Why did you become veg*n, initially?
Posted by Allychristine on Sep 14, 2009 · Member since Dec 2007 · 15438 posts
I know all the great reasons, but what made you decide?
I always loved animals, and felt a close bond to them, and yet I always loved meat. (ew) No one in my family is vegetarian. Anyway, one night, I began to eat some of my mom's lasagna (she's a great cook), and it was kind of cold, and I was thought, "wow, this is really gross." So, I decided to never eat meat again! Ten years later, ::) P was talking to one of his friends (opposite of veg*n), and the friend asked, "why aren't you vegan?" P was like...I dunno. Then he asked me, and I was like..I dunno. Then we researched, and here we are! Branded and everything. If I knew then what I know now...
I became vegan in the spring of last year because I had just learned way too much about factory farming and I couldn't be okay with it anymore. It wasn't really a hard transition though, because when I was growing up we were too poor to afford much meat, so if we had meat in the meals it was canned tuna or cheap, frozen fish fillets, or ground turkey (or lunchmeat). So, when people ask me if I miss steak, I just reply that I've never had one and smile.
And, I'm sure part of it was the eternal rebel in me, 'cause at my school (a meat and dairy school), there aren't many of us, and I always dare to be different. But I would never go back to how I used to eat.
My mom bought be Skinny Bitch for Christmas a couple years ago, thinking it was a funny diet book. I read it in one night.
I had always loved animals, which is why I went vegetarian in 6th grade. But somewhere around 18 or 19, I started eating meat again.
Reading that book brought it all back. Made me remember why I had been a vegetarian all those years. So I was an overnight vegan. Consequently, Andy became an overnight vegan too. He needed a little more persuading though.
I don't know if I could really pinpoint a specific reason because it was a combination of many different things. I always had a feeling that I would end up being a vegetarian, though. I remember reading about vegetarians in a magazine when I was a little kid and I was very fascinated by the concept of it. I just didn't know what to do or where to begin at that age (I was around 10 at the time).
So, by the time I was 18 or 19, I finally gave it a try...and failed a week later. I got a vegetable lasagna from somewhere for lunch and it was awful and it just kinda turned me off, I guess. I really just didn't have the proper resources at that time. I finally got a computer and tried again a few years later and was a little more successful, but I was still eating meat half of the time. I gave up again because I was still eating meat, but I was more accepting of vegetables.
Finally, about 2 years ago, Katie and I were eating lunch at Wendy's. I was eating a hamburger. I got halfway through it, stopped eating, looked at it, got angry, said "why do we keep eating this shit?!", threw it down, and haven't touched meat since. Well, with the exception of the occasional mishap, but they only happened a few times a while back.
I went vegetarian 18 years ago in attempt to eat a healthier diet. I stayed vegetarian for about 10 years...then added meat back into my diet in a moment of insanity thinking I could loose weight. After a couple of years I decided to become vegetarian again. Along the way I learned to be a vegan cook and ate vegan most of the time.
I'm leaning towards veganism now because of the animals and the impact on the environment. I loathe how animals are treated in factory farms. I try to eliminate all animal products in my eating, as well as lifestyle. I'm not yet vegan, but I'm sure that one day soon I'll call myself a vegan.
I like reading these!
I find it interesting to think about all the people who became veg*n with an unsupporting family, especially people in different countries. I never knew anything about vegetarianism, or knew any veg*ns (Texas!), but my family was always supportive.
I became a vegetarian in 2000 because my boyfriend wanted to try it.
Then around 2002 I read fast food nation which really made me try to go vegan. I decided to write a paper on veganism for my sociology class around that same time and used the Vegan Sourcebook as my source book :) That pretty much sealed the deal for me.
so basically learning about where food comes from made me switch.
I read Skinny Bitch which just opened my eyes to everything... i love my dogs so much and what's the difference between eating any animal? Every animal deserves to live... who r we to eat them and treat them so horrifically? I will never be anything but vegan again... i like what someone had under their profile picture, "I think therefore I am vegan"
I tried to stop eating meat so many times when i was little. I never really wanted to eat it, but just did because it was what was put in front of me every night. I remember once when i was about 12 i went vegetarian, but i had no clue what i was doing and it only lasted about 2 weeks. With me sneaking meat in every once in a while because i was hungry. (oh, and i think this was just after my appendix ruptured, while i was eating this gross sausage, and puked because of my appendix. I remember the next time i was sick my dad made me homemade marinara sauce, it was soo good)
I joined the agriculture program in high school. Yeah, we had a farm, raised animals, sold them. It made me really sad. I joined the poultry judging team because i like chickens, they were like my favorite animal. And then i realized it was DEAD poultry mostly. I stopped eating chicken when we started practicing and learning (being on the team grossed me out, but i was the best at it? haha) My brother picked on me constantly for eating other animals when i didnt want to eat chickens. One night he got chicken Parmesan from this place, i got philly cheesesteak. Halfway through he came in the dining room to show me how the marinara sauce looked like blood on the chicken he had, and then mooed at me saying i was eating cow. I put down my sandwich and didnt tell my family i wasnt eating meat for like a week. My mom thought i had an eating disorder, until i told them.
Blah blah blah blah, senior year in high school (still in ag, great program besides the animal stuff..) And i go on this farm tour day thing. One of the stops was a dairy farm. We got there and the "handicapped" cows were being pushed and shoved into the milking area. They were just the badly hurt ones that they still pushed around, one fell over and almost got trampled. They also had tons of calves in little tiny cages, i cried, while all these ag kids sat here laughing at me. I stopped eating dairy that day. Then i realized i should just go vegan, because it only makes sense, and everyone (including myself) called me "the wannabe vegan" So i started cutting out eggs and things at the end of the year, and set the full on vegan date for new years so i could have a resolution. That was 2008 I cant believe it though, it feels like it was so long ago.
ETA- I also forgot, pretty much 80% of me deciding to go vegan was because like for 2 days i was the only person on the whos online thing that didnt have vegan under their name.
Sarah, I was wanting you to post your story! Yay. : D
It was a total fluke, I said at work one day, "I think I'm gonna become a vegan", everyone started laughing and I didn't really think I would stick with it. That was 2 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing at first but I learned along the way and on vegweb!
I think I have told this story many many times but one more just for the newer people.
In 1998 I was living on Grand Forks Air Force Base with Angel and her father. You end up making friends with neighbors and one day a neighbor lamented about her husband eating meat and how it "messed up his stomach". Now mind you, I had never thought of food sensitivities really despite the fact that I had in the past had to alter plans due to my upset stomach. I simply did not realize it was abnormal to have diarrhea 30 minutes after eating.
So after that comment I attempted to be red meat free and my stomach calmed a bit even after only a week. This was fine until I had a reaction to fish so I stopped all meats entirely. I did have one fight with A's dad when he got fed up with me eating differently and insisted I eat "with the family". Needless to say I was sick for 2 days.
Fast forward 5 years to 2003, I was divorced, a 1 week on 1 week off parent and an avid VegWebber constantly researching. So I started attempting to be vegan, one week on and one week off, to coincide with A being away for the former. It was tough really but after about a month I had a horrible reaction to cheese and sour cream and gave it up that night.
My tummy is super now. I only have issues when I am fed something contaminated (eating out), due to hormones or huge arguments because it is actually IBS. Honestly, I wish I knew what veganism was at 12 because I would have transitioned then instead of 25. Those of you doing so now have such a head start on knowing how to cook, plenty of options and a wide variety of cuisines.
In high school, I started learning about lots of different stuff, initially through music, like diy, human and animal rights, etc. I decided to go vegan for animal rights purposes, and though the transition to college would be a good time. I would be by myself, learning to cook, my mom wouldn't have to worry about making different food, etc. I went totally vegan Thanksgiving 1998, and have been ever since.
I stopped eating birds and mammals when I was 8 because my sister, who was 12 at the time, decided to go vegetarian after going to the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in New Hampshire. The tour guide told us about how people used to honor and use all parts of the animals they killed, in contrast to the present factory farms and cruelty. My mom decided to support my sister in her endeavor but claimed that it was still important to eat fish. I started to follow along once I got sick of my sister mooing at me when I ate a burger. So I thought that I was a vegetarian, since that's what my family called it, but I still ate fish. Then, when I was a sophomore in high school, someone (Vegan Outreach, I guess) was tabling outside the cafeteria and I picked up a Why Vegan? pamphlet. I read it that day and decided immediately that I had no choice but to go vegan in order to stop participating in cruelty to animals. I went home and told my family that I was going to be vegan and showed them the pamphlet, explaining the reasons. Yeah, I was 16 when I made the best decision of my life.
I was 13-14 and I had learned a little bit of the cruelty that goes on from the Meat Your Meat video and listened to "Veganism in a Nutshell" from I don't know who. I first got literature from this screamo/hard rock concert I went to and got the literature because I though that stuff was a joke but I read it and it made me start to think. For Christmas when I was 14 I got a puppy and realized the meat I still ate was just like him. I had reduced my meat intake to mainly weekends before that but my family was not very well adaptable and welcoming to my diet changes. But after seeing a face and personality behind the muscle and tendons I ate with getting a puppy I quit meat about 2 weeks later. But that was when I went just vegetarian and then I relied a lot on meat substitutes with egg and milk.
It wasn't until 2.5 years ago (2 years being vegetarian) after I was vegetarian for two years I went vegan after I decided to listen to my body and kick milk to the curb. I'm lactose intolerant so when I consume dairy I get constipated or just have horrible diarrhea and then eggs weren't that hard to cut out I never really liked them anyway. I started eating healthier then by having less processed foods and started cooking for myself.
Now recently I have been eating dairy and eggs but I think they aren't that bad I only have free range local eggs and just today I got some organic cheese made from raw milk. And I do eat raw honey and bee pollen. I consume them only once in a while but I still consider myself a vegan.
This post became longer than I expected but I wanted to add this I remember I was just a kid I don't know how old maybe 10 and it was maybe christmas and we always had a honey ham for the holidays. And my vegetarian uncle, wife and kids came later on skipping the meal and when I saw them walking up I said "now everyone take a bit of ham when they walk in." I used to think vegetarianism was wacko. ha.
Well my story goes back to year 1979, thirty long years ago. My best friend Morley and I had decided to row our 16 foot boat, Mercy 2, around the Cape of Good Hope one beautiful summer weekend. The sun was shining brightly as we shoved off from shore thinking we would be back in time for the Sunday afternoon rugby matches in the nearby town of Ratchford Village. But it was not to be!! We made good time at first but as we rounded the Cape we saw a storm coming in fast and furious from the east. We did an about face and quickly began what we both knew would probably be a futile attempt to beat the raging tempest that was rapidly gaining on us no matter how much effort we put into those oars. As the wind caught up with us the little boat began to be tossed high by waves which then snatched the oars from our hands and smashed them like matchsticks. We began to be blown further and further from land and we both knew we were in big trouble. The waters in that part of the world are full of Great White sharks and our minds only had to go back to the memory of one of our buddies who had lost his leg to a Great White scuba diving in this very area where we were now floundering helplessly. The boat next began to fill with water and no amount of bailing was able to keep it from sinking deeper and deeper into this shark infested waters!!
Hey, wait a minute!!! What was the question again? Oh, its "Why did you become veg*n?" Sorry I thought it said something else. I gotta go now but will try to answer that question tomorrow.
Well i can't top PG's but here it goes
My first attempt at being vegetarian was my sophomore year in highschool about... 8 years ago? 2001? WOW....
Anyways, it was mostly to lose weight. My family was very Meat and potatoes, very bland, very SAD kind of food. I had a small waitressing job, about 10 hours a week, to save money for college, and my mom said if I wanted any special food, i had to buy it myself. I basically lived off of PB&J, milk, plain pasta, cheese pizza, iceburg lettuce, and the occasional hunk of tofu or tub of hummus when I could afford it. Why? This is what was in my house. I got very ill and my menses stopped, so I went back to eating meat. I was obviously malnourished because my family was not supportive of my lifestyle choice.
Take 2 came my freshman year of college, in 2004. I saw a video in class called "Diet for a new planet" maybe? and was just appalled at how the animals were treated, so I decided to go veg. again. The problem with my college, is that we had you buy MANDATORY meal plans, they automatically charged to your account and you had to pay for it. Also, each student was work/study so we got paid $3 an hour and could only work 10 hours a week, plus most of us had payroll deductions to help pay off books. Thus it was basically food service or nothing. Being in KY, our food service (which was run through Sodexo, the same people who conveniently supply food to McD's) had adopted the "southern" menu option. This meant it was cheaper for them, but that everything was swimming in grease. EVERY VEGETARIAN OPTION was covered in cheese and oil. I tried being creative, but eventually I got extremely ill. I would only sleep, couldn't climb stairs or stay awake. I went to the doctor and found out I was EXTREMELY anemic. My doctor demanded I ate more meat, said that was the only way to fix my problem with iron, and I trusted her. She also put me on Birth control and iron supplements. I eventually was able to stop using both, but by them my thyroid had become dependent on the estrogen in the birth control, so when I stopped taking it, my thyroid stopped working and I now have to take meds the rest of my life.
Take 3 came after I got married my senior year, We got married Dec 12, 2007 and were vegetarians by January 2008.
We went vegetarians because of the animals and how they were treated, and dabbled a little in vegan fare. We were vegetarians off and on several times up until June of this year. We always reverted back to being carnivores for one reason or another, we craved meat, eating meat was easier, my iron was low again, my thyroid couldn't handle the soy we ere eating, etc. Each time we backslid, we would figure out why, research alternatives, and try again.
Finally in June, I read Skinny Bitch and was shocked/horrified/disgusted/enraged/enlightened/determined. I finished the book, went into the kitchen, and threw out/gave away all non vegan items. I cooked up the rest of our meat and made some stray cats very happy. Since then I have noticed that I feel amazing. My iron level is great. All the dairy i was eating as a vegetarian was blocking my absorption. My thyroid is much better because it's not trying to compete with other hormones from meat and dairy, and I can actually have soy a few times a week without it bothering my thyroid now. This will be our 3rd month being vegan, and the more we read and research th more passionate we get about the entire lifestyle of living compassionately.
I became vegan because I think the world needs to be changed, and this is my way of contributing to that change.
Sorry this was so long, lol. ~^_^~
I love how Skinny Bitch turns so many people vegan!!! I started crying when they talked about what the slaughterhouse people did to the animals... i still get choked up when I read it to people! Awesome/super funny book... i lend it out and try to convert people (2 turned at least vegetarian so far!)
same here! One friend still has it, another one bought her own copy!!
Well that is an interesting question and my experience goes back a long time. It all began on a cool spring morning when a group of us were beginning a climb of Mount Everest. No wait I better not do that again!! Answer the question!!
I think I told the story before so will make up a new one. No, no, no!! Just tell the boring truth!!
Okay I was born into a heavy meat eating family and never even knew anyone who was a vegetarian. There was no internet at the time to help with gathering info either. My girlfriend lived on a large farm and when I would visit, and when we were not rolling in the hay, I would be helping feed and clean the animals. Then we would sit down to a large meal of those same animals, or more precisely their dead ancestors who I used to feed and clean in the past.The more I visited and spent time with the animals, especially the pigs, I could see an intellegence there and also could see that they had a knowledge of what their purpose was. That is, to be fattened and killed for us to eat and to be sold for others to eat. I remember on the day they were to be shipped to market there would be a totally different spirit in the barns. They knew what was going on. On any other day we could move the pigs from stall to stall with no problem but on this day they would fight and squeal and do everything possible to keep from going down the aisle way that led to the truck. We actually would have to use electric prods which we touched on their backs to get them to go forward. I remember one mother pig, the friendliest mother you could imagine. I would stop and scratch her head each time I passed by her and she would grunt contentedly. But when it came time for her to have babies she turned and killed each one as it was born. She didn't eat them just killed them and left them laying in the hay. When we saw what she was doing we tried to interfere but she became furious and tried to bite us too. I thought then and still do that she just couldn't allow those cute babies to grow up and ten suffer as she knew they would have to do.
The cows were another story. They were not as smart as the pigs but when it came time for them to have their calves they would do anything to find a private place to go where they could be alone. We would be constantly searching for them as they would get through a hole in the fence and get out in the woods. I now live across the road from a farm with cows and each year coes the time when the calves are separated from their mothers and it brings back memories of the cows I used to help take care of and their crying when the babies were removed. They cry non stop for days until they actually lose their voices and all you can hear is a hoarse almost silent moo and then nothing. I could never understand how the farmer could hear this and not understand what those mothers were going through. I guess they just get hardened to these things.
Anyway the day I moved away from home was the day I became a vegetarian and a few years later a vegan. All on my own with no support or companionship. I just knew that I didn't want any part of causing pain and suffering to these intellegent creatures.
Now back to mount Everest...
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