile it with the moral dilemma that it presented to me, and the overpowering feeling of guilt that I felt whenever I had eaten meat, shortly before turning vegetarian.
So - about two years after turning vegetarian, I woke up one morning and decided I was vegan, and that was that. Something just clicked into place and I've been vegan ever since (for more than a decade).
My sister, unfortunately didn't turn vegan, but has remained vegetarian ever since.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
i turned vegetarian when i was 11, mostly because i've always loved animals, but partly because i suffered from pneumonia and needed a healthier diet.
around one and a half year ago i started to think about veganism, and i talked about it with my partner (who was also vegetarian) but i thought it would be too difficult for me to give up cheese (what a silly notion!), anyways in january last year i read a book on veganism and my eyes finally opened fully to the suffering of cows, calves and chickens.
it really was like something had awoken inside me, the consciousness of widening the circles of compassion i suppose. so me and my partner decided to go vegan, from one day to the other. when i had made that decision i was extatic! it was like a high, an internal revolution! for a few days it felt as if i was floating above the ground. i was so happy that i could finally live according to my principles of not causing suffering to any living being.
so, we've been vegan for 14 months and it's going great, no turning back ever! at the same time i went vegan i decided to get involved in animal rights and i'm now active in a local AR group here in stockholm.
for me veganism has become a lifestyle and the only thing i regret is not becoming conscious earlier. it's like i chose not to think to much about the dairy industry for example, because i wasn't prepared to change in accordance to what i found out.
our son is 21 months no and at the time we went vegan he was still only breastfeeding so he's never ever had to eat anything from animal origin! he is a very healthy, happy baby and i'm confident we have added many years to his life, (apart from the good karma!) due to his diet and lifestyle.
i'm so happy to be on this forum and know that everyone here is likeminded! lots of love to you all!
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Re: Your personal vegan story
edit - i just realised that this is really long. sorry!
I became veggie during the summer of my first year at Uni. I'm not entirely sure why. I'd always kind of had that background guilt thing that i'm sure most people can identify with, and one of my flatmates at uni (who i still live with) was veggie. we'd done some stuff on a course with peter singer's work as well. i gradually started to eat less and less red meat. then chicken. i was pretty much just down to fish. but i still couldn't tell you why. i think it was a subconcious thing. i quite liked the idea of being veggie, but i also quite liked the taste of, especially, fish. in the end, i was talking to some girls at work, who are vegan, and was saying the typical omni thing of 'well, i'd do it but i dont' think i could give up fish'. they effectively bet me. so i did, i set a date, and became vegetarian.
this didn't go down too well with my mum, who decided it was just a phase and couldn't see anything wrong with me a) eating gravy that was made with the fat from the roast, b) drinking her milk with the added omega three that came from fish. the latter she really didn't, and still doesn't, get, along with avoiding gelatin etc. 'you can't SEE them, why does it matter?'. she also gets annoyed when there's nothing for me to eat...she sees it as being 'difficult'.
however, what started off as a dare made me realise that a) being veggie wasn't hard and b) i actually really didn't like the idea of killing animals to eat them and that now i could think this openly and not supress it. my flatmate was great and offered me a lot of advice how to eat healthily and we had fun cooking together.
anyhoo, so this continued as lacto-ovo until i went travelling this summer and met a guy in san francisco who was vegan. i'd actually been thinking about doing it for a while, but had found the idea a little 'extreme'. veganism sounded a little too radical for me. however, talking to him, i realised that it wasn't that hard, and he leant me 'becoming vegan'. i read that, and decided i was going to try, and did for the rest of my travels, to omit all dairy, eggs and honey from my diet. however, on returning home, i got scared at telling my mum (who, as i say, isn't exactly veggie friendly), and returned to the lacto-ovo way of life.
however, on moving back up to my flat after the summer holidays this year, i started buying soy milk (something my flatmate also does), and omitted eggs from my diet at home, basically, i decided to persue a vegan diet at home to see if i could do it. i could. so i then took a further step and decided to omit all 'visible' eggs and dairy from my diet when i ate out. this was easy too.
i knew this was a cop-out, but i had to do it slowly...it's just the way it works for me. i eventually decided to go dietary-vegan on march 1st this year, full-on everywhere. i already used as many cruelty-free products as i could ascertain at home, but now i'm planning on veganising everything as they run out.
i don't really feel i can call myself a full 'vegan', because i can't afford to throw out all my old shoes (all bar one pair, i think, are leather) and replace them, or my clothes with wool (no silk for me!), but hopefully soon i will be able to make that claim. i hope it's ok that i'm still here on this forum, even though i'm not totally vegan.
the great thing is though, my flatmate has decided that she wants to try to eliminate dairy and eggs, and has set a date (our last day of exams), so yay! i think my baking efforts have persuaded her :) my boyfriend wasn't quite so pleased. he's omni, and his response was 'what will you eat when you're at mine?'. i pointed out that as he and his flatmates usually cook for each other and cook meat, i bring my own food anyway so it won't matter. he's dubious, but hopefully he'll stay respectful. i haven't told my mum yet. i don't know how she'll react, and i'm scared to tell her. i think i'm going to wait till i've done this for longer. then she won't think it's a phase, and i'm planning on seeing a GP and getting a full bill of health so she can't say i'm unhealthy.
amanda
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I became a vegetarian when I was 11 because I got in a fight with my parents and somehow decided that being a vegetarian was a means to my revenge. I had always been an extreme animal lover, so it wasnt all based on a revenge plan.. but somehow my angered revenge brought the vegetarian feelings out of me. Anyways, I wrote on a small piece of paper at age 11 .. "Dear Emily, Please do not eat meat products ever again and when you have that down, do not eat any milk or egg products". So I kept this paper in my memory drawer and came across it only recently at age 21 as I was packing to move out of my house. I was so shocked that at age 11 .. I knew that I someday wanted to be vegan. I set a date to become vegan and have now been transitioning to the change over the last few months.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I have always been vegetarian- my father turned my mother veggie soon after they met!
When I was 13, I went on holiday, and thought about lots of things, including animal stuff. I decided to go non-egg, and when I came home from Scotland, I thought some more, and realised I couldn't carry on eating animal products.
I, on the day of my Granmother's Memorial Service, realised to that this is what I believe God wants me to do, so from this point onwards, I have been a vegan. It is the only thing that has been constant, over 3 very tough years.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
For me, it was being locked in a room and forced to listen to the album Meat is murder (my then boyfriend was convinced I would love the Smiths if I gave them a chance). He wasnt veggie. Anyway, I listened to the song, looking out of his window at a field full of cows. These are the lyrics for those who havent heard it
MEAT IS MURDER
Heifer whines could be human cries
Closer comes the screaming knife
This beautiful creature must die
This beautiful creature must die
A death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER
And the flesh you so fancifully fry
Is not succulent, tasty or kind
It's death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER
And the calf that you carve with a smile
Is MURDER
And the turkey you festively slice
Is MURDER
Do you know how animals die ?
Kitchen aromas aren't very homely
It's not "comforting", cheery or kind
It's sizzling blood and the unholy stench
Of MURDER
It's not "natural", "normal" or kind
The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
Oh … and who hears when animals cry?
Instant vegetarian. Took a further 15 years before I became vegan but I'm just coming up to my 1 year anniversary and am very pleased I did it. I mean, I actually cook proper meals with fresh ingredients - no more opening boxes from the freezer & slinging the contents in the oven for me!
btw see projects page re this being download week for Meat is Murder. I know for a fact I am not the only one this song had an instant effect on!
And yes, I still love the Smiths and Morrissey!
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I thought I'd come at veganism from a strange direction, but reading other people's stories it seems quite common.
Coming from a VERY omni family, I was always a little odd in that I was never a big meat fan. I went veggie in my first year of uni, mostly because hostel food was marginally better that way, but went back to omni after that. However I always remembered how ill I felt eating meat the first few times after being veggie for a long time, and it stuck.
I gave up read meat about 4 years ago, then added chicken about a year or two ago. I remember eating chicken at a bbq when it wasn't quite cooked, and just feeling so so nauseous. I was mostly veggie, but would still eat fish and seafood. I was justifying it by telling everyone (and myself) that it was only for taste reasons, and that I didn't 'feel sorry' for fish.
Anyway, this all just started to feel wrong and hypocritical, and I started researching veganism. I'm not sure what tipped me towards it, just a feeling I guess. I got the book 'Vegan Freak' from Amazon, and one thing it said was 'just try it' for a week or so and see if it's for you. I did, and kept reading the facts about factory farming and so on, and realised that not only was veganism a way of life I could pursue, I really liked the way it made me feel, about myself and my place in the world. I'm not religious at all, but it felt to me like I imagine someone must feel who has found religion. I don't want to be a 'vegangeliscist' but I want everyone to realise what I (and all of you) now know, and feel how I feel!
Like some others I'm still making a full transition - I can't afford to replace my boots yet, and am letting cosmetics run out before I replace them with vegan-alternatives - but I'm nearly there, and I know I will be vegan for the rest of my life.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I did not like Sunday roasts as they made me ill. I did not drink milk, hated cheese and only had a flurry with bacon and egg sandwiches. So maybe it was not that difficult for me to move on.
I stopped eating meat shortly after starting Karate training. The other lads had done this to get rid of headaches and seemed to move up a gear too. So I joined them. I would eat fish though - eventually once a week.
I went to Spain and asked for fish and chips and was presented with a fish in all its glory, fins, eyes and teeth. I started to disect it and I don't know why people seemed to be looking at me. But I knew something. This was the most sickening thing I could imagine. This poor creature had done nothing to me.
I came back to Britain a committed vegan. Got rid of my expensive animal shoes and belts and jackets. Joined the Vegan Society and eventually became a local and group contact for them.
I OWE A LOT TO THAT FISH
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I always hated the taste of meat and milk as a child. So as soon as I left home I turned into a vegetarian, who didn't drink milk and also avoided leather where possible too.
I then married a meat eater, so although I often thought about turning into a vegan I just couldn't seem to make the final step.
A few weeks ago I came across some info about the cruelty used against cows, which gave me a real eye opener. I realised being a vegetarian wasn't enough any more and I was supporting the meat industry by eating dairy.
I found giving up eggs easy as I never liked the blood spots or wired bits you find in them anyway.
The hardest thing for me to give up was cheese, but the thought of those poor cows just puts me off ever eating dairy again.
As a new vegan I'm still learning a lot and I guess my next step will to look into buying cruelty free cosmetics.
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Re: Your personal vegan story
I've never liked eating meat - as a child my step-mother (or monster as I like to call her lol) used to give me a meat pie but scrape out the insides, moaning the whole time whilst she did so.
When I left home I still ate meat, but only the types which didn't look like the inside of an animal, such as sausages and burgers. In 1996 I decided once and for all to give up meat and go vegetarian. It was new year's eve and I made it one of my resolutions.
About 3 weeks ago I realised how hypocritical I was being still eating dairy, read up about the industry online and decided enough was enough. I went vegan there and then.
Since then I've lost 6 lbs and feel so much better. I need to lose weight for health reasons, so losing that without really trying was an added bonus.
Jay