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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookWas there an event or somthing in your life that made vegan the only way for you?
I began taking yoga teacher training, and studying Buddhism at about the same time. All my life, I thought eating animals was just not right, but of course, I just went blindly along with all the meat protien nonsense. When I started these two disciplines in my life somthing snapped! I came to the realization, that if I view all living things as equal, then I really shouldn’t be eating them. That was about 5 years ago now.
Our animal brothers and sisters are not there to serve us. They are not inferior to us in anyway, allowing them to be treated cruelly and exploited!. I am an evolutionist, So I know we are part of the animal kingdom. We are animals too.
So, I guess my answer simply, is yoga and Buddha is what atrted this journey!
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In college, I majored in Environmental Science. Then it hit me. How could I be an environmental scientist and support factory farms or the fishing industry? So I bought a book on veganism and let my roommate eat up the rest of the animal products I had in the fridge.
I read Skinny Bitch! I plowed through it in a day and immediately stopped eating meat and animal by-products. I did some research of my own and became even more set in my ways (much to the chagrin of the people who had to put up with me going on and on about these “hidden tortures”). About a month later, I started reading about raw veganism, and became 95% raw overnight. I guess you could say I’m the all-or-nothing type. lol
I watched a documentation called Earthlings lol, before i was just vegetarian, eye opening documentation, I would only recommend it to people that like to eat Meat tho, its very sad, just thinking about it makes me sad again lol. Wouldnt watch it if you allready are vegan or even vegetarian
marcell, your pic. looks really ymmy!
I was thinking of watching that docunetary, I am pretty sensative,so I won’t bother now. Thanks for the heads up about it.:) That sort of thing gets me so worked up I feel like throwing up!
that pic is a raw chocolate cake with banana/nut creme filling thingy i made myself a couple of days ago, maybe ill post the recipe here in a few days, its so damn good i cant believe that i was able to create something so yummy lol. i feel like a painter whose painting was eaten up or something, but hey i got the picture :)
I read John Robbins Diet for a New World. I was moving away from dairy anyway and meat because my digestive system was on the road to not handling them.
Oh yeah and around that same time, i read the sexual politics of meat.
I read May all be Fed, by John Robbins. He’s good. I used to make a cornbread recipe of his. So yummy, but not raw!:(
Long journey for me… I initially went vegetarian after my son was born (ten years ago) because I wanted to lose weight. I had, shall we say, ballooned considerably during the pregnancy. Ben & Jerry’s will do that to you ;o). I did lose about 50 pounds eventually – over about a three year time period, not all at once – but when I look back at how I did it and what I ate… I just have to laugh. I lived on pasta, rice, cheese, eggs, stuff like that. Eventually I decided to give up the eggs, because in my mind that was more “animal” than dairy products (yeah, I know), and then a few years ago I just started having worse and worse, er… intestinal issues, with the dairy products, so I cut them out, too. I read about raw and flirted with it for probably two years before I jumped into it last year, ate probably 80% raw all last spring and summer, and then went into grumpy bear hibernation mode all winter and ate lots of cooked soups & grains & stuff. Now it’s coming into spring again and I’m feeling the raw inspiration again and I’m so happy! I’ve had a green smoothie for breakfast almost every day since this time last year, I’m totally addicted to those things!
I can’t say I’m vegan even though my diet as a “pure vegetarian” is the same as a vegans. (I wear wool in the winter and a vegan will not.) However, I became interested in animals when I was 11 and saw some literature for some grass-roots animal rescue group and my parents let me donate a buck. This was back around 1973 and that buck was 4 hours of baby-sitting on my part, just in case someone thinks I was a cheap kid, haha!
I was vegetarian with no eggs for animal right and spiritual reasons. Then I met Walt, a vegan and he made me the most gorgeous curries, sandwiches etc. We hung out together for a long time, he got me into cooking and Indian food, and I just ended up being vegan without really realising it. Through him I met other vegans who were always calm, peaceful and had a different way about them which just drew me right in! The first thing I noticed was I got my Vegan Skin. This is the silky velvery soft skin all vegans I know have, and no-one else has ;)
Two years ago I caught a bit of Oprah’s show with Dr. Oz talking about the five worst things to eat with high fructose corn syrup being the only one I caught. So I went to her website to try to find out the rest and someone in her forum mentioned “if you truly want to know how to eat to be healthy read “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell. That stuck with me for some reason and I got the book and read it and went vegan overnight before even finishing it. That was two years ago.(Wow, seems like a lifetime ago. I can’t imagine eating meat now!)
I immediately noticed such a huge new spiritual and “evolutionary” awareness in myself and I was so thrilled that my actions and lifestyle were now in tune with my true feelings of living lovingly towards all, honoring and respecting all life in this amazing world, animals and people both. Although I loved animals, I had so ignorantly thought that we HAD to eat meat to get our protein. Ugh! Makes me so ashamed now to think how foolish I was to have been so brainwashed that I didn’t even have the idea to investigate other possibilites. And the longer I have been vegan, the more passionate and excited I have grown. I FEEL my mind and consciousness growing and expanding. Especially having gone raw vegan now. There was such a fog and I never even knew it!
I discoverd raw vegan a few months ago from little blips about it here and there on vegan websites that piqued my curiosity.
I gave up meat less than a year ago because I felt that the hormones in it were getting out of control- chicken breasts had to be cut into 3 serving sizes… the whole chicken shouldn’t be that big. Since then I have been getting more strict, cutting back on dairy because of lactose intolerance and the hormones in cows. After reading Skinny Bitch I wanted nothing to do with animal products anymore (the hormone thing really scares me… The animal rights piss me off but I’m so cynical that it doesn’t hit me hard enough in an emotional way, result is more moody than effective) Like lovingraw, I’d say strict veggie, not vegan. I have very expensive leather shoes that I just won’t stop wearing… They were built to last for 20 years and they will! Canadian winters also cannot be survived without lots of wool sweaters and suit coats… I also am a little too accustomed to silk and work at a store with beautiful silk blouses and dresses for employee discount… To put it simply, I’m all about what goes into my body, not what adorns it (unless its something really awful) I discovered raw foodism talking to a friend in class who was telling me about her friend who was a raw foodie. I did some research and found that the lifestyle is something that I want to work towards following. Naturally that will be a journey, but considering my less than a year vegetarian transformation, it should go by shorter than I believe possible!
Wow,what a great question. I have so,so much to write but I will make this brief. I have been a veg./vegan for many years. I gave up all meat at the end of 1988 and have not had any fast food since then.(at first I was happy about that now so,so relieved!) During that time I have had some encounters with meat(bad boyfriend),fastfood(for me meaning a pizza) and some cheese. It has been an interesting path,for me I said I gave up meat for health in 1988(to make it easier with me dealing with family and such) but the truth is much deeper,I looked inside after all this time -I cannot look into ANY animals eyes and know I would be eating them.This is personal,I do not want to put my thoughts into anyone. My boyfriend now eats meat(working on that)some of my close friends do too. I guess my point is,I believe very much that factory farming,hurting animals and just plain cruelty and ignorance is a huge problem. I believe in a pure diet,love raw eating but I def. prefer not hurting things at all.So I hope hopefully everyone here can reach one person and really make a difference.
I know everyone is going raw at a different pace,I know after all this time and I certainly do not eat everything perfectly raw…that this is ,even if you just add pure foods,this is a wonderful way to live. sorry If I said too much.
I got into fasting initially, and I just started realizing the truth about meat and cheese and how they impact my body and mind as a whole. Sensitized through juice and water fasting, I began to see that only raw vegan foods felt “good” in my body. Only plant foods. It just seemed natural to go this way.
It was later in my transition that I started feeling really empathetic to the poor creatures in the meat and dairy industry.
Hi everyone, it’s so funny that this topic was posted yesterday because I just started reading “The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter” I’m only about 1/3 of the way through but it truly is such an amazing book. I eat a mostly animal and animal product free diet, with the exception of occassional wild fish and raw cheese, and have truly been searching for what could make me have the physical and spiritual A-HA! moment and I think this book is it! When I get home today I’ll post an exerpt from the book, I highly recommend it to you all and anyone you know who is searching for that extra knowledge and articulation as I am. :)
It is amazing how quickly dairy and meat become gross after you go vegan. Since I have been raw it is even more extreme, when I see people eating and cooking meat it really upsets me! It feels like cannabalism. I saw someone cutting up a pigs head and I had tears in my eyes, SAD eaters would pass me a straightjacket at this point, but I know you guys understand :)