I woke up one day and decided to be vegan, thats it, i didnt have a computer at the time so i couldnt research veganism, and nothing i read made me become vegan, i just evolved one morning
Ethics/philosophical reasons: Compassion for animals, reverence for life
Environmental reasons
Personal / human health
Political/economical reasons, world hunger
Spiritual and/or religious reasons
Because there are no valid arguments pro using animal products
Veganism feels right/works best for me
All of the above
I woke up one day and decided to be vegan, thats it, i didnt have a computer at the time so i couldnt research veganism, and nothing i read made me become vegan, i just evolved one morning
Maybe it was something you'd eaten
Thanks for all the responses. I'm really interested in all the different motivating factors. It makes it easier to defend my choices to non vegans. So thanks for letting me borrow some of your ideas!
I'm moving in with two omnis in August, both have already expressed an interest in having a vegan fridge, vegan dinners etc. There is hope
Can I suggest you use this link and get a free DVD to show them, although it's aimed at primarily at senior school kids it showed me a few things I'd not seen before. It's certainly a good resource to have on hand.cookie
I went veggie in 1984 when I realised I was not eating much meat, so gave it up and as I loved animals it seemed sense. I gave up dairy milk at the same time only because I was not drinking much of it.
So when I went into animal rights, at that time, I was only eating a little bit of cheese so it was easy for me to turn vegan. That was two years ago,it was easier for me as I naturally went that way.
hm...well I have been pretty much vegetarian for the past four years- eating the occasional poultry or seafood thing when my mother forced me too.... I just never really liked meats and always got sick when thinking about the incredible number of animals that are slaughtered daily....
I became vegan about two months ago when I started running longer and harder. I find that I feel so much "lighter" and have SO MUCH more stamina and energy. It is great and definitely one of the best things I have done for myself!!
Hi Wanda,
I just looked at the clips and cards you created. I want to add my admiration for them. Absolutely fantastic!
First and foremost for our animals
Respect.
These things are always so inspirational.
I'm Vegan for health & I'm also helping animals in the process.
It turned into a Spiritual aspect also.
Ppl are seeing how awesome I feel & how much I'm glowing & they want to follow in my footsteps.
animals
1.Animals.
2.Animals
3.Animals
Health, environment, icing on the cake.
The well-being of other animals has always been my only concern. I stopped participating in innocent deaths and corpse eating eleven years ago because I didn't understand why anybody would, and though in all my vegetarian years I never thought about the fact I was using dairy and egg...when I eventually did, I just gave them up (along with every other animal product) that same day.
I've never researched into what happens to the animals too much, so I can't spew out a plethora of facts if questioned by omnivores. It's just a gut thing, at the very core of who I am. I didn't/don't want to take lives, and I didn't/don't want to take anything of those lives.
Spiritual reasons.
for me it is an ever rotating cycle of health>> animal welfare/rights >>and the environment...
it is always changing.
But I did, initially go vegan for mainly health reasons.
I became vegetarian when I was 9 yrs old upon reading an article in the newspaper about Veal.... it's when I really realized meat was ANIMAL. Before then, the concept was just unclear as it is something you grow up doing and dont question as a child.
Since, I have become vegan (several years now) and that, too, was for ANIMALS. I just love them to death and could never imagine eating something liket hat. I wouldnt gnaw on a person's arm, why would I eat an animal -- an innocent creature.
:p In life & love there are no impossibilities...
-
Was vegetarian for years simply because I couldn't ignore the absolute evils of factory farming and corporate greed.
Am now vegan because I cannot ignore the evils of dairy farming and corporate greed, mulesing in sheep farming and coprporate greed.
How can I possibly justify wearing cosmetics and products that have been cruelly tested on animals, I don't even dye my hair anymore - I am prematurely white haired, got white streaks, and proud. We use herbal medicines and on a good vegan non-smoking diet with regular exercise we are unlikely to get sick all the time anyway.
When is the rest of the world going to wake up?
It makes me sad because close friends of mine who eat meat, don't exercise and drink too much are suffering from strokes, diabetes, gross obesity and so on and I want to shake them because even after falling ill they don't and won't change their ways!
I'm Vegan for my health, but I'm all for helping the animals too
the poor sweet precious helpless beautiful animals!!!!! i love them so much!!
my health is secondary.
For the animals for sure. It's badass though that my health improves hella and it helps the environment.
i'm vegan largely so that i make the smallest imprint on the planet as possible. also i think senseless killing is unacceptable, and i want the best for my health
Peace Love Surf.
Because modern factory farming is sick and insane and created out of greed.
And veggies taste good
Perfectly said.Blueshark
Thank you - its so horrible that it is true. Perhaps the hope is that most people are ignorant of it.
Actually your avatar reminds me that I should go watch Amelie
FOR OUR ANIMAL FRIENDS, WHO ARE OUR EQUALS
also for humans and the planet on the side
For the animals I think. I used to say I loved all animals but still ate them?! I was very under-educated when I was younger.
Plus most animal products don't agree with me anyway.
"It's not that people suddenly start breeding like rabbits; it's just that people stopped dropping like flies" - population explosion
This is going to sound incredibly recycled, cliche' or simple, but it just "felt right". When I finally took the plunge from full omni to vegan, I truely felt good about myself for the first time....well, ever.
Me too.suezin
Well, at first it was a pretty much equal mix of being for the animals, and for resourcefulness and not being wasteful or taking more that is required for me to live a healthy life.
But then soon after becoming vegan I found that my energy went up, I could concentrate better, AND, my cravings to binge eat were greatly diminished. (I'd been struggling with emotional eating and bulimia for 2 years. I still have some rough times, because I'm still recovering, but I think a big part of it was fueled by food addiction, like to dairy and refined sugar).
It's made many aspects of my life a lot better - my health, emotional well-being, and my conscience.
mostly for animals. and my husband and i feel that it is important to raise our son this way and to teach him compassion and mercy for the animals and the earth and to care about his health.
I went vegetarian completly for the animals. As others said, I would still never eat meat, even if I was convinced it was healthy (which I am not, I think it is unhealthy). I couldn't justify or deal with being able to take a life for food, and I couldn't stand to eat something that was dead - there was a definate "grossness" factor.
I didn't understand veganism so much when I first went vegetarian. then I began to understand... I went vegan for health reasons, because I feel it is unnatural to consume milk from another species, for the environment, to end world hunger, to show my protest against factory farming, and to stop harm against animals.
I also really like the food, and I wish I had started eating like this years ago.
i just am.
so many reasons, but mostly it's what works for me, body and mind.
hannah, 28 (vegan), bryce, 28 (ovolacto), xylia born january 2005 (vegan)
Thats a little cutie on your avatar
My health first and then the animals. I first must take care of the body my creator gave me and then I can help take care of the rest of the planet.
Everything I eat has its beginnings in a seed.
I think therefore I am vegan
I hate to think I could contribute to suffering and pain.
That's a great way to look at it IMO I first came to veganism after finding out about the health benefits, but I also realized how animals were suffering beyond meat production (as I was lacto-ovo veggie before). Though I know I can never avoid causing any suffering, my main goal is now to cause the least suffering--for animals (both human and non-human) and the environment--possible in this world and being the best vegan I can be is fundamental in striving for that goal.UrbanVegan
When you are guided by compassion and loving-kindness, you are able to look deeply into the heart of reality and see the truth.--Thich Nhat Hanh
(a) I went vegan because I didn't want any part of the cruelty and exploitation that is done in the name of hungry men.
I stay vegan for (a), and
(b) I love to watch wildlife, and when I look at them, I feel a warm glow inside. It makes me smile to know that I don't have to associate them with anything but their beautiful, natural lives. They are just there for themselves, they don't have to be for anything, especially not anything for me.
(c) Last of all, I feel so much healthier. But I'd do it even if it made me feel like crap.
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
I don't want to contribute to the meat and dairy industries that basically control the USDA and use their power to regulate the dietary guidelines in the united states and to fund research so a lot of research tends to be bias. Its so frustrating!
Also world hunger is a huge issue, its a lot healthier, and factory farming is one of the most awful things.
I wasn't really eating anything containing animal products anyways so giving them up wasn't really a big transition for me - it was easy - so I figured if I don't have any strong attachments anyways I might as well just take the plunge and throw myself into further living a cruetly-free life. The gains by far outweighed the loss.
"An outside enemy exists only if there is anger inside."
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche
i believe that it is much more beneficial for both animals, mother earth and humans to eat vegan. i find that one of the most important issues is to try and live the most environmentally sustainable you can! who are we to make living creatures suffer and to destroy the planet we were put on? i believe in love, anarchy and freedom for ALL LIVING CREATURES, not in hate and speciesism.
I believe it is always wrong to kill.
I may not be able to always live up to that (parasites for instance). But I do the best I possibly can.
"Danger" could be my middle name … but it's "John"
My main reason is because I don't want animals to suffer for me, and I don't want to support any industry that makes them suffer. In other words, I don't want to be holding the knife, so to speak.
No sense being pessimistic. It wouldn't work anyway.
So I don't have to have a million different cutting boards.
(it's just a bonus)
I am vegan primarily our of health and athletic performance interests.
Before becoming vegan however I was vegitarian for a number of years, and at that point my initial decision to eliminate meat was out of concern for the treatment of animals.
I became vegetarian first then vegan, My reason was to allevaite the hunger problem and then it grew into something bigger than me, now its a full time passion I have new reasons but I feel I contribute by having light footsteps on the planet and just living close to nature ..but most of all to pass on to my kids health and what it means to be a a humanitarian.....
Mother nature doesn't except excuses only man does.....
coz everybody else sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nonvegans I mean.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Mainly for spiritual reasons. Once I started studying yoga and Eastern philosophy 12 years ago, I found I had to give up meat as I had a revelation that it was simply wrong to kill and eat animals. Over the years, I learned more about the evils of factory farms and big agribusiness/monoculture, from the standpoint of cruelty to the animals, damage to the environment, and being a totally wasteful and non-sustainable means of food production. This, plus becoming a Buddhist, finally gave me the nudge to cut all animal products out of my diet. My husband and I are now working on getting them out of our consumption in general.
For innumerable reasons, the Bodhisattva, whose nature is compassion, is not to eat any meat. -- The Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra
animals, enviroinment, health, God!
animals, ethics, environment (health is a bonus).
Eve
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