When did you go vegan and why?

there's probably been a thread similar to this already, but seeing as I'm quite new- just thought I'd ask....

When did you go vegan and why?

I personally went vegetarian for primarily health reasons when I was 19. That was for about six months. I then read John Robbin's book- The Food Revolution, which was so powerful it caused me to go vegan for moral reasons. that was for almost two years. Then unfortunately after being dragged in to the common misconception that people need excess protein to continue fitness training I returned to fish and eggs, then occassional dairy. I felt ashamed and selfish, so after a few months returned to veganism and have felt so much better for it- not only in terms of guilt but also I feel so much healthier and feel like I have returned to normal.

Would be great to hear other's stories.

March 2005, because I couldn't continue ignoring the fact that the dairy industry = rape and death.

Well i first went veggie when i was 14, it was during a biology lesson where the teacher was telling us about the way animals were farmed, put me right off as i found it cruel and didnt want all those nasty chemicals they fed the cattle in my body. So i went home and announced to mum i was never eating meat again.

I then stopped eating fish about a year after that due to something id been reading about the state of the oceans, the rubbish pumped into them that was affecting fish, so i gave that up.

I lived happily as a veggie till about 4 years ago when i decided that all dairy i ate had to be organic or i wouldnt touch it, this was due to the way animals were treated in non organic farms and the rubbish they fed them on which i didnt want contaminating my body. I found it difficult to only choose organic dairy so i thought what the hell, ill give it up completely.

For the last 2.5 years iv been living a very happy vegan lifestyle and would never go back. I feel iv learnt more about food and nutrition, im happy that im doing more for animals and the planet and still feel im learning all the time.

i was vegetarian 5 years ago. all the meat was so disgusting, the look at it made me feel like i had to puke in any minute. i don´t know why i didn´t stick to it. from time to time i started to eat meat after 3/4 a year again. i can really not explain.

last year, when i found out i´m lactose intolerant i was searching the web for alternatives and found numerous vegan sites where i learned the facts about milk, eggs, meat again etc. some things i just didn´t know before, then i did and i couldn´t support these industries and injustice to poor helpless animals any more. so i went pretty strictly vegan over night. it´s almost a year ago.

vegetarian - October 1991 after finally persuading/emotionally blackmailing my Mum into letting me

vegan - April 2007 after finally waking up to what was actually involved in the egg/dairy industries

I was a pescetarian for 4 years, but struggled with the social part of it in high school. When I told my friends I wouldn't eat the lunch special chicken patty, often I was told there was something wrong with me & that I wasn't normal. I hid my real feelings about meat for a few years, safely telling people I did not eat meat because I didn't prefer the taste. Finally, one day I grew so sick and tired of covering up my feelings that I planned to write and talk about vegetarianism for a persuasive essay in English class. After doing some research I converted completely to veganism, as did my English topic. :)

March 2005. I finally had the veil of ignorance lifted that the dairy industry causes just as much cruelty as the meat industry. I had a few mishaps but i found the transition from vegetarianism to veganism fairy easy, and now i feel great. The more i learn about my lifestyle, the more i love the fact i am vegan, it is an integral part of my life now :)

Went vegetarian on May 9th, 2004. Weird story. I saw a human beheading online and it disgusted me beyond belief. At that point I made the realization that the same thing happens to animals on a daily basis. I couldn't be part of it anymore.

Went vegan like 3 months ago or something.

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BJJNick

Went vegetarian on May 9th, 2004. Weird story. I saw a human beheading online and it disgusted me beyond belief. At that point I made the realization that the same thing happens to animals on a daily basis. I couldn't be part of it anymore.

Went vegan like 3 months ago or something.

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Wow. Respect.

I went vegan in the summer of 1990, if I recall correctly. I met some hippy scum vegans whose mere existence (none of them ever tried to "preach") made me realise how hypocritical I found my own lacto-ovo vegetarianism. I still see them around and about from time to time, the lovely people.

Peas Love Unity

I went vegan summer of 1994.
My reasoning for being an omnivore wasn't cutting the reason for my participation in the killing and use of animals. I tried going vegan one afternoon, and it stuck.

late Spring/summer 1997. A strange serious of events, in a short space of time, pretty much made me re-evaluate my whole life. I had a very distressing experience with a poultry factory farm, started dating a vegan girl and met some animal rights protesters that were protesting against a beagle breeding factory near where i was working.

I had always thought that our relationship with our surrounding environment (and the creatures in it) was wrong, but wasn't really sure what I could/should do. The experiences I had and the people i met opened my eyes to vegansim. It was one of the easiest things I have done, once I had made the decision.

I always remember questioning me mam about meat when I was a kid, and just finding it weird that we ate the stuff, and being unable to get my head around it.

I also remember going to zoos and farms etc with primary school, and admiring the animals, stroking them etc. Then we'd go and eat meat and that didn't tally for me.

I didn't go vegan though, until I was about 17 (probably 1995). I probably felt that I wasn't 'allowed' before then. I went veggie for about a day, drank some milk and felt wrong and just made a decision on the spot that it didn't make sense.

I think this was around the time I got heavily into The Smiths and I can't help wondering whether or not Meat Is Murder was an influence.

I became vegetarian when I moved back to the U.S. Veg*nism was unheard of where I lived, the country is VERY sheltered from 'western' influence. Anyway, that was 1996 when I was 11 y.o. I tried out veganism a few times throughout my teens but I wasn't "allowed" and my parents freaked out a little. I didn't know what real veganism was until around 2004/2005. I tried it out a few times then as well, but again, found it hard with my parents until I went away to school in summer 2006. Wish I could have been more educated about veganism when I went vegetarian in 1996, I would have become vegan instead.

I went vegan at the beginning of the first day of 2007, as a New Year’s Resolution. The last time I ate a lump of meat was on 27-November-2003, but it was not until early in 2006 that I even became aware of the concept of “vegan.” Then, I started learning about all of the problems with dairy, and by the summer, I had thirteen reasons for zero dairy. I also finally came to the realization that my father had no legal right to control what I ate, and that I was therefore safe. I was under intense pressure (read: threats), so I did not give it up all at once. I slowly phased dairy out until it was completely gone by the end of the year. When I gave up dairy, everything else came automatically.

I went veggie over night during the BSE crisis. The whole thing appauled me and i looked into the meat industry in great detail. I started to read about slaughter practices and it chilled me. That was it, i just couldnt be part of it. I actually found it a challenge to know what eat. It sounds ridiculous now but i once actually ordered a sausage by accident. All id had was meals with meat and i didnt know how else to think about food. :undecided: But it felt really good to be free of feding off that industry and all its horrors and I really enjoyed discovering new stuff to eat. I didnt really make the dairy link, which seems so obvious now. Going vegan was a bit more sporadic, from about 2000. Again, i got busy with the literature. I must admit i found it harder being vegan from a will power point of view. Its basically milk chocolte. I do still miss it. Some habits die hard. :dizzy: But im so glad i am. :thumbsup:

I went vegan overnight in August 2004, because I got bored and read an article on the Peta website. I was so outraged, I read every single one out loud to my husband, and kept going until one by one I decided never to have X (and so did he) and one by one threw things out of my fridge. Then I came here and learned about real veganism.

1994 because it was the next step. Veggie in 1988 because meat is just disgusting and wrong. Nothing to thoughtful went into my decision.

Went veggie at 14 (I'm 25 now) because of a really inspirational sociology teacher at school who's reasons for her own vegetarianism interested me. I'd ask her questions about it and she'd bring in stuff to show me what goes on in laboratories and abbatoirs etc. She also lent me some Levellers CDs and got me hooked on them too!

Went vegan at 18 which just seemed like the next step and the right thing to do. I opened up my food cupboard one day and just launched everything non-vegan in the bin. It actually took me a while to realise that semolina wasn't non-vegan so I went about a year without eating pasta. I've no idea what brought me to that bizzarre conclusion :D

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Corvus

She also lent me some Levellers CDs and got me hooked on them too!

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Careful now.

I went veggie when I was a kid the day I realised where meat came from - I don;t actually remember that day but that's what my mum and sister told me.

I spent years as a smug righteous vegetarian thinking I was so 'right on' then one day there was a showing of Truth or Dairy at a local animal rights meeting - during that same period I went hunt sabbing for the first time and attended a demo at a place that was breeding beagles for vivisection. All of the stuff plus meeting other real life vegan animal rights activists made my head spin and set me on the path to veganism. It took a while to make the whole switch though. But it's been about 12 years now :)

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Corvus

It actually took me a while to realise that semolina wasn't non-vegan so I went about a year without eating pasta. I've no idea what brought me to that bizzarre conclusion :D

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Maybe you read an ingredient list on a package of fresh pasta that contained egg? (they usually do here at least). Dry pasta is usually safe but moist, fresh pasta usually is not, where I live at least.

Yeah I think I associated it with Semolina pudding and thought "well if semolina pudding isn't vegan then semolina can't be"!!

vegetarian in 2001 and it was a process of awakening that started when I became involved in environmental issues. I started reading and watching documentaries until the carnivore issue smacked into my face.A pivotal moment was, yeah, when I stumbled upon"Animal Liberation". From them on I began to get hooked on animal rights until...
little by little I came to realise that including eggs , cheese and milk in my diet ran counter to the principles I was standing up for, so I gave it up in a few months. I became a happy vegan in 2005

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xrodolfox

I tried going vegan one afternoon, and it stuck.

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Sorry, missed this.
Still laughing here, xrodolfox.

I became a vegetarian pretty casually. I just happened to be curious about it, and I live in a place that has so many options for vegetarians and vegans, so I told myself that I'd try it out for at least a month.

Four months later, a friend told me that a lot of cheese uses animal rennet (an enzyme procured from animal stomachs after slaughter), and I agreed with my friend that it wasn't very "vegetarian" of me, so I stopped eating all cheeses except for ones that specified "vegetable rennet" or something like that.

Then around the same time my sister pretty innocently asked what the difference between eating meat and dairy/eggs was. I guess I must've felt silly saying that the difference was that I wasn't eating their dead bodies, because I decided to look more into veganism right after that.

After a day or two of intense research, I said to myself, "yeah," and gave away the can of condensed milk that I had in the cupboard, and threw away the cookie dough. That was early December 2006, so I guess I've been a vegan for a bit over a year and a half. Hooray!

I've been vegetarian my whole life. My parents went vegetarian for health reasons, but I always saw it more from an AR perspective. As a little kid I asked them about meat and I really didn't understand how anyone could eat it. When I was 4 or so (before I understand what meat was) my mom let me try a bite of my friend's hamburger (I was curious)--I thought it tasted like a veggie burger. After I found out that hamburger=dead cow I was disgusted and really angry. For a long time I was angry at my mom for letting me try it.
When I was 13 I was looking around on the internet for something and stumbled across the PETA site. I didn't know what PETA was, but I read some stuff about the dairy and egg industries and was disgusted, so I told my mom I wanted to go vegan. She convinced me that it would probably be bad for my health, so I gave up for awhile. I slowly phased out eating certain stuff, though--like I'd look at milk, or yogurt, or sour cream, and decide it was gross and I couldn't eat it anymore. However, deep down I always thought I would go vegan when I went to college. By the time I got to college I'd gotten very good at not thinking about the cruelty involved in dairy and egg production, and I always seemed to be telling myself "Oh, I'll go vegan next month." But every meal I sat down to made me feel guilty. In January I stopped eating in the dining hall and started cooking all my meals, and I always made vegan food. Eventually I realized how easy it really is to be vegan, and discovered I was more and more disgusted by dairy and eggs. Finally one day in April I realized that I could no longer stand the idea of eating dairy or eggs, and I didn't want them at all either. I joined this forum and told my family. It's been pretty easy for me, since I was kind of "transitioning" to veganism in a way for 7 years. I'm glad to finally be able to eat a meal without feeling guilty! :)

For me, it has been five years already. It was an afternoon when I was gazing at a wild cat which usually 'visited' my house for her lunch. She used to sleep after that and I used to look at it slept. That day, I was watching and then something just popped up in my mind, "What's the purpose of life?".

What's actually our objectives of lives? Money? Prestige? Big house? Sports cars? Then I thought, it is simply a word 'survival'. I looked at the cat and wondered, how good life is if I were that particular cat. Her life was(yes, was) simple and yet enviable. No worry, just life. Her look in slumber was peaceful and then I started to wonder how many of her kinds have the fortune to do just that.

The cat inspired me, that animals have their lives as good as what we are having. And then I convinced myself that harmonic co-existence amongst the animal kingdom is viable if we, the human, start from ourselves since we are the most feared predators.

December 21st, 2007, I know by looking at my join date on this forum, cause it was the same day lol.

I didn't realise it was 6months already :thumbsup:

I guess I already knew about the cruelty of dairy an eggs and veganism seemed like a massive step but on that day I just thought to myself i'm gonna go for it lol, and that was that :D

I was brought up veggie from about the age of 4 ish. Dad ate meat from time to time (now he's a fully fledged omni :mad: ) and I can remember eating fish fingers for some reason in that time :confused: and gran giving me black pudding saying it wasn't meat so try it... when I found out what it was i was quite quite sick :o
I had a little bit of a hippy upbringing and was always a bit different at school. I was always found with some kind of animal rights leaflet on me (still have the old folder somewhere lol). The only vegetarians I seemed to meet in college and uni were the fish munching geletine chomping kind, so I never really was influenced to go any further. Then I went away for a weekend with some uni friends october or november 2001. I had a bit of a fling with someone who used to be vegan (said they were part time vegan :rolleyes: ) and the told me all about the horrors of the dairy industry: 'meat is murder, dairy is rape' I did some research, and I couldn't justify eating dairy any more so went vegan Jan of 2002. For really stupid stupid selfish reasons I mention in my first post I ever made on this forum I started eating meat when I went abroad April 2003 I felt terrible and was back to being veggie by the end of 2003. After some stop start efforts in between time I went vegan again Feb 2006 after a long hard reflection of who I am and the person I wanted to be. 2 1/2ish years later I'm still on the vegan wagon. I have no intention of falling off this time ;)

Nice account, philfox! Sometimes, our firmest decisions arise after great weaknesses!
Keep on with it!

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exec

For me, it has been five years already. It was an afternoon when I was gazing at a wild cat which usually 'visited' my house for her lunch. She used to sleep after that and I used to look at it slept. That day, I was watching and then something just popped up in my mind, "What's the purpose of life?".

What's actually our objectives of lives? Money? Prestige? Big house? Sports cars? Then I thought, it is simply a word 'survival'. I looked at the cat and wondered, how good life is if I were that particular cat. Her life was(yes, was) simple and yet enviable. No worry, just life. Her look in slumber was peaceful and then I started to wonder how many of her kinds have the fortune to do just that.

The cat inspired me, that animals have their lives as good as what we are having. And then I convinced myself that harmonic co-existence amongst the animal kingdom is viable if we, the human, start from ourselves since we are the most feared predators.

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Phew! This seems to be what Tom Regan described as "Damasquine conversion" in his brilliant "Empty cages": a flash, thundering awakening!
Congratulations!

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Mahk

Maybe you read an ingredient list on a package of fresh pasta that contained egg? (they usually do here at least). Dry pasta is usually safe but moist, fresh pasta usually is not, where I live at least.

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i buy sainsburys go organic wholewheat pasta that dosnt contain egg.

I went vege (no meat, but eggs and dairy still) when I was 18 because my new boyfriend was vege. Lame I know. We broke up after 3 months, I kept it up another 3, I was vege for 6 months altogether. I lost weight but I'm not sure how much, probably 5kg or so. I started eating meat again on a family holiday...

Fast-forward almost four years later. I can't remember how it started but I ended up spending a whole day reading about veganism online. I read one article that talked about food resources in third-world countries and kind of took it as meaning people were starving while cows were being fed ect. I couldn't believe how ridiculous the whole thing was so I decided to go vegan. After another day of reading I realised that it was less that there wasn't enough food, it just wasn't being distributed the right way. So my initial reason for going vegan was quashed, but the health benefits/ethical/environmental reasons I'd found out along the way still had me sold so here I am still vegan.

It's less than two months later but I LOVE BEING VEGAN and I will never, ever go back. I have been thinking about how I used to go on the Atkins diet all the time and I am positively disgusted at the thought... It makes me feel so queasy just thinking about all that meat sitting inside my body... Gross...........

Ive been vegan 1 year this week! Yay-Happy Veganversary to me!:D
Why? Because I love animals way too much to inflict any harm or suffering on them. Ive proven now to my family and friends that it can be done-one year later and Im the healthiest that Ive ever been in my life, and happier knowing that Im not contributing to those horrible industries. Best thing that Ive ever done in my life, and Im glad that I did it:wink_ani:

step 0. A long on - off relationship with vegetarianism (since about 1985) which was probably inspired by animal welfare issues, although I forget.

step 1. I became a Buddhist, and the practice of compassion for all living creatures gradually worked its effects on me. In the early stages I did not strongly associate this with what I ate, but more with the tragedy of human conflict.

step 2. My wife came down with an auto-immune disease and very nearly lost her sight. Although the doctors "cured" her they didn't seem to know why it had happened or how to prevent a relapse. So we researched and found a link with diet. We both went on a strict (mainly vegan) detox diet ... and were surprised at how great we felt.

step 3. over a period of time I began to feel that the only non-vegan bit of the diet (fish) was somehow impure and repulsive.

step 4. I educated myself from books - about climate change, the ethics of food production and veganism.

Suddenly it all clicked ... so I took a vow. My wife went vegan at the same time.

It's been a long journey but I feel I'm going in the right direction for me.

congratulations to you and your wife.

Veggie since 2003, vegan since 2006. Both for moral reasons.