Hello- I’m hoping to find a home here to explore how I fit in to the vegan lifestyle. I’m from central PA and have been concerned where my food comes from for decades. For the past 15 years I have consumed meat from local sources- pork from the next door neighbor which we helped to raise, beef from my massage therapist, eggs from our own backyard chickens etc. Every January my church encourages a 21 day fast. I usually fast coffee, but this year felt led to do a juice fast. I never expected what would happen next. After the 21 days of only drinking fresh juices, I planned to ease back into eating meat and dairy, but every day I just kept putting it off. (With the exception of my own chicken’s eggs.) I’m still cooking as usual for my family- my kids are 15 and 16 years old and I don’t expect them to have the same conversion I had. My husband happily eats whatever I cook, vegan or not. I truly don’t know where I’m headed from here. We haven’t had meat-centered meals in ages, so leaving meat off my plate has been relatively simple so far... I like to cook and I like cooking new foods. My biggest challenge is going to be social. I live in a very beef and dairy centric farming community...and consider myself a born-again Christian, which isn’t the typical vegan environment. I’ve never felt like I’ve quite found my “people”and fear that being meat and dairy free will make that even more difficult. That’s my current status in a nutshell!
