I was a vegetarian from birth to age 8. My parents started eating meat at that time, so I did too.
After reading a lot of posts here about people struggling to not cheat after deciding to go vegetarian, I feel like a bit of an anomaly in that my reason for going vegetarian was that meat, fish and poultry seriously gross me out. For the past few years I had been watching loads of food documentaries and reading tons of articles... It was Thanksgiving (Canadian date) in 2007, and after the traditional turkey dinner (none of my family is vegetarian) I decided that was the final straw. I could no longer eat meat. I never cheated or even considered cheating... it wasn't about that. I felt repulsed by meat and what the food industry was doing to animals.
Then in March 2010 I had a miscarriage at 11 weeks. I hemorrhaged heavily and had to go have emergency surgery. For months after I was weak and anemic... I just couldn't get my strength back. I finally made the difficult decision to go on a low carb/high protein diet to rebuild my blood and lose weight (at 280 lbs) so reluctantly started eating meat again. I still hated meat, but I forced myself to eat it "for my own good"(my compromise was that it had to be organic, local, free range, ethically raised, etc...). I initially lost 45 lbs, but slowly regained it all (I have PCOS and it's next to impossible to keep weight off). I still experienced repulsion eating meat, but pushed that aside because everyone told me it was "for my own good". During those four years I struggled with digestive issues, massive allergy attacks, and irregular bowel movements (alternating between constipation & diarrhea). If this was "good", I didn't want it.
Last month an old injury in my SI Joint flared up causing excruciatingly painful muscle spasms in my lower back/hip, and then I developed a bacterial ear infection that took three rounds of antibiotics to heal. After my 8th or 9th doctor's appointment (seriously!), I told my doctor I was going back to eating vegetarian and he fully supported my decision. All this inflammation in my body was not a coincidence. I invested in a good herbal iron/B12 supplement and on November 7th cut out all meat, poultry and fish again.
It's been just over 2 weeks and I've stopped gaining weight. My weight has stayed exactly the same since I stopped eating meat. I have 2-3 easy to pass large bowel movements every single day (what a relief!!). I feel more energetic and the constant lethargy and brain fog has lifted. My SI Joint is not 100% yet, but it's getting there...
I'd like to hear about other's journey's to becoming vegetarian. I feel quite alone sometimes as I'm the only vegetarian in my family/friend group.
I love to tell the story of my transition to vegetarianism. It's short and sweet. I'm a massage therapist and I decided I wanted to branch out, and my coworker was offering a reiki course, so I decided to take it. (Reiki is energy healing) At the end of the class is an initiation into the first degree, with chanting and energy channeling, and the teacher said that we will experience a major change in our lives, sometime in the next week. Two or three days later I picked up some chicken wings on the way home, got home and scarfed them down. I looked at the bowl full of bones and had the sudden realization...This. Is. WRONG! From that moment on I never touched meat again. That was almost 4 years ago, and I credit it all to her.
I gave up animal products for Lent in 2004. After I started getting pretty comfortable with how to feed myself (about a week or 2 in ) I started to learn about how animals were treated on most farms and I was horrified. The trying-not-to-support-factory-farms lifestyle has stuck, the Christianity not so much.
Lets see, I have had an interest in vegetarianism from the time I was a teen.
I enjoy vegetarian food much more than meat, but I didnt want to be seen as fussy or difficult. I come from a dysfunctional/abusive home, so I didnt exactly want to make any waves.
Plus I am a poor person without a college education, and I thought vegetarianism was probably a rich, white person thing. How could I possibly combine proteins properly? I'd (most likely) end up malnourished/sick.
So vegetarianism went on the back burner, as one of those things I'd like to do someday.
My husband and I had a kid, and he is on the autistic spectrum. He is unable to eat meat because of the smell/texture. So He hasnt eaten meat since birth. (refuses, chokes, gags...etc) and seeing him growing healthfully without it, on a limited diet, made me think maybe being a vegetarian isnt so hard after all.
I got some books on nutrition from the library, and learned some basics from the local WIC clinic. I started limiting meat to only white meat one meal a day, then once every other day, then once a week, then no meat at all.
By the time I cut out meat all together, I had a repetiore of vegetarian meals I could make, and had learned how to order vegetarian meals in restaurants/fast food places.
I take a multivitamin with D and Iron everyday, and a B complex vitamin. I track my food online on myfitnesspal, and I know I get enough protien.
I tried to be a vegetarian as a very young child but of course my family quickly stomped that attempt out. At the age of about thirteen I became a flexitarian (oh how messed up that was) but I decided to become vegan on my fourteenth birthday, I fell of the wagon once for a short time since then but now I can't even imagine eating meat, eggs or dairy. Ick. I've watched "Meet your meat", "Earthlings" and a documentary on ALF since then and it made me really think about things I already knew, I view other differently now. I wish people were willing to open their eyes to the truth.
My story of transition is actually right here on the forum, considering these fine people helped me get the courage to go all out. I was raised in a very "steak and potatoes" family in that at least twice a week that is literally what dinner consisted of. I struggled with weight my whole life and when I moved out finally at 18 I decided I wanted to learn how to cook.
A set of people that I refer to as my "adopted family" sent me a pamphlet called "More Month Than Money" (and yes, that is Month not Months), and one of the suggestions in it was to set up a food schedule including one night a week of fish and one night a week vegetarian. Curious about vegetarian food I started doing research and came across Meatless Mondays. I tried out a bunch of recipes from the site and gobbled up pamphlets, eventually deciding to eat vegetarian 4-5 times a week and only reserve a small amount of meat for weekends.
My partner at the time was abusive and when we broke up and I lived on my own and didn't have to worry about him, I decided to forgo red meat and chicken altogether and eat fish once a week if that and vegetarian the rest of the week. I was fortunate enough to learn a ton about Chinese cooking from a stay there, so I picked up some more books on the art of Chinese vegetarian cooking and went to work. When my husband and I got together he couldn't imagine life without meat, so it bled back into my life 3-4 times a week.
I started gaining quite a bit of the weight I lost having given it up and had a talk with him, getting him to agree to become pescetarian again with me. During our trip out to Leavenworth in March he got very sick on meat when he "cheated" and got himself some beef, and I took that time to talk to the board about my frustrations with him and rack up the courage to show him Earthlings. By the time the video was done he wanted to kill every human being on Earth and never thought of touching meat again. We finished out the trip with veggie dogs, breakfast entrees (sans the sausage and bacon), veggie pizza and butternut squash stuffed ravioli despite being in a Bavarian town surrounded by sausage and beer. Since then I've lost almost 60 lbs and feel healthier. And Steve?
Well, he challenged me to make veg versions of all of his favorites and I even managed to teach him to enjoy mushrooms, asparagus, steamed broccoli, kale, collards, and tofu. All because of a chance encounter in Leavenworth. To be fair, I think our transition went so smoothly because I'd been actively learning how to cook and eat vegetarian food for almost 5 years before I let go of meat for good. I can certainly say I don't miss it.
My friend and I are currently doing an online blog debate as a result of this post. As of right now I am fairly outnumbered on Facebook and in blog comments. I think I'm holding my own, but if anyone wants to jump in and add support, they'd be welcome. Thanks!
I started thinking about it when I was very little. It seemed really cruel that we talk about caring about humans but animals are killed without any afterthought.
I didn't know what to do (never heard of vegetarianism) then suddenly in school teacher asked about what people eat and there was one lone vegetarian.
After that I knew what I was going to do.
Till recently my consciousness ignored dairy and eggs. But I knew it was wrong at the back of my mind. Finally took the plunge to veganism early this year.
My father was a fitness instructor who was often invited to seminars and workshops in big hotels out of state, so he would bring my mom and I along and they would let me wander around by myself. There were cooking classes, information tables, yoga classes, that sort of thing. When I was nine years old I saw an information table about animal rights, including videos of slaughter houses and animal testing. It really upset me, since I'd always loved animals. We had a pet cat and parakeet at home. I told my parents that I didn't want to eat meat anymore, and from that day on I never did.
Vegetarian since birth courtesy - parents who are vegetarians. I can say I was born into a family of vegetarians. So, I never had to make the struggle to make a transition. I genuinely appreciate people who are born into families who are meat eaters- and who went through the moral/ethical/spiritual process to transition to vegetarianism.
I've had challenges when I was a teenager and later when I found that most of my friends happen to be meat eaters - but those only proved to be feeble challenges which I could quickly quell and never shook the foundation of my life long determination to be a vegetarian. I am pretty sure I will die never eating any kind of meat and I am happy about it.
i was always queasy about meat once i learned where it came from, but my dad, who was a physician, said i would get sick without it. so i ate the minimum--fish twice a week. just enough so that i thought i would not get sick.
when i was in my 20s, my dad and sister came to my place for thanksgiving. i had cooked a turkey and pork sausage. my sister refused to eat it. i laughed at her but secretly felt guilty. she was now a physician. she said it was ok, my dad said it wasn't ok. who was right?
so i went to the public library to find the truth and what i learned incensed me. i would say that john robbins' "diet for a new america" book was most influential. i dropped meat that millisecond. when i thought of all the time and bodies that i had wasted in the name of "health" i just cried and cried.
that was about 30 years ago.
it took me a lot longer to drop cheese, i am sorry to say.
I watched "Earthlings"... or at least the first 27 minutes of it which was all I could manage through the tears and the gagging.
Long Story:
Our oldest son converted to Buddhism while he was living away from home and moved back in a couple of months ago. His room and board payment includes me cooking dinner for him a certain number of nights a week. Over time I found myself eating meat less and less as it was just too much trouble to cook extra meals although I'd still throw some chicken in the oven for the other omnis in the house if they wanted it. Then I watched Earthlings and ....*POOF*...instant vegetarian.
I am struggling with the vegetarian/vegan decision and am finding the fine line for myself. As it sits right now I am as dairy-free as I can reasonably manage and I only eat eggs at home.
The eggs we cook at home come from a friend who has 25 free-range chickens on her small family farm. They go outside every day to roam the property, their waste helps the garden grow and when they stop laying they get to live out the rest of their natural lives with the rest of their flock. That's as close to perfect as I can imagine.
Dairy is another story. I have visited a few of the local dairy co-op operations and the cows have lots of space, they get to go outside and we don't allow growth hormones in Canada. On the other hand, there is no getting around the fact that their babies are taken away within 24 hours of birth and auctioned off. So I am limiting dairy as much as possible.
The other reason I am not fully vegan is that I am also gluten-free and that is a hard combination. Eating out as a Vegan is possible, eating out GF is possible ... ever tried eating out as a GF vegan? It's hard!
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