Hello everyone!

[Plantasaurus]

Hello from San Francisco, CA! I figured I would join this forum to connect with other vegans. I’m a software engineer who has been vegan for 11 years and still going strong. Always loving to help others succeed in their vegan lifestyle. I became vegan when I first saw some slaughterhouse videos which was sent through a random ad. Funny enough I slowly transitioned to going vegan a week later. The vegan items have truly changed drastically in a positive way because when I first went vegan they only had Bocca but, you don’t exactly need those “Vegan products” because this actually helped me to explore how to cook differently.

I hope to help others here in their hurdles through the vegan lifestyle.

 

[ScienceGal7]

Thanks for the help. I have only been vegan since Aug 1 after watching Forks over Knives. Many of my friends think it’s just a phase but I am really enjoying the results so I plan to continue. Was there ever a point you thought you would convert back to omnivore?

 

[Plantasaurus]

No worries! Wow, still it's admirable you changed to it. I saw various things through Peta2 and other groups. Yeah, when I went vegan ages ago my family used to joke at me "heh so are you going through a phase as being a vegan then going to binge on meat later?" Which 11 years later down the road well, I guess they understood it's not a phase =)

As far as going back to being an omnivore it was hard on me at first but, keep in mind this was about 11 years ago. At the time it wasn't entirely spread out and also the only stores that carried vegan items were whole foods. Daiya had recently shown up on a shelf and was seen as the "elite yuppie food" so it's great to see the vegan food create so many options. So going back to being a nonvegan is a bit of a stretch because even when I eat out with friends I am somewhat able to order vegan dishes or give the waiter/waitress tips on what I want. (Some might be bland but, still vegan!)

If you ever need any sort of tips on vegan items though or recipes I pretty much have everything. Actually, I have on my computer 1500 vegan recipes from the years as well.