This might make no sense what-so-ever, but sometimes I'm having a hard time connecting the reasons I have for heading toward a vegan lifestyle with making better choices. I've made plenty of positive changes over the last few months, but I have been in no way "perfect". Which is okay for now. I'm not the type that decides one day to wake up and practice a perfect way of eating. I've failed many diets by doing that. I'm not looking at this as a diet, it is a lifestyle change. I'm not becoming vegan/vegetarian to lose weight (that is why I started looking into it, but the research I found made me more serious about it).
So here is my problem: sometimes, for whatever reason, I can't talk myself out of eating an animal product. "Oh, what's a little cheese?" My reasons include ethical and health reasons. Ethical - horrid conditions for the animals and all that. Health - the crap we get from any animal product (hormones, antibiotics, etc.) isn't good, obviously. I know in my head (and I guess heart) that i want to avoid these things, but sometimes that isn't enough.
How did you get where you are? Was it difficult? Did you have that constant loop through your head "I don't know if I can never eat ____ again."
Yesterday I had a dream where I spent an hour in a convenience store and loaded up on a bunch of processed animal product crap (cheese was a big theme). I woke up craving it all. I was able to calm down from it all and had a wonderful vegan dinner, so I was okay. I feel like I can't classify myself as vegan because I cave in here and there. Maybe I'm overthinking this and should focus on the positive changes I've made.
Any thoughts/suggestions would be much appreciated.
For me visiting Farm Sanctuary did it. When I left there, I knew I didn't want to exploit the animals anymore. I had been vegetarian for years and was by that time consuming very little dairy. Mostly small ingredients in prepared foods or non vegan soy cheeses etc. The transition was easy for me from there.
If you are genuinely serious, you may want to research into the abuses of the meat and dairy industry.
There really isn't anything you ate before that can't be vegan-ized. That has been my experience. I'm not deprived of anything. I'm also not a fussy eater and never have been.
I find being vegan easy. A bit inconvenient at times but easy.
First off, you definitely need to give yourself a pat on the back for coming as far as you have. Most people obstinately refuse to even consider vegetarianism, let alone veganism.
I don't really crave meat products anymore (it's been almost two years, and it's just way too easy to not eat them!), but I hear you with the dairy. I don't really classify myself as a full vegan anymore (I was for five months, but it was so hard at school with a dining plan that never offered anything), but I'm working towards being as vegan as possible, and hope to be a full vegan again in the future.
I try to remind myself of the animals that are suffering for a moment of pleasure for my taste buds. I remind myself how many delicious things are vegan (Oreos, when I'm not dieting!). And finally, I remind myself that I don't want to be a fattie anymore! When I was a full-blown vegan, no matter how many Oreos I ate, I was NEVER over 140. Sounds like a good deal to me!
Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely check out the Farm Sanctuary website (when I'm not at work).
NC - does that book go into not needing eggs/dairy? I feel pretty confident about not wanting meat. I'm on day 15 and it hasn't been difficult for me.
Veg - I'm pretty confident about being able to veganize things. I just get in this negative "oh my gosh, I'll never be able to get _____ at this favorite restaurant again!" roll and I can't get out of it.
Maybe it's because if you think of eating animal products as unethical, then that means that you've been doing this unethical thing all your life, and no one wants to think of their personal identity thus far as someone who commits unethical acts? That would mess with your head a certain amount. And so if it was acceptable for you do to it before, it's still acceptable, not to mention that many of your friends and loved ones are still doing this, and you don't want to think of them as doing something unethical either, and therefore the odd bit of cheese seems OK. (My solution regarding other people: don't think about it. You can't get them to stop eating animal products, and hassling them about it will just upset both of you, so stay off the subject and use separate frying pans when necessary.) I've been vegan long enough that I find it just plain odd that other people eat animal products, but hey, that's how the world works, and I know lots of lovely, thoroughly ethical people who eat meat, including my partner. There's a certain level of cognitive dissonance you have to get used to. Don't fret about whether you're allowed to classify yourself as vegan, by the way, just think of it as a work in progress. You're doing fine.
On the practical level, some good, sexy vegan cookbooks are always a great help, especially once you get to the point where you're happily planning vegan dinner parties. I've been making fabulous vegan meals for over fourteen years and everyone always loves my cooking.
I'm not 100% perfect, either. Don't sweat it - we're all works in progress, no matter where we are in the process.
I went vegetarian over a year ago and only have just started leaning vegan, and I've got to say that the thing that helped me most was the "gross" factor of the dairy and egg industry. I used to be a milk-drinking FIEND - but I read something somewhere about pus being in milk, and it put me completely off milk (I have a really weird thing about pus - it makes me gag - truly). So, yup - milk's no longer in my fridge.
I have a much harder time with cheese... but something that's helped me a lot with it is looking at the ingredients, some of which contain rennet (byproduct of the veal industry - comes from the lining of calves' stomachs). Again with the "ick" factor. Some cheeses, especially domestic ones, are now made with microbial/vegetable rennet, which is great, but that whole milk thing... hmm. I have found I feel a little bit better about buying cheese that was created by the farm at the ag department at the local university (they treat their cows very well, and you can visit them any time to see their conditions) - and I will probably keep doing that until I can finally get up the chutzpah to quit cheese for good.
Same with eggs. We have a co-op market that gets the eggs from the farm up the road, and they have a beautiful, small (relative to big factory farms) chicken coop that is clean and the birds are well-cared-for and loved. You don't smell horrible things when you drive past or visit. I feel better about buying those eggs while I work on transitioning to vegan.
Making the connection...
