New Vegan!

[Delirium76]

Hi everyone :)

I have been vegan for a little over week. Before that I was an omnivore. Though I was worried that I may have some adverse reactions to going right from one end of the spectrum to another, I actually feel heathier than I ever have in my life.

I think the hardest part about becoming vegan has been the comments and "advice" I get from others. Namely meat eaters. I constantly get comments on what I eat, how I eat, how my way of eating is unhealthy and how I'm taking this way too seriously. I even have a vegetarian friend who says I'm 'going to fast.'

How did all of you get through this and what advice do you have on being a new vegan dealing with people who are trying to be 'helpful?'

[Elin]

Oh, that is so hard. People just want to "help". My advice is this; Study a lot of vegan literature, so at least you know that you'll get all the nutrients that you need. Then ansver their questions when you want to or just don't care about their comments. When I became vegan a lot of people made comments and told me that they were worried, but after a few years they just realized that I wasn't going to change my diet back to eating animals and that I was perfectly healthy. Nowadays they come to me to ask for advices on healthy food and nutreints... And I get comments that I look healthy and happy. It'll blow over, just be more educated than them.

And congratulations, you just made a very good choice. Welcome to the vegan family.

[Delirium76]

Thanks for the welcome. :)

I have been educating myself like crazy. It pretty much seems to come with the territory. You find out what you can't eat and in the process, find out what it is exactly and what it does to you.

I had considered myself an educated consumer before turning vegan and now I see that I was way off. It literally amazes me what most people put in thier bodies on a daily basis and don't even think twice about it.

I had one co-worker tell me over lunch that she eats meat and doesn't think about where it comes from. She said that if she did, she probably wouldn't eat it. I said "If you don't want to think about where your food comes from, wouldn't that make you not want to eat it?" She got very quiet and said that I was right. Unfortunately she didn't stop eating the meat she was eating but maybe I planted a seed of thought. ;)

[5xblessed]

Everyone got here by a different route and there is no "right" way. I agree education is the key. Read, read and be a shrewd consumer of information. Congrats on a great choice.
Lisa

[duckie1978]

Congrats!! Becoming vegan is a huge lifestyle change, your vegetarian friend may just be thinking that it might be a bigger change than you are used to. When I switched over from being a veggie for 5 years, I was surprised to see the amount of animal by-products in stuff like food and household stuff. I thought I was never going to be able to just buy something at the store again.

The best advise I could give would be to learn how to convert recipes you used to love into vegan recipes. I make some mean double choco cookies people don't believe are vegan and all I really did was switch some of the ingredients for more animal friendly ones. Experiment around, I used to use cornstarch as an egg replacer because there were no other egg substitutes where I used to live.

I think it is unfair we have to explain to everyone why we chose to not eat animal products or support companies who exploit animals. I think we should turn it around on the omnis and criticize them more. After all, they are the ones supporting factory farming which causes severe enviromental damage, putting a burden on the medical fields because of diet based illnesses like heart disease, asthma, diabetes, etc. After all the information showing how benefical a vegan lifestyle is, why would any NOT want to be a vegan? They are the weirdos!

[Delirium76]

While I agree that we shouldn't have to explain ourselves, I'm trying to stay away from critizing omnis simply because (at least this has been my experience so far) they tend to become more defensive than normal if you (in thier eyes) "attack" them with your knowledge.

It's unfortunate that people are so closed off to what they do to the earth, the animals and themselves but I'm trying to live by example and interest people that way. I've been bringing in vegan cakes, entrees and other goodies into my work and as I'm sure you all know, you bring food into the workplace and people flock. When they eat it and remark on how good it is, it opens up a line of communication and I can gently let them know of my beliefs and they seem to take it better than me saying "Hey, so how's that dead fried pig flesh?"

[vegmom2]

Hi and Welcome!!
It is great to be with such a great group of people and see new people coming onboard all the time!! I have been veg*n for just over a year and 98% vegan as i try and get animal products out of my life (coats, shoes, shampoo, soaps, etc.) it is hard work!! People think its a phase and then I will get over it and become NORMAL again--ok fine--but like i read above, reading all you can so you know how to answer those, what about calcium, protein, iron, questions. I lost 15 lbs 2 mo. after going vegan and people thought i was starving myself and wonder if i am healthy yet i am at 132 lbs. and they are overweight and are asking me if i am healthy??? :)

[veganuniversity]

Welcome to veganism! The journey is so wonderful....my experience was that it takes a few months for the body to expell all of the toxins and chemicals that I had been consuming for such a long time. I was very very sick for the first two weeks but then I stood up and have been going ever since!

Many people here mention education....I have to throw in my two cents worth and agree...I love to read and also learn from others experiences. One thing that has truly been a blessing in my walk has been sharing it with a wonderful vegan partner, it is so radically different than living with a meat eater!!

We invite you to check out our site at VeganUniversity (http://www.veganuniversity.com) and hopefully you can find useful information there as well.

Have a great day!

vegards,

~Chancellor
VeganUniversity.Com
vu@veganuniversity.com

[alexis]

you know maybe we should be the ones asking omnis the question 'what do you eat?' when they ask us that. then throw in a little of the 'how do you make sure you have enough vitamins/minerals/fibre' and stuff like 'how do you know you're not doing any damage to yourself? Look at the cancer and heart disease rates now, what do you think causes that?' things like that when they attack us...make 'em squirm...hahax :D I'm evil....