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Thread: Your personal vegan story

  1. #51
    kriz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    "Mikey" sounds like a perky little guy. ... Pigs are such smart creatures.
    "Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends". ~ George Bernhard Shaw.

  2. #52
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    As a child, I never really cared for meat. My dad used to hunt and would proudly bring home the deer that he had killed and would trick us into eating it. I have had cats, dogs, mice, etc., all of my life and somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that there really wasn't a difference between eating a cow and/or eating my dog. I tried to be a vegetarian a few times but ended up eating a ton of pasta and cheese based products and gained weight so I gave it up.
    Six months ago I started volunteering at a shelter where there are lots of vegans and animal activists. This got me thinking again about becoming a vegetarian. I have three dogs and a cat and love all animals. In hindsight, I see that volunteering there was the start of it.
    My youngest daughter became a vegetarian two years ago after learning how they kill the cows. I was very proud of her but it didn't "click" for me quite yet. About 6 weeks ago, we were driving somewhere and she asked me if I had seen the "Meet Your Meat" video. I hadn't but told her that I was interested and needed the motivation. We got home and I logged onto to PETA's site. I watched it as well as some lab testing videos and fur videos. I cried the entire time, and that's when it "clicked". What if those dogs being tested were my dogs? What if that cow being slaughtered was my dog? You get it. It finally clicked!!!
    My husband is very supportive and will eat anything that I cook for him but he likes his steak and LOVES his milk. I hope that one day very soon I can change that about him.
    I found this forum shortly after I became vegan and I'm so glad I did. The information that you all provide is invaluable!
    May 21, 2005 was my day! Now, how can we change the rest of the world??
    You are not required to complete the task of repairing the world, neither are you free to abstain from it.
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  3. #53

    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I started reading some pamplets and flyer type stuff from PETA and various animal rights groups. After that I decided that I would have to be a vegetarian, but then I read more. The more I learned the more I realized that I had to just be vegan. The odd thing is that I'm not an all or none kind of person. This just was that important. Vegetarianism didn't make sense after reading about all of the torture and misery and suffering. It just was so unecessary to be consuming animal products when I didn't need to. Why should they suffer for me? That's what kept running through my head. I cleaned out the house, with a few exceptions, of all animal products. That's it. It was suprisingly easy for me.

  4. #54
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    When I was very young...I remember not wanting to eat meat but my mum wouldn't let me be veggie cos she said it was 'unhealthy'.
    So I was an omni right up until about a year ago:

    It began with my biology class when they told us to dissect rats and i couldnt help thinking 'this is wrong---what purpose were these killed for? Isn't that purpose futile? Isn't htis barbarically unjust?'

    Thus I became veggie, but i ate fish cos i thought fish didnt suffer cruelty and that they didnt really have much of a conciousness. I called myself a pesca-vegetarian.

    Not long ago I went on a trip to germany. I met a punk guy called Andre, who believed you should act on what you believe in and stick to it strongly.
    That's why he called himself 'punk'. He wasn't in it for the image...he was in it for the actual punk ethos and hated punks who dressed like that simply because it was 'fashion'. He tried to start up his own political group in the city to try stop all teh fascism that still goes in in germany etc...and I admire him so much for that....

    He was also the only one who respected my 'vegetarianism' and if he hadn't been able to translate to the waiters for me, I wouldn't have got any veggie meals (the germans are big meat eaters).

    After this I began questionaing all my beliefs on why I was vegetarian and realised i was a hypocrite for eating fish and that i still didnt really know what i believed in. So I figured the only way to not be hypocritical and to cause least damage to animals would be to go vegan.

    Veganism seemed so alien to me so i decided i would make the transition very slowly. But I didn't. It's all happened so quickly and I love it....although I think I stil have a long way to go.....(with knowledge, making mistakes etc)
    but we are always learning.

  5. #55
    Robin
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Well, I gave up on red meats back in 02, when I was 14.

    Acctually I was nagged into it more or less by a friend, and it seemed like a 'cool' thing to do, so yah I did that for all the wrong reasons
    I did my reading though so I knew the facts, it just didn't affect me as deeply as it does today.


    It hadn't clicked for me though, and it didn't until a couple of months ago, I made a new friend who was very passionate about the enviroment, so I said to him "if you really mean buisness then you should go veggie" He didn't know anything, so I began telling him what I knew, and looked up some pages for him, and this re-kindled my old knowledge (which at this point had gone rather vauge) and gave me a lot of new.

    I remember reading at Viva! About milk cows and after that the smell of cow's milk made me feel physically ill.

    Currently I'm in the process of eliminating all animal products from my diet. I don't drink milk anymore, and I have a vegan friendly butter, so I'm in the process of cutting milk completely out and when I have my birthday I'm quitting fish (there's a thing to celebrate!).

    What makes me happy about my own story is that I can litterally see how helping someone else truly helped myself, I've benefited so much from it, and even though I still eat a lot of animal products I've started to feel slightly different.

    It just feels great to be going vegan

    by the way, question!

    why do people write v*gan? Really not following here.

  6. #56
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote Robin

    by the way, question!

    why do people write v*gan? Really not following here.
    Veg*n means Vegan and/or Vegetarian
    You are not required to complete the task of repairing the world, neither are you free to abstain from it.
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  7. #57
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote tasha
    People find my story a little funny.

    My husband and I went to a local farm/zoo a few years ago. They have all kinds of "farm" animals and exotics, like tigers, camels, etc.

    We were in the barn and I saw a little sign hanging over a large stall that said "Mikey the pig". I stood at the entrance of the stall and began calling out, "Hey Mikey, where are you...Come here Mikey," sort of joking around. Well, all of a sudden, this pig barreled around the corner, kicking hay in every direction, and stopped in front of me, lifting his head up to see me. I began petting him and he flopped over on his back, wanting me to pet his belly.

    I stayed and played with him for at least a half an hour before visiting the ther animals, then returned to see Mikey once again before leaving.

    The next morning, I was running late for work, so my hubby made me a bacon and egg sandwich to go. I took a bite while driving and all I could picture was Mikey.

    I haven't touched meat since that morning.
    OMG I love this story!!
    But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.
    Plutarch (in Moralia)

  8. #58
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    tasha's story sounds like it could be the inspriation for Lisa Simpsons story.
    "Its bad karma to fuck with the stoned"- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Comentary (found on criterion collection)

  9. #59
    Mozbee
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Tasha's story is a melta! I might try and convert a friend with it - she watched 'Slaughterhouse' last night too!

    Pigs are just adorable.

  10. #60
    Raskolnikov
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    My tale is a somewhat convoluted one, but here goes...

    I was first attracted to veganism in my teens when I saw it as a convenient way to cope with my eating disorder as it offered me an apparently limited range of "safe" foods that I could eat without being paralysed by guilt and without developing the desire to purge after every meal. The "vegan" tag also fulfilled my desires to be as awkward and unusual as possible... and having my parents scan the back of every packet for non-vegan ingredients when doing the grocery shopping certainly fulfilled the first criteria!

    Eventually, when I moved out of the family home and into my own place I lapsed back into eating meat and dairy... but veganism crept back into my life after a time; partly on grounds of health, but also because I was (and am) appalled at the mindless wrecking of the planet to make way for the Western world's fondness for meat and dairy.

    That said, I do not entirely disapprove of people eating meat... but my motto is "If you can't raise it and kill it yourself, you shouldn't eat it either". The modern squeamishness about the origins of food annoys the hell out of me. If one cannot bear the thought that the one's lamb chop comes from a cute, fluffy little lamb, then you have no damn right to be consuming it!!

    Feeding animals up for human consumption when the food would be better used to feed starving millions is also another huge bug-bear... and indeed it would probably be correct to say that I am vegan more on account of my notions of human rights, rather than any sympathies I might have with animal rights. However, I do believe that dignity should be accorded to all creatures, and humans - as the Earth's custodians - should be the ones to accord it.

  11. #61
    Mozbee
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote Raskolnikov
    humans - as the Earth's custodians
    Outlaw speciesism!

  12. #62
    Raskolnikov
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    Quote Mozbee
    Outlaw speciesism!
    Lol, sorry. I'm Christian and so I am resigned to the human custodian idea.

  13. #63
    Mozbee
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Start a revolution!

  14. #64
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Veganism was just an inevitable part of a total spiritual awakening, for myself and my gf.

    We'd always been against mainstream ideals, since our early teens, and it just gradually progressed from there...
    Skip ahead about 13 years of scatterbrainism....
    and a traumatic break-up (which I think got me searching for answers)

    Through 2 years of searching for the truth via hundreds of documentaries, audiobooks, and wayyyyyy too much Chomsky (is there ever enough?)...
    All selfish acts began dropping off one at a time.
    All useless addictions.... now gone.

    All mainstream, Corporate, one-sided media (tv in general)... done with it.

    Then one day I saw how they do it... I saw what meat really is...
    and it felt like it was happening to someone I love... a feeling most of us can relate to.
    And that's when spherical compassion came alive in me.
    My gf was first to feel like something wasn't right with the world.... and I helped clarify her feeling with proof.

    It took no time for her to see it too, because she already had it in her.

    Now we're couple of tree huggin anarcho-buddhists.
    weeeeeeeeeeee What a ride!

  15. #65

    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Wow--this is quite the inspirational and motivational thread!

    Here's my rather conventional, sometimes cruel background. I grew up in Oklahoma, the daughter of a Texan and a Filipino woman. There was always tons of meat in our house. I mean, I'd have a steak w/ rice for an after-school meal!!!! I'd tease and tease people who didn't eat a lot of red meat. Growing up in OK, you're kind of insulated in how you see the world, unless you are an enlightened person. I was for the environment, but I wouldn't stop eating animal flesh. I mean Outback and McDonalds were like my second home and I never thought that I was consuming something that supported abuse and cruelty against these living creatures.

    Flash forward to moving to Boston in 2004. Although I was always liberal, I became even more so once I moved north. I took the bar examination up here, still ate really unhealthy, but with a greater awareness of the evils of fast food thanks to Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me. After I took the bar, I started purging my body of crap and rewatched SSM and re-read FFN. Suddenly, something connected in my tiny brain, and I wanted to get myself healthy and not support cruelty against animals. I started going to restaurants and ordering veggie/vegan dishes (Legal Sea Food has a smashing Vegetarian Box dinner labeled as vegan) and perusing online recipie sites for vegan/veggie dishes and reading about veganism in books and mags. That was in April.

    Now, I am pretty much vegan, except for owning some leather and suede products that were gifts from people (I'm looking either to regift them or pack them away forever). My family--especially my sister has changed their diets too. Sis is vegan and we tease Mom b/c she'll have meat on "federal holidays" *sigh*. My friends are so supportive too, asking questions about veganism and recipies. Hubby is still adjusting. He was a bit angry at first, but once he saw that it was working for me, he calmed down alot. He's cut waaaay back on meat as well, so we'll see about him.

  16. #66

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    Well, it's a weird one for me...
    I have a twin sister and when we both reached the age of 10 we decided that eating meat was wrong, I mean, you wouldn't eat your friend would you? The decision had been brewing since we both got two pet rabbits between us - we saw the fear in their eyes when the smell of burning flesh spread from whatever murdered animal was being 'cooked up.'
    Anyway, we've never looked back since. About two years ago I decided i'd take the next step and go vegan - none of my family approved of this because I had probs with anaemia and my dad thought i'd gone off my trolley! Initially I tried it for Lent but once i'd started I found I couldn't go back! I wouldn't change a thing now, it was a bit of a struggle at first but it's all paid off and my conscience is clear - my sister recently followed on from me by going vegan too so I don't feel so all alone now

  17. #67
    (Ab/i/gail) AbFab's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I went vegetarian in 1994 around the time of my 20th birthday after having seen a film on television about how animals were slaughtered - I was appalled. It just hadn't occurred to me how utterly cruel and barbaric it was, I must have bought into all the nonsense about it being done ‘humanely’ and then never given it another thought, I don’t know, I just don’t remember questioning it. My mother always did the best for us, so I had no reason to doubt what she was putting on my plate. I couldn’t believe how long I’d been eating meat and not knowing there was an alternative. However, I didn’t make a conscious decision there and then to become vegetarian, I just quite physically went off the idea of eating meat, and imagined that once the shock of seeing the film had worn off, I’d drift back to being ‘normal’ again. But within a couple of days, my eyes just seemed to be open, and I was somehow stumbling upon article after article about animal cruelty and dodgy farming practices, and that was it, I decided I’d become vegetarian, and I never looked back. It was pretty easy, I didn’t miss meat in the slightest, and I felt great. I do often wonder where I’d be now if I hadn’t seen that film when I did, would it never have occurred to me without some prompting?
    Five and a half years later, and I needed a New Year’s Resolution – actually, it was my New Millennium’s Resolution, and I thought I’d test my will-power and go the whole hog (excuse the non-vegan expression!) and go vegan. People were always commenting about my self-discipline with regards my health (don’t smoke, don’t drink, then didn’t eat meat) but for me, smoking, drinking and eating meat were simply things I just didn’t want to do; no willpower required, it wasn’t a question of trying. Giving up chocolate and cheese, now that DID require will-power. I was already off the idea of eating eggs, had been for the last year or so of my vegetarianism, and had already started substituting dairy milk for soya or rice alternatives, so maybe it wasn’t all that much of a challenge. I also did not intend to stay vegan, I thought maybe I’d just do it up ‘til Lent or something, but soon enough in, I simply wasn’t craving chocolate or cheese, I found I just didn’t miss dairy at all. And the more I read, the more I knew it was the right choice for me, and I’ve never doubted my decision. I don’t find it difficult, except occasionally when eating out, especially abroad, but I do know I am lucky to live where I do as there are good shops for me to buy special vegan treats from, and I find it easy to cook myself up a good feast too. It’s not just a diet though, I thought I would do it properly and stopped buying anything with wool or silk in it straight away, and I never liked leather anyway as it just stinks. I do have one old pair of leather sandals, and one woolly hat, but these were pre-veganism days and I don’t see the point in just binning them, though maybe I will one day.

  18. #68
    Cakeaholic rainbow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    A quick reply to Abfab before telling my own story - it is easy to get good vegan chocolate, and the best source of luxury boxes of vegan chocolates for those special occasions (birthdays, Christmas, because you want to etc) is the Dr Hadwen Trust (who are also an anti-vivisection charity so they get extra bonus points!). The vegan store (www.veganstore.co.uk) also sell lots of yummy chocolately things.

    Ok, my story. It starts with my brother, who is four years older than me. When he was at school he was told that 'cows give us milk and they give us meat'. Although only five, he had the brains to see through this one and realise that you would have to kill the cow to get meat from it. He began to nag my Mum about going vegetarian - bright, precocious kid - and she finally gave in when he was eight. Over the next couple of years my brother converted my parents, and I was the last in the family to turn vegetarian, when I was seven. I got picked on endlessly at school for being different, but also for being small, for being the youngest kid in the class, for being top of the class etc so I figured one more reason to bully me wouldn't make much difference!
    When I was eleven, I began to think more profoundly about eggs and milk. My parents were members of the Vegetarian Society (UK) and I would read their magazine with interest, and it began to open my eyes. I decided to try and cut down on eggs and dairy products, and occasionally made conscious attempts at being vegan. Then one evening, we went to my parents' friends' house and I was offered a biscuit, and as I ate it I told myself that it would be the last non-vegan food item I would ever eat. The next morning, 16 March 1991, I began my first day as a fully-fledged vegan, and I've never looked back. Two months later, my older brother joined me and has likewise remained vegan ever since.
    It's not always been easy, but always for social reasons rather than dietary reasons. I have received more prejudice over my diet than over any and every other factor in my life. At school, kids would think it was funny to leave meat on my chair. One school trip to Italy, I lost half a stone in a week because they failed to make any provision whatsoever for my diet. Only two weeks ago, I attended the wedding of a dear childhood friend and was rather taken aback to be told, two days beforehand, that I would have to bring my own food as they had not catered for vegans, even though I was travelling from overseas to attend the wedding.
    Having said that, I have never once regretted my decision to go vegan. Now aged 26, I have the following responses to all the criticisms hurled at me when I decided to go vegan as a child:
    • Your growth will be stunted. Wrong! I am several inches taller than my mother or either of her sisters. My younger brother, a life-long vegetarian, is 6ft tall.
    • Your mental development will be retarded. I don't think so. I graduated top of my class in both my bachelors and masters degrees and am pursuing a career as an academic. Which is more than I can say for the people who came up with these criticisms!
    • You'll get ill/ be malnourished. Again, wrong! I am blessed with excellent health. I have never been hospitalised, never had an operation, never suffered from any nutritional deficiencies and live a full and active life.
    To all those just starting out, it gets easier and easier as you along, and I hope you are encouraged by this and the many inspirational stories on this thread.
    Live and let live

  19. #69
    (Ab/i/gail) AbFab's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Thank you, Rainbow. I have discovered vegan chocolate, I was just saying that really, my cravings just completely subsided for the stuff, so finding alternatives was not a real issue. I do occasionally have vegan chocolate, but I do not really crave it. It's also overpriced, I think, and the only thing I miss is the convenience of just being able to buy a Mars Bar when I want one.
    I have also got right into baking, and make the most delicious chocolate fudge cake (if I do say so myself), so if I do fancy some chocolate or sweet stuff, I can always rustle a cake up if I feel so inclined. It's just hard to do if I am on the road or on holiday, but hey, such is life, and I manage just fine. It would be nice if they brought out a vegan Mars Bar though!

    I would also just like to add to Rainbow's comment that it gets easier, and say that yes, indeed it does. Not just from your perspective, and your personal development, but I feel there are more and more options for us, and a gradual understanding of veganism, which can only make things easier.

  20. #70
    Cakeaholic rainbow's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Re: Your personal vegan story

    Again, for Abfab: the one 'on-the-go' chocolate bar that is quite widely sold and vegan is Fry's Chocolate Cream. They're yummy and come in three flavours and are sold in many newsagents and the like. Plus you can economise by buying them in a multipack from a supermarket and then taking them with you for holidays/ snackattacks.

    Raspberry ruffles are also more widely sold now, eg at Woolworth's and newsagents, and they are gooooooooooood.

    Spot the chocoholic on this forum!
    Live and let live

  21. #71
    Mozbee
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    Don't forget Ritter bars - plain, mint or mar-zi-pan (mouthwater job!) Only about 70p for a 100g block.

  22. #72
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    When I was 11 (10 yrs ago now) I was eating sunday roast and watching a David Attenborough program about chimps. The group of chimps chased, caught and ate another monkey while it was alive. The barbarism, and their likeness to humans, turned my stomach and I resolved to be veggie. The next day I got all the books in the library about vegetarianism out, researched my new diet choice, and that was that. Recently me and boyf read The Food Revolution and turned vegan (he had been veggie for about a year). I had always known milk&eggs were part of the meat indistry, but didn't know how healthy a vegan diet could be. Since reading that book I realised veganism is not only easy but really healthy, and I am now happy in the knowledge that I don't finance the meat industries in any way We're having a vegan wedding (eventually), a vegan household and I want to have beautiful vegan babies too!

  23. #73
    Mozbee
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    Absentmindedfan that sounds truely idyllic, may those dreams come true.

  24. #74
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote rainbow
    Again, for Abfab: the one 'on-the-go' chocolate bar that is quite widely sold and vegan is Fry's Chocolate Cream. They're yummy and come in three flavours and are sold in many newsagents and the like. Plus you can economise by buying them in a multipack from a supermarket and then taking them with you for holidays/ snackattacks.

    Raspberry ruffles are also more widely sold now, eg at Woolworth's and newsagents, and they are gooooooooooood.

    Spot the chocoholic on this forum!
    Thank you Rainbow, you are kind! I never liked chocolate cream-type chocolates, but if I get a chocolate craving, I may give these Fry's things a go. Although like I said, I just don't get the chocolate urge anymore, well, hardly. I haven't tried Raspberry Ruffles either, as I never liked fruit-flavoured or fruit-flavour-filled chocolates (or chocolate mint - eeeuyuck!), but thanks anyway! I'd still like for them to just bring out a vegan Mars Bar. Mars, are you listening???!!!
    As an aside, I have also given up crisps (America, read potato chips), purely as a challenge, and I have found that I don't crave them at all either now. I used to love them, but I have found that your body adjusts really easily, and your tastebuds just adapt. Well, mine do. It's been a couple of years now, and I do not miss them in the slightest.
    Vegans go all the way.

  25. #75
    Cakeaholic rainbow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Giving up crisps? Hardcore! I am currently living in Paris where they sell crisps like Wotsits but peanut flavoured and they are so nice. I'm happily vegan but am no puritan!
    I'm not aware of vegan 'Mars bars' as such but if you would consider a vegan 'Snickers' instead, try Peanut Chews. They are sold through the Vegan Store www.veganstore.co.uk and are irresistibly moreish. Basically, they are peanut pieces enrobed in caramel and then covered in chocolate. Gorgeous.
    Raspberry ruffles are not actually a cream filling, rather a raspberry-flavoured coconut. Imagine a raspberry 'Bounty'.
    Right, that's it, I'm hungry - where's the chocolate? *munch* mmmmmmm.
    Live and let live

  26. #76
    (Ab/i/gail) AbFab's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Ah, that helps explain 'Moi aussi'! Peut-être.

    Peanut-flavoured crisps? How bizarre!

    I used to like Bountys, but I just don't like my sweets to be flavoured like fruit - I like fruit, and I like sweet things, but not together. Chocolate for me needs to be chocolatey, caramelly, nougat-ey, or toffee - those kind of things, just never with fruit. Although I did like coconutty Bountys. Was never too keen on nuts in my chocolate either, although I like nuts on their own.

    I fear we are turning this thread into a chocolate one. Sorry everyone.
    Vegans go all the way.

  27. #77
    Cakeaholic rainbow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Yeah, sorry.

    Best make this the last one. They are peanut-butter flavoured - little maize corn snacks containing 30% ground peanuts that just melt in your mouth. They are so very delicious.
    'Moi aussi' is a long story that is best not told here as we have hijacked this thread quite enough already!

    But if you ever do find vegan mars bars - tell me where, I want some!
    Live and let live

  28. #78
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Sorry, one last post off-topic (Mmm, Topics, I hear you say!!!).

    YUCK - I do not like peanut butter. Thanks again for all your efforts though, Rainbow!

    If you want to find a thread to post the moi aussi story on, I'll keep an eye out.

    In the meantime, back to personal vegan stories, and if anyone finds vegan Mars bars, please let us know! If there isn't a chocolate thread in the food forum, there should be!
    Vegans go all the way.

  29. #79
    Liftednevermore
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I became vegan two weeks before Christmas. About three days beforehand, I'd made a lavish, caribbean style Christmas Cake that was busy marinating in rum. (It contained about 12 eggs.) On Christmas day, I watched everyone enjoying my lovely cake, while I had plain rice with fried mushrooms. That's what I call "discipline".

  30. #80
    Mozbee
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    The closest thing to a mars bar we've got is the bars made by Vegan - Nougat & ... , they also created the coconut bars.

  31. #81
    Cakeaholic rainbow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I don't think they taste much like Mars Bars - but, they do taste absolutely delicious, so who cares? Not me!
    Live and let live

  32. #82
    Mozbee
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote Liftednevermore
    I became vegan two weeks before Christmas. About three days beforehand, I'd made a lavish, caribbean style Christmas Cake that was busy marinating in rum. (It contained about 12 eggs.) On Christmas day, I watched everyone enjoying my lovely cake, while I had plain rice with fried mushrooms. That's what I call "discipline".
    Bravo Lifted!

  33. #83
    grasshopper's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    for me, it all started 4 years ago when my family was travelling up to north carolina driving on a highway late at night when we spotted a chicken truck. it was the most depressing thing my sister and i had ever seen in our lives, it felt like witnessing a concentration camp, they were packed in tiny cages all stacked up with the wind blowing all of their feathers off and it was sickening. being the idiot that i was, i continued to eat chicken, but i did feel extremely guilty whenever i did. then one day i was at the grocery store with my sis and she told me the shocking truth about how animals are raised because someone had sent her an email and then she watched the meet your meat peta video. i was horrified and after this i had no desire at all to eat it and it made me feel soo much better to not support it. so she became a vegetarian too and so did one of my bros and then my friend. still being the idiot that i was, i continued to drink milk thinking that dairy cows dont suffer and that probably not all of them sell the male calves to veal. and i ate free range eggs because i thought that they didnt suffer much either. then about 3 months ago, i heard this kid in my class say that he was vegan (i later found out that he wasnt because he drank a milk shake but who knows it might have been a transitional binge thing) and i was impressed because id never actually met a vegan and i was like if he can do it i can too. so i did about 4 weeks ago and i love it. thanks for reading my very long incredibly boring story.

  34. #84
    snivelingchild's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I'll go ahead and fill in my bit because I don't know if I have before.

    I was raised vegetarian, by a mother who had good intentions, but never talked to me about why she did. I just thought we were deprived of meat and were different. She wasn't too commited to it, because when I turned ten, she started eating meat again. Later I asked my dad for a Big Mac. I got one, and ate meat for the next eight years.

    Flash forward to living in a tiny apartment, up late at night and nothing to do (which is why I'm writing this right now). I was so bored, I went online to every site I knew. Every now and then I would check out PETA's website because I cared about animals, but only in the normal "they shouldn't be treated too horribly" way. My boyfriend was on the other side of the room playing games. I had nothing else to look through, so I clicked a vegetarian link. Page after page, I read more and more about how animals are treated. More and more I thought about the ethics of animal exploitation. Every time I found a new tidbit I read it out to my boyfriend and we were both equally horrified. After 45 minutes of solid astonished reading, I turned to him and said "uh....Colin? I really think I want to go vegan." He said "Yeah". Over the next few days, Colin finished off most of the cheese in the fridge (it was hard for him to give up because he was an addict) but alot of it got thrown away with alot of other things. I couldn't even touch anything, though. We set a date to not possess any more animal products (the next Monday) and we haven't looked back.

    Yay for boredom!

  35. #85
    hydrophilic tipsy's Avatar
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    Talking Re: Your personal vegan story

    hi hi,

    i thought i would add my piece... its really not that awe inspiring as some of your stories are.

    i was raised organic vegetarian by my mother, who taught me that animals are all the same.... you, me, your cat, or that cow over there. (moo).

    i am vegan now. (mooooo).
    the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, dunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
    -henry miller

  36. #86
    Mozbee
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Well said to your mummy, did she go vegan too?

  37. #87
    Maple Syrup Lagamorph's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I was raised in a village of around 200 people (if that) in the ruralest areas in Eastern Europe. My family had a few pigs, chickens and ducks. I remember being 4 or 5, and watching a pig being slaughtered. I can still remember the shriek and the smell. It terrified me. Being 5 and not having much control over what I ate, hindered my progress.
    Around 13 or so, (a few years after immigrating to Canada) I started eating less and less meat. (The meat that I did eat was overly processed). Slowly, I eliminated pork, beef, chicken, eggs, and fish. I was actually told of vegetarianism, for I thought I was an anomoly. You can imagine how my family took it. Not being aware that there were other like me, I ate whatever I could, mostly dairy. This lasted until about 2 years ago, when I was highly advised to get a flu shot. Having a "DUH" moment, it did not click in my fragile little mind that the vaccine was incubated in eggs. (Shudder) I became really ill. I have never been as sick as I was for the 4 months that my doctors, nutritionists and other crazed medical personelle ran numerous tests on me. Long story short, I became lactose intollerant due to the flu shot. I was sooo devastated. I lived on cheese for the past 10 years. Despite my attachs, I still ate cheese from time to time (organic, veggie of course, 90% of the time). Then, slowly, as my vegetarianisn, I craved it less and less. So, I am a Vegan, but by default.
    No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood

  38. #88

    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I read some leaflets at a friends house when I was 14 and didn't go about becoming vegetarian very well- I simply refused to eat the meat my Mum had made for dinner. Pretty unfair and selfish of me, especially if I had just spoken to her she would have been fine with it, which is what I did. I guess springing this on someone whos been surrounded by meat all their lives, you do think theres nothing else. A couple years later my sister went vegi too.

    Last year I started thinking less about myself and more about where my food comes from- not just animal, but in terms of organic and health benefits. I think I'd sort of buried my head in the sand when it came to the cruelty of dairy etc, but doing more research made me realise that if you care enough to be vegi, you have to care enough to be vegan.

    I spent a while looking at nutrition and substitutes, and talking to vegan friends, and even went through a phase of deciding I couldn't do it.
    But eventually I just went for it- that was... almost 4 months ago and I love being vegan!!
    Makes me really proud of myself in a strange way...!

  39. #89
    nomad Orange-powered's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I went vegan 2 years ago now....it was weird....sort of gradual but sudden at the same time. Gradual because having been raised in a meat-eating family, I had lowered my intake of meat, being really disgusted by it, but still having the odd bit of chicken. I just couldn't help thinking about what I was eating....the flesh of something that was once alive. Then at 16 I too started having eating problems.....I had an obsession with my weight (something which still creeps up on me sometimes) and went through a two year period of starving, binging and vomiting. It was really unhealthy.....I am sure I did terrible damage to my body.

    Anyway then I decided I wanted to be healthier and also I wanted to be able to say to myself that nothing I ate caused an animal pain or agonising death. I probably sound like I'm raving....but it's how I feel. So then I thought meat but also eggs and dairy products, except milk, should go. To be honest everytime I had milk I was disgusted.....but I wasn't aware enough at that point about calcium enriched alternatives......then eventually I cut it all out...and I feel much better. Not deprived at all. And everyone says I am a brilliant cook!
    Now I live with 3 pescatarians (one who eats chicken and fish) and a meat eater. They are all great friends, but I can't wait for the day when I can look into my own fridge and not see a single animal product there.....instead of a partially eaten chicken carcass grossing me out....

    sorry this was reaaaaaaally long I got a bit too into it.....must do some uni work now!

  40. #90
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Well it's easy and I can narrate it with a few words: first it was by my health, now is by the health of the chickens (as Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote).

    I do not have to say nothing else. It's thus simply.
    "When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice."
    Isaac Bashevis Singer

  41. #91
    Pilaf
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I should also add that the booklet that came with Moby's "Play" album went a long way in raising my awareness.

  42. #92

    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Right before Thanksgiving this year, very suddenly, meat just didn't appeal to me, i just couldn't eat it.
    I have alwasy loved animals, and hate the thought of mindless suffering and I trully despise consumerism. My mom wouldn't accept my vegetarian efforts when I was a child and teen, kept putting meat in front of me, taking me to nutritionaists. She really hated it when I would pick up the parts of dead chicken on my plate and"animate" them, demonstrating how the joints moved, and explaining about the living creature that was now dead.
    Milk has always tasted like blood to me, and I cannot tolerate it.
    Then this year, meat left my palate. Eggs left shortly thereafter. Cheese after that.
    I guess deep down, i was always a vegan, i just needed time to figure it out.
    I can't afford the fancy meat-imitaions or vegan cheeses, so i do without. i live a Asian diet. Rice, beans, veggies, and fruit.
    I am also a pagan, and my love and respect for nature and the earth helped my decision considerably. I believe ALL life is sacred, and connected. I am working hard to clear my conscience of my past mistakes. None of these are easy, I feel guilt and shame and I feel Karma is being merciful, at the moment. I hope that I can change all that and make a difference.
    Thanks for listening.
    "Uh, we don't eat meat. It's kind of like a professional courtesy." -Maggie, Home on the Range

  43. #93

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    Thumbs up Re: Your personal vegan story

    I am a spiritual person and I believe animals have souls. I didnt always apply my beliefs to my way of life though. Although I was never a red-meat eater I did on occassion eat white meat. That makes me a hypocrit, this i know now. When I had my daughter it was more important than it ever had been for me to establish rules and guidelines for the way I would live the rest of my life. Making the healthy choice to become Vegan and raise my child Vegan was the best choice I have ever made. My husband is still in the transition stage of becoming a vegitarian. I read to him everynight about the myths of protein and the selfish infliction of pain on animals by meat-eaters. He was actually the one who introduced me to a lot of the natural remedies I now use. There are still a few adjustments I have to make to my home and life. Its hard to find stores that support Vegans. Shoes and clothing for myself and my child are the hardest to come by. Of course I am new to the Greenwood area so that doesnt help. For me my transition was easy but as most of us know there are always going to be hurdles to jump in our lives until everyone becomes aware of the truth in the lifestyle we have chosen.

  44. #94
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I was 12 years old and was swimming with a friend. She accidently kicked me in the mouth and I started bleeding. When I tasted the blood in my mouth, I had a sort of epiphany about meat and what it was. I haven't had meat since then.

    Surprisingly, I managed to spend the following 14 years without learning about the horrors of the dairy industry. I was the only vegetarian I knew, and I never really did any research on the meat or dairy industry. Then about a year ago I got the "Why Vegan" pamphlet. That helped, and actually an article in my ex-boyfriend's daughter's PETA kids magazine featured a quote from a vegan guy from a popular band (I forget the band). He said something like, "If you know what's going on in the dairy industry, you have no excuse to keep eating dairy." That did it. The ex and I went vegan around that time.

  45. #95
    treehugga's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I grew up an only child isolated on a farm and I only really had the animals to play with. The animals were my friends, my brothers and sisters. One day several of the older calves, my 2 favorites were killed in front of me (shot) with the belief it would toughen me up. I was 5 years old. I was hysterical with grief and inconsolable for what felt like an eternity. Similar events occured intermitantly, but my parents became more careful due to my distress. I couldn't eat meat when I connected where it came from.

    Later on I lived with a 'monster' for 9 years who thought it was funny to threaten me with a gun, amongst other horrors. He would buy dogs as pets and when he grew tired of them would call me outside and shoot them in front of me.

    I can't bear to think of anything so innocent as an beautiful creature being torchured for greed.

    I used to think I was a freak for feeling like this. Now I know it's not me who's the freak and I'm proud of my lifestyle.

  46. #96

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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    I became vegetarian last year sometime in April. My younger sister stopped eating meat months before me and wouldn't shut up about how they hurt animals and eating meat is wrong. Well I guess she got to me, so I started reading things on the Peta site about how they kill the animals, and was totally turned off from eating meat so I just stopped eating meat one day. It wasn't hard for me to just stop eating meat cold turkey---haha, I was never to big into meat to start with.
    Months and months later I decided to try to be vegan. I tried two differcent times and both times failed after about 4 days. I started reading more things on the peta site about what vegans can eat and why to be vegan, and I tried again early Dec and success!( I just needed to be more educated on what I could eat) Being vegan was a lot easier then I thought. I did it for the animals, my health and the enivorment.

  47. #97
    Seaside
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote treehugga
    I grew up an only child isolated on a farm and I only really had the animals to play with. The animals were my friends, my brothers and sisters. One day several of the older calves, my 2 favorites were killed in front of me (shot) with the belief it would toughen me up. I was 5 years old. I was hysterical with grief and inconsolable for what felt like an eternity. Similar events occured intermitantly, but my parents became more careful due to my distress. I couldn't eat meat when I connected where it came from.

    Later on I lived with a 'monster' for 9 years who thought it was funny to threaten me with a gun, amongst other horrors. He would buy dogs as pets and when he grew tired of them would call me outside and shoot them in front of me.

    I can't bear to think of anything so innocent as an beautiful creature being torchured for greed.

    I used to think I was a freak for feeling like this. Now I know it's not me who's the freak and I'm proud of my lifestyle.
    I am speechless, treehugga.

  48. #98
    treehugga's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Quote Seaside
    I am speechless, treehugga.
    I'm ok now. I turned it all around, became a social worker and vegan and now I try to help others living with distress. Sometimes we live hard lessons in order to find our way

  49. #99
    Seaside
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    Yes, and when we survive, we do come out the stronger. I admire your strength and attitude!

  50. #100
    Skajen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your personal vegan story

    i became veggie at 15 years of age after watching babe, it was the icing on the cake because i longed to be veggie for years but didn't have the social backing

    i became vegan 5 months ago, after 6 years of being vegetarian. i heard about veganism increasingly through animal rights leaflets, veggie mags etc and realised i am a hypocrite? how can i say i love animals and eat eggs, milk etc

    i've never looked back, and despite nastiness from friends, family and random ppl who meet me, i'm sticking to it

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