World Vegan Day... My Journey

In 1994, November 1st was established as World Vegan Day.  Because of this, I feel compelled to share my vegan journey. 

I have been vegan for just over a year now. 

When I was little, my mom used to always make homemade hamburgers.  One night, after dinner, I was finishing it up when I asked my mom, mid bite, where hamburgers came from.  Very simply, with no emotion nor explanation, she answered, "A cow."  I was four.

From that point forward, I gave up meat and never wanted it again. This did not go over well with my father, and I used to sit at the dinner table for hours until my mom finally let me off the hook. (Thank you mom!)

When I was 17, I managed a health store and really got into learning more about whole and processed foods, and I decided to change my diet even more. I gave up dairy because I learned it was healthier, and our bodies didn't need it anyway. 

So for nine months I ate nothing but a plant based diet (in other words, I was vegan).  I felt great.  Better than I ever had.  But it was so extremely difficult.  Eggs and milk were in just about everything.  And every day I missed cheese and ice cream.  So... Even knowing how much better I felt, I went back to eating dairy.

I never really had that much dairy in my diet.  I didn't like eggs, and I would only drink soy or almond milk.  But I loved cheese.  Years went by and I couldn't imagine giving it up.  Even when I was pregnant and a friend was showing me the health information surrounding dairy in the diet, I didn't want to hear it. (In retrospect, I thank you now friend, and I'm sorry I didn't want to listen!)  I don't know why I was so closed off to listening.  I just wasn't in the mindset to change my diet...definitely not while I was pregnant.  I considered dairy a form of protein, and I believed my body needed it.

Now, looking back, I realized I just didn't want to give it up.  The health information I read wasn't enough for me.  Why, when I'm so into health, would it not be?  I don't know.  I just believed it wasn't as bad as I was hearing.  So I tuned it out.

Had I known then, what I do now about the dairy industry and the countless animals who suffer at the expense for me to have eaten my ice cream and cheese pizza, I would have given it up in a heart beat.  It's funny, how if animals were not abused, I could justify eating it sparingly because, hey, my diet is still really healthy.  But knowing what I know now, there is no way I will ever support the meat and dairy industries ever again.  And on top of it, I don't even miss it.  Not for a second.

When people say, "Oh, she can't eat that," I silently think to myself, "No, I don't want to eat that."

 

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 Quotes by Great Men
 

"The Gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies; they are the trees and the plants and the seeds."   ~ Plato (482 - 347 C)

"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."    

~ Hippocrates (460 - 370 BC)

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."   

 ~ Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)