Becoming Vegan, Going Vegan Without Sacrificing

The process of becoming vegan is incredibly rewarding... and sometimes challenging. As you change your lifestyle, you will probably begin to feel a lightness of heart and pride in knowing that you are living according to your beliefs and standing for something greater than yourself alone.

But I remember being a new vegan and feeling that just when I understood one concept about veganism and the food industry; an entirely new and related subject would arise. It was like the kid's story of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

For example, when reading about pesticides in our food supply, I learned about genetically modified foods. That brought me down an entirely new path with a new list of brands and types of foods to avoid in the store.

Maybe you've just decided to stop eating factory farmed eggs, and as you begin to research cage-free and free-range eggs, you find out that neither term really means the chicken is living a better life. And all of a sudden, before you realize it, you've decided to stop eating eggs entirely.

Try not to get overwhelmed at all the new information, and just absorb and decide what works best for you. Every person has to decide for herself where she'll draw the line with what she wants to support.

Some people settle for ensuring they're not eating animals, and others want to be positive nothing they eat was ever in a facility that shares machines with animal products. Either way, it's up to you and you alone have to approve of your choice.

It's crucial not to be incredibly hard on yourself as you become vegan. In many cases you're completely uprooting everything you thought you knew about food and you are teaching your body all over again. If you make a mistake, there are no vegan police who will come after you. The only judgment of your actions that really matters is your own.

If you feel a craving for an old favorite food, relax, think about why you really want that food, and if you decide you must have it, slowly try just a small amount and see how it makes you feel. When you're first becoming vegan, it's often better to give yourself a reminder of what you're not really missing rather than completely depriving yourself.

Never forget that becoming vegan doesn't mean you are now forced to eat the same peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or hummus-on-bagel-with-sprouts every day for the rest of your life. Embrace the colors and flavors of a well-balanced vegan lifestyle and enjoy every minute as your taste buds realize how much more there is to food than meat and cheese. And, if you can, try to learn to cook. Or at least learn to cut up and prepare fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans.

I often have people ask me why I decided to go to the "extreme" of being a vegan vs vegetarian, and for me the answer is simple; for all the reasons I wanted to be a vegetarian, I had to be a vegan. I loved animals, and being a vegetarian doesn't prevent animal abuse. I wanted to be healthy, and a well-balanced vegan diet is the healthiest diet. I want to protect the environment, and the egg and dairy industry creates environmental hazards.

Many people go vegan after they learn about standard practices on factory farms. From a young age, we're taught a double standard about animals. Our parents read us books about Old Mac Donald's farm and all the sounds animals make, but then we start eating solid food and we're told to eat chicken, fish, and cows. We're taught to love all beings, but then we're forced to eat meat "because it has good protein." For many, all it takes is a little knowledge about what happens on real farms, and then they go vegan.

We're certainly never taught about what really happens to those chickens and salmon on the factory farms where they're raised for food. In fact, most of our parents and teachers don't know about those amazing cruelties. I feel confident that if most people knew what happened to animals on animal agriculture farms, they would be vegetarians.

Other times, people become aware of veganism through education about some of the serious environmental consequences of the animal industry. More greenhouse gases are produced by animals raised for food than all of the transportation industry combined. So, for a real environmentalist, it doesn't do enough to simply give up SUVs and incandescent light bulbs.

Along with the travesties to the environment, people suffer from animal agriculture as well. Small family farmers are being pushed out of business by large corporate monopolies. I highly recommend supporting local farms at farmers' markets, CSAs, and pick-your-own establishments.

Millions are going hungry while simultaneously agreeing to clear-cut their food-rich forests to make room for grazing animals that will eventually go to feed wealthy, fat countries. Because the farming industry destroys the environment, severe weather phenomena is increasing and causing land to erode, and floods and tidal waves to destroy entire countries.

Small farmers have been almost completely wiped out, which is another reason many people become vegan. Corporations have taking over farming across most Westernized countries, making it nearly impossible for small farmers to compete with the prices they can offer grocery stores and restaurants.

Some people choose the diet simply for the health benefits of being vegan, perhaps because their doctor recommended it, or because they heard about what it can do for their body. Others start with their personal health in mind, but sustain their vegan diet by learning more about the meat industry's affects on the world around them.

Why Are You a Vegan?

I hear from many people who are on the brink of going vegan, but aren't quite sure if they can make it happen forever. I remember what pushed me over the edge. When I learned what actually happens to dairy cows and egg-laying chickens, I had to give it up.

What pushed you over the edge? Did you hear about one group of animals being so badly abused? Were you raised vegan? Did you decide to start eating healthier to lower cholesterol or lose weight? Are you looking out for the environment or the economy?

Share your story of what made you go and stay vegan to help others along their journey.

Why Did Other People Go Vegan?

I Went Vegan For Many Reasons
I recently decided to go to the "extreme" of being a vegan vs vegetarian, and for me the reason was simple; I love animals, and being a vegetarian doesn'...

I Went Vegan After Salmonella in Peanut Butter Recall
During the peanut butter salmonella recall in early 2009, we all learned to fear the peanuts, and what we need to learn to fear is the factory farm and ...

Lowered Insulin with a Vegan Diet
I am a type 2 diabetic who has become increasingly insulin resistant, despite drastic diets like Atkins and taking large amounts of insulin daily just ...

A Plant-Based Diet Makes Perfect Sense
I watched the documentary Forks Over Knives and I finally got why a plant-based diet makes perfect sense.

I have decided to follow vegan diet, and ...

Vegan After Watching EARTHLINGS
Like many people, I am and always have been an animal lover. I remember growing up always surrounded by animals. About a month ago I watched the film EARTHLINGS....

Cooking for Children With Allergies
I need to start this out by saying that I am not a vegan or a vegetarian. I am a cook for head start and I have several children that have special dietary ...

From Non-vegetarian to Vegetarian
Most people watch sad and cruel videos that have been uploaded on the internet. After "people" view the videos of farm animal cruelty they decide to go ...

I went vegan for a life change
I went vegan after Christmas this year. Actually, I initiated my new diet with a cleanse/detox purification system from my healthfood store. Wow, did ...

Eating Animals Turned Me Vegan
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer turned me vegan.

Eating Animals was life altering for me, to learn how the meat that I grew up on and loved ...

Becoming Vegan For Health
I am in the process of becoming vegan for health and I need help!

I am motivated because I do not like the way my body feels. I am getting older, more ...

Vegan After Reading Slaughterhouse
I went vegan after reading Slaughterhouse

I have to say that I'm a lot like others on this site and became vegan overnight, literally. I had tossed ...

Vegan to Prevent Animal Cruelty
I'm vegan to prevent animal cruelty.

I was feeling unhealthy and yet "too busy" to think about the food I was eating. I started reading and watching ...

I went vegan because I care about the environment
I went vegan because I have always cared for the enviroment. I wanted to become a biologist so I could study animals and our affect on the world around ...

Going Vegan: Taking Control the Only Way I Can
In this world of mass advertising and focus on profits and appearance rather than subtance, I began to feel like a victim. As I read about vaccinations ...

Skinny Bitch Gave Me a Mission
It all started with wanting to lose weight. I had tried so many diets from the Special K Diet, to only white meats, fish, 'diet/fat free', power bars and ...

Veganism Was the Next Step
I decided, completely on my own, that I wanted to be a vegetarian when I was 5 years old. Now I am almost 16, and have recently been learning more in depth ...

Veganism reverses inflammation
Veganism reverses inflammation

Besides seeing all the videos about the treatment of animals on factory farms and all the reports about the huge increase ...

Became Vegan Overnight
I Became Vegan Overnight

I thought I had been a healthy eater for many years by eating a low fat, high protein diet with fruits and vegetables. When ...

Eating Anything With a Heartbeat Contributes to Illness
I became vegan after seeing what factory farms do to animals and the feed these animals get actually causes them to be fatter. The antibiotics and medications ...

I Got a Pamplet on Animal Cruelty
I was walking in downtown Chicago with a few friends when I saw a group of people handing out what seemed to be just some random paper. I wasn't going ...

Vegan to Prevent Diabetes
These two readers went vegan to prevent diabetes, and to cure themselves. In both cases they were able to reduce or remove their insulin shots with a vegan diet.

Becoming Vegan Was No Big Change
Becoming vegan was no big change. Prior to becoming vegan I should note that I took care of my body as best as I could, watching very carefully for cholesterol,...

Elderly Becoming Vegan
Question: How do I get started as a vegan and at 61 years old, am I too old?

Answer:
I definitely don't think you're too old to become vegan. At ...

Vegan Diet Weight Loss
Vegan Diet Weight Loss

I've lost 210 pounds on a vegan diet.

In 2005, I was a 40-year old 380 pound woman dealing with a terminal illness, however,...

Shocking Connection Between Animal and Plate Not rated yet
I stopped eating animals quite unexpectedly. I was watching a favorite TV program, The Fabulous Beekman Boys , on the Green Channel.

Two New Yorkers ...

Honor The Earth With Diet Not rated yet
The first time I heard someone talking about being a "raw vegan" I was immediately drawn in even though I had never heard of it before and wasn't even ...

Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet Not rated yet
Cancer, including mesothelioma*, can affect every area of an individual’s life. One important area to address with cancer is nutrition. A vegan diet, also ...

TV Program on Cruelty to Animals Not rated yet
Recent footage on ABC TV (Australia) of the incredible, inhumane cruelty to cattle in Indonesia and then sheep (I think in Turkey) made me furious, and ...

Vegan After Gallbladder Surgery Not rated yet
I had my gallbladder removed and afterwards my body wasn't able to tolerate meat. I was already lactose intolerant. So I did my research, talked to my ...

Is SiteBuildIt Worth It? Not rated yet
Question:

I don't know how, but my mother stumbled upon your website because I have been telling her how much I don't want to work for anyone anymore ...

Compassionate Vegan Not rated yet
Be a Compassionate Vegan

Most of all, I went vegan because of compassion with and for the non-human beings who are just as good as humans and who ...

Veganism Was An Experiment Not rated yet
My Veganism was an Experiment That Took

I had a trip planned to visit my daughter who had been vegan for a year, so I decided that I would try for the ...

Debeaking of Baby Chicks Turned Me Vegan Not rated yet
In 1985, I worked in a mailroom for a large company. A PETA pamphlet came in the mail and before I sent it to the recipient, I thumbed through it. I ...

I'm Vegan For the Health Benefits Not rated yet
I had been on two medicines for diabetes, two for blood pressure, and one for cholesterol for about 1-1/2 years when I heard about a Nutrition Boot Camp ...

Went vegan with my daughter Not rated yet
I decided- after cutting down and losing 3st over a couple of years- that I didn't miss meat or fish that much so made the decision to go vegan just before ...

We went vegan after a friend died Not rated yet
Several years ago, my husband and I had a good friend of ours die of a heart attack at age 49. (At the time my husband was 51 and I was 47.) We were ...

I was sick and needed a big change Not rated yet
I had a lot of health problems due to my bad diet and lifestyle (lots of alcohol and cigarettes and fast food, etc). Finally, I was stuck in the hospital ...

We are vegan because we love animals Not rated yet
For years I had been undecided on the decision to become vegan. I always had a small idea of what factory farm animals went through since my family is ...

I went vegan to support the environment Not rated yet
Sadly, I do not live a small family on a farm anymore. Since I can no longer verify with my own eyes the ethics of the production and processing of the ...

Animals Deserved Better Not rated yet
I went vegan because I believed that animals deserved better treatment.

...And they still do. I've been vegetarian since I was 19, and I'm 36 now. I ...

Videos on Scientific Benefits of Veganism Not rated yet
I saw a presentation by a man named Dr. Walter Veith, a scientist who has even done his own experiments to corroborate vegan nutritional findings. These ...

Meet Your Meat Not rated yet
Meet Your Meat - The life changing 13 minute documentary

I've always wanted to be vegetarian. I never once considered being vegan because I was naive ...

Vegan for Good Health Not rated yet
Vegan for Good Health

I became a vegan three months ago to balance my hormones and to lose weight. I am not sure how long I will stay a "dietary vegan"...

Started With Health, But Got Motivated Because of Animal Cruelty Not rated yet
I became a vegan in 3 steps:

-I read The China Study and I wanted to be healthy. I wanted my family to be healthy too, but was finding it difficult ...

Veganism Helps My Fibromyalgia Not rated yet
I have learned through much pain and suffering that food can be your worst enemy, especially if it is the wrong food for you. I have been sick with fibromyalgia ...

I learned that free-range and cage-free is a lie Not rated yet
Up until the end of 2009 I was fat, dumb, and happy thinking the organic milk and "cage-free" and "free-range" eggs I was spending a small fortune on, was ...

Animal Abuse on Farms
The reasons why these two readers went vegan revolve around animal abuse on farms and the needless slaughter and torture of animals.

Learning to Love Becoming Vegan

Why Are You a Vegan?

Why Did Other People Go Vegan?

New! Comments