Welcome kitten.

Regarding cheese, it used to be one of my most favorite things but I haven't had it in over a year and I don't miss it at all. You can still have bean burritos from taco bell :) I eat cheeseless pizza sometimes and avocado/hummus sandwiches are better than any grilled cheese.

Well, I am a vegan by birth.
Nice to meet you all vegans.

Ohh so jealous foodieUS!!

I'm jealous too, i'd love to be vegan by birth :)

I'm on my way to being vegan. I generally eat vegan food - I don't eat any eggs or dairy directly anymore, but I have food I've already bought before hand which have eggs and/or milk as part of the ingredients, so I'm still eating them purely so the food doesn't go to waste, however from now on I check the ingredients when I buy food. It's a bit of a pain but I've only been shopping once since attempting the change so I'm hoping I'll get more used to it.

Leontina - it gets easier and focuses on whole foods does help some because you really don't have to ask if that bunch of kale has any animal products or that bag of beans.

You can strive for perfection in avoiding the animal products but my advice would be to not beat yourself up. I've bought things before (Trader Joe's veggie italian sausages I'm looking at you), read the label, twice and still somehow missed a hidden ingredient that I didn't want. It happens less and less as time goes on and honestly, it is one reason that I will put an item back if it has too many ingredients in it. Overall, the less ingredients the better, the less processed the ingredients the better but mistakes may happen.

lacto-ovo

I used to be vegan but ventured back to greek yogurt and egg whites

I am a vegetarian by birth...... for some reason never liked the flavor of any meat, milk, or eggs...that said I will eat breads and other items with milk and eggs in it. Its a flavor issue for me...which is awesome cause I dont have the tempation to eat meat I simply just dont like it!!! : )

I'm a flexatarian though am naturally evolving more to pescatarian without so much conscious thought. Though I lean toward vegetarian very easily and may end up there. And I'm not really worried about it one way or the other. I do believe its good to eat lower on the food chain for the most part for environmental reasons.

ovo-lacto, wish I was a vegan- hopefully will be on before I graduate high school (my mom wont let me right now :()

vegan all the way! I couldn`t do it otherwise. I progressively moved from lacto-ovo to vegan, but I`m never going back. Although I`m hardcore, no honey, leather, wool, beeswax, silk, etc. :)

lacto-ovo, altho' I try to eat vegan most of the time.

I'm still a new veggie, so I'm still trying to phase out some stuff. I've cut out meat and eggs (unless they are hidden in one of my foods), but I still eat some dairy. To be honest, I am probably not entirely vegetarian, because I'm still learning to read ingredients and pay attention to what might be in my food-- I have probably eaten some meat flavorings, etc without realizing it.

Hardcore? Not really, just actually truly *vegan*! :carrot: Kudos to you for walking the walk. ;)

I'm and ovo-lacto/pesco vegetarian. I mostly maintain the ovo-lacto-vegetarian lifestyle, but eat fish a couple of times a month (usually when I eat out w/ friends because in a lot of the chain restaurants the only vegetarian choices are pasta or pizza).