Vegan Forum

Let's everybody write their story here.
How did you become vegan/ vegetarian?
And why are you still vegan/vegetarian at the moment?

I wanna hear your story Andy!

xDDx

Jesus!!! i don't remember well.. I was 11 when i started.. to be more precise stopped eating meat.
Had to fight everybody around, to let me eat what I want! I was very lucky that my brother Sergio became veg 2 months after I did. together we could fight my parents easier..

So how did I do it. Well it was that period of my life
when people usually ask a lot of questions like what is the sense of life, what is good and what is bad etc. I went through Bible, then through some Buddhist books, then some Dao so I got different ideas and answers to these err.. question..
Also I was practicing martial arts.. it happened so that I was going to Kung-Fu classes with guys much older then I was. And there were a couple of them visiting a Krishna temple and preaching about Krishna a lot. So thus happened the introduction to vegetarianism i.e. I found out that it is possible to
not eat meat and be healthy and what is not the least important strong. Cause the strongest guys from our club were vegetarians.

So how exactly did I stop?
Well... I was eating meat that day, probably wasn't too hungry so I was playing in my plate with it. Looking at my food very carefully. Then at one moment I started noticing all these veins, the bones, muscle tissues the skin. And I thought: Shit!!! This is very similar to what I consist of.. How can I eat it? I wouldn't like to be eaten like this, so why do I do the same to others... There were a lot of other thoughts about this but since then I stopped eating meat...
That's my story.
The End.

Cool story, thanks Andy!

Do you still practice martial arts?

I practice Jiu Jitsu - used to kickbox but had to "retire" because of a severe elbow injury (dislocation).

xDDx

Wow!!! No way! Do You practice Ju-jutsu!!?
Wow! amazing!
I started to practice jiu-jitsu last spring it's almost one year.. And I just love it.
Here is a Ju-jutsu website I made for our Association:

I've always wanted to do martial arts but never had the guts to take a class.

anyways... I was 11 too when I became veggie. I remember I was in the car with my mum, dad and sister on vacation in France. We were on the motorway and this huge lorry went past with hundreds of chickens in small cages, I asked my mum why there were so many chickens in the back of the lorry and she just smiled and said that they were probably going to the slaughter house to be killed for meat. That's when it kind of hit me that i'd never really comprehended the meaning of 'meat', I was really mad at myself for never questioning it before, and thats how I became veggie, it wasn't until 2 years later that I learnt about the horrific conditions and the suffering the animals go through, so that didn't really have anything to do with my decision to go veggie, but it is the main reason i still am veggie.

It's kind of scary really that the only reason I know about the conditions of livestock is because I AM vegetarian, it doesnt really leave much hope for the people out there that arn't vegetarian, they may never know about how animals are treated before they reach their plates. I had a friend that was cooking a chicken dish for her mum on mothers day, she rang me up to ask how to cook chicken as she hadn't seen it raw before, she just presumed chicken was white before you cooked it, she wasn't sure she'd bought the right thing. Shocking!

Indeed it's shocking.

I've always wanted to do martial arts but never had the guts to take a class.

What stopped you?

AndyBa wrote:Wow!!! No way! Do You practice Ju-jutsu!!?
Wow! amazing!
I started to practice jiu-jitsu last spring it's almost one year.. And I just love it.
Here is a Ju-jutsu website I made for our Association:
http://jujutsu-md.org/english/index.htm

Hey Andy!

It's almost a year for me too! <<== although i was on the sidelines for 6mths with 3 ruptured ankle ligaments A badly delivered O-soto-gari took me out good and proper!

Love the site - the graphics are brilliant!

I love jitsu though ... there's nothing like paying to be thrown around like a ragdoll! I must be a masochist

xDDx

No you've got to be a sado-masochist to like jitsu.

although i was on the sidelines for 6mths with 3 ruptured ankle ligaments. A badly delivered O-soto-gari took me out good and proper!

Yeah.. it happens. I'm quite lucky though, I only got my elbow stretched once.. had to heal it for several months.. But I love jitsu, it's like magic sometimes.

Why I'm vegan
(Well, I'm lapsed - it's quite a struggle convincing those around me that I'm not crazy - trying to get back into it because I feel greasy and horrible...)
Had a lifetime of weight problems, joint pain, lethargy, etc. This reached a crescendo in my final year of university, when I was obese, plagued with tension headaches and sickness, had an immune system that let every bug known to man through, and my skin broke out horribly. I was regularly told by medical staff and family / friends that I was suffering "stress" or just a hypochondriac. Noone could understand why I was so fat and ill when I always exercise and watch what I eat. Eventually I read a little about lactose intolerance, and figured it may be the problem. One day I surfed the net for dairy-free recipes and hit the vegan website. Lost two stone that summer and hardly get headaches any more!

Hey, BigBecka!
Welcome to the forums!

So you have become vegan for health reasons?
Nice start!
For how long have you been vegan?

Hi Andy,
Thanks for the welcolme, it's been really good to read everyone's stories on here, I was starting to feel rather alone in the world!

I've been vegetarian and on/off vegan for about two and a half years. Though my Dad's been vegetarian for years (and makes the best vegetarian italian food when let loose in the kitchen), so I was used to the idea of not eating meat. (My mother's as vehemently carnivorous as he is vegetarian, so I was bought up on meat and dairy).

It seems you've been vegan for some time? As a town-dweller, it's kind of scary to see everyone's ethical reasons for being vegan - I consider myself fairly intelligent, but I'd never really questioned where milk came from

BigBecka wrote:it's quite a struggle convincing those around me that I'm not crazy

Do you think it's easier to convince everyone else that they are crazy?

Yep, I've long thought it's everyone else who's crazy! I'll try that one

You know, at some point somebody thought, I'm going to take my cow's milk, leave it in a bucket to go mouldy, wrap it up in muslin and leave it to go mouldy some more, then call it cheese and eat it. Weird thought...

Heh, this is just a dirty trick called positive thinking

*laughs* I was 11 when I became a vegetarian, too. What an interesting age...

I had never really connected the word meat with animals. 'Chicken' I understood, but words like 'pork' and 'beef' I did not. I couldn't connect ANY food that I ate with a living, breathing, feeling animal.

I was driving back home with my Dad from somewhere and he stopped at a light, and I peered out the window. Of course, what met my eyes was a..a...beaver or...duck...or some mangled roadkill on the side of the road. It's insides were everywhere. When we got home my Dad offered me leftover steak and it looked exactly like the roadkill, which got me thinking.

So I looked up some stuff online...about slaughterhouses and everything....and watched some videos....and I knew right away that I just HAD to be a vegetarian. It was right around Christmas time so I requested books on vegetarianism, and my Mom got the idea.

How I stopped eating meat? Easy. I 'just didn't.' Well, it was harder to imagine myself eating meat than it was to stop.

hm..
It's quite amazing that already 3 users wrote that they became veg*ans when they were 11.

It is interesting... I know what you mean about not connecting meat to animals. We were taught a very idealised version of farming in school (Daisy the happy cow, in a straw hat, has to be milked every day or she'll get ill. The sheep cavort around happily). The concept of slaughter and meat was neatly avoided until we were older, and the technicalities of dairy were never brought up at all.

BigBecka wrote:We were taught a very idealised version of farming in school (Daisy the happy cow, in a straw hat, has to be milked every day or she'll get ill. The sheep cavort around happily). The concept of slaughter and meat was neatly avoided until we were older, and the technicalities of dairy were never brought up at all.

Is there a legal way to educate children about this? From this post it's obvious that children are more open to expressing compasion to animals and to become vegans.

Is there a legal way to educate children about this?

There is... cartoons like the one below is a way:

AndyBa wrote:

Is there a legal way to educate children about this?

There is... cartoons like the one below is a way:

This would make a great educational video for children. The part about humans not having nocturnal vision cracked me up because it reminded me of last night when I went into the living room and all of the lights were turned off and I was searching for any lamp that I could possibly find. I was stumbling around like I was drunk and trying to feel where I was at. It wasn't a fun experience, to say the least .

Well... human sight can accommodate to darkness but not enough for hunting in the dark.

This is really scary....

Farming Mysteries
Thousands of British children think that cows lay eggs. Many others think that bacon comes from sheep.
A poll of a thousand children aged between 8 and 15 by Dairy Farmers of Britain found that only 3% of urban children knew that beefburgers came from cows, compared with 8% of children in rural areas.
However, all the children knew that milk came from cows.
Young people's ignorance of food and farming is being addressed by ministers, who plan to send every school child on a farm visit this year.

The Times, Wednesday 28th February, www.timesonline.co.uk

While all the children knew that milk came from cows, I wonder how many people knew it came from female cows who had given birth? A popular cheese advert for children at the moment depicts cows with male voices shooting processed cheese through 'Ghost Busters' style guns...

Hm.. Over here I'm pretty sure that children know where the meat comes from... At least I knew when I was a kid
But from the other hand, I became vegetarian when I was 11.. so may be they don't know.. shit!

BigBecka wrote:While all the children knew that milk came from cows, I wonder how many people knew it came from female cows who had given birth?

Becky are you sure about this? Because I'm not.

Becky are you sure about this? Because I'm not.

No, that was just my own thought But I didn't know about the the link between milk and birth until I was an older teenager. I feel a bit stupid admitting it, but a lot of British families still don't like their children knowing much about reproduction until they're considered old enough. When I was a kid, I just thought cows produced milk constantly, because that was what cows do!

I didn't become Vegan until I was 24. I had never heard of such a thing.

I found out that my spiritual advisors and other valued teachers in my life were Vegan. When I found out what Vegan meant I became one.




This seems to be the Martial Artists thread too. Sensei was Vegetarian.
I practice a style of Karate called Uechi-Ryu.

This seems to be the Martial Artists thread too. Sensei was Vegetarian.
I practice a style of Karate called Uechi-Ryu.

That sounds really interesting - does karate promote vegetarianism? I'm a humble kickboxer, but my sensei wants me to become a martial artist in my attitude, be less lazy, live a little better: I'm not really sure what he means...

I found out that my spiritual advisors and other valued teachers in my life were Vegan

Sounds like you've been on quite a journey! What sort of spiritual advidsors?

BigBecka wrote:

This seems to be the Martial Artists thread too. Sensei was Vegetarian.
I practice a style of Karate called Uechi-Ryu.

That sounds really interesting - does karate promote vegetarianism? I'm a humble kickboxer, but my sensei wants me to become a martial artist in my attitude, be less lazy, live a little better: I'm not really sure what he means...

I found out that my spiritual advisors and other valued teachers in my life were Vegan

Sounds like you've been on quite a journey! What sort of spiritual advidsors?

I don't think "karate" promotes vegetarianism. There are a lot of seniors and peirs in my association who are hardcore meat-eaters, heavy drinkers, and occasionally drug users.

Those that practice karate as a "do" (a way of life "karate-do") are more apt, in my experience, to become vegetarian. I see it already in my students. Sensei's Vegan, we want to be Vegan too.

Those that practice karate just as a "jutsu" (an art or combat system), in my experience, seek nothing more. They don't see the martial art as a medium for philosophy or mental and spiritual empowerment.

This of course is just a generalization, and one way is not better than the other. And it is possible, and in my experience the majority (and in my opinion a necessity), to practice karate as both a "do" and a "jutsu".

Not all Sensei's can teach a "do". You have to be living the "do" before you can teach it. Perhaps your Sensei is trying to open your eyes to the possibility that his art is a little more than just a bunch of random kicks, punches, and blocks. If so, be very grateful for your Sensei, he was a good find.

Anyways. ..

The most influential advisor was my Trancendental Meditation teacher. Her character was flawless and powerful. She lived what she preached and set out a path for me that has lead to great happiness.

Thanks I know Sensei used to do full contact Karate before he started Kickboxing... I will read around the subject a little more

I just found this thread - it's really good. I ate meat throughout my life until about eight years ago. I had always had a sense of unease particularly after seeing a TV documentary which told the story of how animals are really treated before and during slaughter.

That unease grew the more I delved into the subject until I realised I had to take a stand on a point of principle. I've been vegetarian ever since and am now thinking about making the move to veganism.