Introductions - Why Vegetarian?

[Chris Tinney]

How fun! Welcome.

Just thought I'd say hi and introduce myself.
Im the founder of VegHaven :)
This is me :)~

I'm traveling for the next year on The Peace Tour..

I'm Vegan for for both health and ethical reasons.
My intention in starting VegHaven was to create a Social Network that makes a difference!

Thanks for coming and please jump in and tell us about yourself :)

What made you become Vegetarian?

How did you find your way here?

We can't wait to learn more about you!

Namaste,
Chris

[Alan]

I went from omni to vegan literally overnight about six years ago.

I'm honestly not really sure what sparked my interest in it originally, most likely a combination of influences. Regardless , one night I got to thinking about veganism, did some research online, and it was the first time I really put any thought into the subject. I decided then and there that I'd go vegan for a month before I told anyone, just so I didn't feel the awkwardness of "How long have you been vegan?" "Oh, about six hours now" haha. Honestly, at the time, I figured at the end of the month I'd have a huge meat-meal or something and it would be a short-lived experiment, but if nothing else the idea of testing my self-restraint for a month and experimenting with some new food choices seemed worthwhile.

I'm pretty sure about an hour into my "experiment" I was already sold. There was just no reason to continue eating meat, I couldn't ethically justify it, and I didn't see that changing ever. There was no real "transition" moreso just "Okay, I'm vegan, now what?"

Oddly enough, within the first few weeks of going vegan, there were a ton of positive influences on me. I found a copy of Peter Singer's 'Animal Liberation' at a yard sale and read it cover to cover -- I used it as a starting point to seek out more vegan and animal-rights related references and started educating myself. I ended up moving right around that time, and my new roommates (who I had not met at that point) were an ex-vegan and his still vegan partner. I started my piercing apprenticeship right around that time, and three of the four of us working at the shop were vegan and shared many of the same views on animal rights.

What started out as a temporary challenge to myself transformed almost immediately into a permanent lifestyle change. Ever since that first moment that I questioned "Why am I not vegan?" I haven't ever looked back.

[Anita Karenina]

hi Alan,
I am really impressed with your tale. And proud of you. Thank you for being so committed and kind..............

[Against Animal Suffering]

Hi all. My name is Stacey. I am married to my husband Mike whom I met in high school. We currently live near Tampa, FL but will be moving back to our home state of Maryland soon. We have 2 cats, Cotton and Radar. I have been a vegetarian for 10 years for ethical reasons. My husband is a meat eater but I try to educate him about the many reasons you should give up meat but it just hasn't worked yet. I won't give up though.

[Nikki]

My boyfriend is also way too stuck on his meat to want to become vegetarian, even though he knows what the animals are going through. I have really cut his meat eating down though by doing most of the cooking, and I make some mighty yummy meals that he likes as much as I do. I figure until he sees the light, every little bit helps. :)

[stephiblu]

hello. my story goes something like this. i was 15 years old and things just 'clicked' with me. i suddenly realized what i was eating/being fed. my mother was pretty cool about it and had me read a few books on the subject, and a friend's mom gave me a disintegrating copy of 'diet for a small planet' I ate chicken for a little bit as i did research (no internet in the 80's) and was meat free before i finished my research. once my family saw it wasnt a phase ( i remember so many people calling it a phase! ) my mother turned her entire household vegetarian, 4 kids. my younger sister and mother are still veggie today.
i was wanna-be vegan when i met my husband to be who was vegan. i would once in a while eat ice cream and then become violently ill. my new boyfriend laughed at me and told me that my body obviously wanted to be vegan. so the two of us where vegan for years, including an all vegan wedding for 200+ people. then we moved to a tiny little town in italy in the foothills of the alps. i tried and tried at first and there was just nothing available to eat. so i added some cheese and eggs--which were grown locally at tiny little farms, not factory farms. i did not get sick from dairy over in europe only in the states. ( sounds fishy-right?) when i got home a year later and had many food choices readily availalbe again i became a faker vegan. the long version of the story involves a ton of food allergies including wheat, anaphalaxis to lentils, celery, and nuts, sensitivity to perservatives. and 4 major surgeries. i prefer soy cheese to other cheses and would never drink milk--gross. i am very close to 100% organic. i compost. i belong to an organic farm, csa. i cannot wait to grow my own food next spring!

[steVEgan]

Coming from a long line of farming folk, I grew up hearing bizarre tales of how Chickens run round after their heads have been lopped and advice on the best way to snap necks. When I left home in 1980, I remember one day going to the local butcher's and feeling slightly nauseus at the smell of death and blood. I purchased some pig, I believe it was, and took it home to eat. When I got it out of the bag I remember clearly staring at this lump of flesh and having the most intense revelation that this was so very very wrong. I never ate meat again after that day. For the next 3 weeks I ate beans on toast exclusively, because I had absolutely no idea what else there was to eat. I cooked a Sunday dinner and left a space where the meat used to be. I soon found our that I was now called a vegetarian, this helped a lot. I went and bought some vegetarian cookbooks and was pleased to learn that there were others like me! I think it was around 1985 that I picked up a copy of "why you don't need meat" by Peter Cox. That had a big influence on me and I thought it would be cool to spread the word... so I did. Zoom forward a few years and I finally realised that veganism was the only way to live. I'm slightly annoyed with myself that I didn't go the whole way 27 years ago, or even 17 years ago, but I'm 100% vegan now and will be til my very last breath.

[Tracy]

I stopped eating animals over 20 years ago. I grew up next to a farm with a slaughterhouse. As a child, I would go to the fence and pet the cows and even named them. When I realized that my favorite cow, Daisy, was missing, I asked my mom what could have happened to her. She told me the truth. That was the turning point.

[Gish]

Hi everyone,
I am a vegetarian and have been all my life. I grew up in India, and as some of you might know this is a fairly common diet there. So in a way, I didn't have to work as hard as some of you folks (in terms of becoming one as I'm really not tempted by meat). I believe my mom was the reason why I never chose to try meat, and always kept me away from anything to do with meat (easy to do with the number of options in India). Now living in the united states, although the options seem to increase everyday, it still can be a challenge at times finding the variety and balance (as you all know). Of course, being lazy doesn't help my situation (I think I'm a decent cook, but living alone and cooking just for yourself is no fun). For me, when it comes to dating, the fact that someone is a non-meat eater is a huge plus, especially if we end up living together.
Gish

[Elena]

Hi I´m Elena from Mar del Plata, Argentina. I´ve been a vegetarian for over 23 years. I´ve never liked meat and couldn´t bear the suffering of animals, but being a vegetarian seemed unreal to me. I thought you had to be a very special person to become a vegetarian. Then, 24 years ago I met a vegetarian girl and I realized that it was possible. All the same at the beginning it was very difficult for me as most people found it strange and at restaurants it was very hard too. Nowadays, things have changed a lot and most people look at you in admiration and sometimes they even feel smaller and say they eat very little meat and a lot of vegetables, lol.
How did I know about here, you Chris told me about it in Myspace :)))))

[Brett]

Hi, my name is Brett, and I went Vegetarian for health reasons about 2 1/2 years ago. Before that though, my girlfriend (now fiancee) and I had become sickened with our eating habits and decided to lose weight, so we each dropped about 50 lbs all while still eating meat. But we had trouble maintaining. One day we saw a vegetarian family on TV (yeah I know...)and they all looked so vibrant and healthy, so we thought we would give it a try as a means of eating more healthy.

As time went by, we encountered some information about Veganism from Vegan Outreach, and the Vegetarian Starter kit that was in a stand outside or favorite Vegetarian/Vegan resteraunt in chicago, and it got us thinking about Veganism, but didn't know it was feasibly possible. I started reading books like, Fast Food Nation, Animal Liberation, Diet for a new America as well as some internet research, and started learning about the dangers of dairy. It soon became clear to me that eating dairy is not any more safe or humane as eating meat, so I decided to let go of dairy as well. One of the things I had learned about dairy was that can trigger allergies in your immune system. I, being allergic to tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc.) did an experiment and had a few nuts after a few months of being without dairy, and I had no allergic reaction at all! Normally my mouth and throat would burn, and my throat would slowly close up, nothing life threatening, but nontheless annoying.

It was shortly after this that I decided that using non-consumable products made from animals not only supports this dangerous meat and dairy system, but also promotes cruelty as well. So I decided to replace my clothes and toiletries that contained animal products with more ethical choices.

I struggle sometimes using the word Vegan, and usually refer to myself as mostly Vegan only because it is impossible to be 100 percent free of cruelty unless you've done everything from paving the road to building your own home by yourself. And in situations with my family, I may eat something that has mono and di-glycerides, or L-Cystine in it, just to show my family that its not that hard to at least go vegetarian, since for a meat and potatoes family, Veganism seems OCD.

So I consider myself mostly Vegan, since I don't eat or use animal products 99.9% of the time, and my fiancee is Vegetarian. While she believes in the same things as I do, she is a picky eater, and as much as she tried, she can't get herself to drink, soy, almond or rice milks, eat tofu (but she loves seitan!) and dislikes most vegetables. So she is still a meat and potatoes vegetarian despite all the information I have given her, but I if you genuinely can't stand the taste or texture of the food given to you, no matter how much good it does, it's hard to pretend to like it. So we buy from farmers markets for these items as much as possible and really it's the best we can do for now.

[Danielle]

Hi!

I try, I really do! some tofu isn't bad, like the boca-but it's all a texture thing. I'm looking forward to the tofurkey though, with the gravy and vegan pumpkin pie :)

You really are an ispiration though-sometimes I just can't believe what an impact you've had on my life-by helping me to change my diet.

[LaDonna]

My name is LaDonna I am from arkansas. what made me become a vegetarian is a 30 day challenge off of the PETA site. I have always been against killing animals. I remember one time when i was little my mom and dad had gotten a calf and they kept it in this cage. I would go outside everyday and just spend time with it and clean it. and one day I asked my dad what are we gone do with the cow he said " we are gone slaughter it when it gets a little fatter." I started telling him no and crying. I think i cried for weeks. One day I came home from school and the calf wasn't there anymore. I expected the worst and went into the house and just sat at the table. Mom told me "you saved your cow a man came and we told him that you won't let us slaughter your cow, and he told us to let him have it." and that i would never have to worry the cow would never be killed and it had 100 acres to run on.. that made me feel great. I have never really liked meat but i just ate it. but now i feel so much better that i am not. and i found my way here off of myspace. anyways if you would like to know more about me don't be afraid to ask..