Potholes On Your Vegan Journey

[Lou]

There is a new thread asking for Vegan Origin stories.
I thought it might be fun (and educational) to describe some of the problems we encountered on the way.
@Emma JC reminded me that we learn from our failures. In which case some of the VF members are fricking geniuses

Not sure if really applies here but someone once said that obstacles are just opportunities (in disguise?)

To start if off, in a way I was real lucky because at the very beginning my goal was not becoming vegan. I just thought that the dairy industry was really cruel and I didn't want to participate. I think I sympathized with cows because they are sort of like big giant dogs. I really didn't care about fishes or chickens. I learned about PETA and then learned about vegans. And sort of step by step I got concerned about different things. And then I had to figure out what actions I had to take.

The biggest obstacles I had was the misinformation mine field. The first thing that happened to me is that I went from drinking cow's milk to drinking soy milk. But I kept hearing (on the internet) that soy milk (and soy) was bad. Fortunately back then I used the library a lot. And although I found newspaper and magazine articles about soy being bad - there were no books that said that. so I became suspicious. Ironically it was the internet that cleared it up for me. There are internet articles about how the dairy industry provides misinformation on soy and then magazine and newspaper reporters just repeat it. And if the dairy industry is sending them dollars for advertising they are hesitant to run anything critical of the dairy industry. Then there is the whole thing with paid research at the university level. Most of you already know these things but back then it was all new to me. and I pretty much had to figure it out on my own.

 

[Danielle]

Growing up, I'd always hear that you have to drink your (cow's) milk. I was never much of a milk drinker, I preferred my sodas. I drink almond milk sometimes to calm my stomach, probably caused from all the sodas I've been drinking... Lol. And tums. Lots of tums.
I was told that even vegans take vitamins that come from an animal, I said fine that's better than eating animals. Turned out there is such a thing as vegan vitamins... Pfft.
One of my obstacles is the price of food. How I want to eat costs a lot of money, and I'm unsure how to improve it while still eating the things I like to eat. Now I got another big expense, a car note. I really should find ways to cut down the food bill.

 

[Humble Carrot]

Cheese was my vice. It was difficult to give up and it was almost in everything (milk). I had to really think about where the cheese came from and how it was obtained. What a cruel way to treat a living being. I told myself that I could not contribute to that. So I made the decision to stop consuming dairy aka milk products and go back to being full Vegan. I will never go back to consuming dairy.

 

[Genuinethedude]

No huge potholes at any point. The transition was relatively smooth. Mostly cost. Whole Foods makes amazing vegan pizza, sandwiches, and doughnuts. I am very privileged to work 70+ hours a week and have a lot of disposable income. I also go through a Jack LaLanne power juicing phase that comes back every few months, and I buy endless amounts of fruits and vegetables to juice and increases my grocery cost. My family and friends are completely supportive. I also live in a very vegan friendly area (Seattle,) and can go out and have options on nearly every menu in the general region.

As far as foods go sushi was the only animal food product that I really cared for. I've found some barely ok vegetarian sushi. I also like curry and most Indian food is inundated with dairy, which is just sad because I love the spice palate.

 

[silva]

I believe the word potholes should be used for roads and vehicles.
For me it was, and largely still is, candies. I go for long avoiding sugars, but cravings for store bought favorites really surface and are strong. It's the mostly the confectioners glaze that gets me. I adore crystallized ginger covered in dark chocolate, and Trader Joes is so perfect-but covered in confectioners glaze. Really so bad to use a word that describes powered sugar and twist it to mean ' from beetles shellac'
I still miss the ease and popularity of a pizza with dairy cheese

 

[PTree15]

I believe the word potholes should be used for roads and vehicles.
For me it was, and largely still is, candies. I go for long avoiding sugars, but cravings for store bought favorites really surface and are strong. It's the mostly the confectioners glaze that gets me. I adore crystallized ginger covered in dark chocolate, and Trader Joes is so perfect-but covered in confectioners glaze. Really so bad to use a word that describes powered sugar and twist it to mean ' from beetles shellac'
I still miss the ease and popularity of a pizza with dairy cheese

Agree on missing the ease of pizza with dairy cheese. The best vegan pizza I ever had was in Philly at Blackbird Pizzeria, a vegan place. I so miss it. I think I ate there at least once a week when I lived in Philly. I've yet to find decent/satisfying vegan pizza where I live. The pining is never enough to have me seriously consider going back to dairy, though. I just can't even think about doing that.

 

[Tom L.]

My two biggest hurdles have been:

1) Originally, ignorance about what cows and hens (as well as most male calves and chicks) have to go through so that I can have milk and eggs. As far as chickens go, there was really no excuse: I once accompanied my father on a trip to an egg farm, and can still remember the smell of ammonia from their waste making my eyes water. But hey- the laying hens weren't actually being killed (well, not in front of me- just after their egg production had dropped off and they weren't profitable to keep anymore). They were just stuck in this huge, dimly-lit barn with nothing to do except eat, sleep, and lay eggs. I would have been reluctant to even visit a slaughterhouse... I guess my awareness of animals being flat-out, directly killed desensitized me to "lesser" abuses.

2) Veganism is appreciably more restrictive than (ovo-lacto)-vegetarianism. Back in 1968, I hadn't even planned on going vegetarian; I thought I was going to be happily pescatarian for the rest of my days. But the more I contemplated and experienced things, the more I had to grow.

The funny thing is, milk isn't a natural food for an adult mammal- mammals are normally weaned long before they're fully grown. And what's this about drinking the milk of a different species???!!! Most non-vegans would probably feel squeamish about drinking milk from most animals other than a cow (or maybe a goat- but they're in the same family as domestic cattle). (Picture this scene on the street: "Hello, sir- we're doing some consumer research about a new product: (horse/elephant/pilot whale/giraffe/rhinoceros) milk!! Would you care to try a sample and tell us what you think?.... Oh... yuck... you've vomited on the sidewalk... Hey, Bob, could you please get the cleanup crew over here?... Again?....")

 

[Thabo]

My journey of veganism started of when I was 20 years old in 2010. This was due to me having chest pains whenever I eat red meat and any diary products.
After doctors did not understand and kept telling me to continue with eating those food. I realized that the doctors were so clueless because I felt like my heart was going to stop when I had these and I knew they were poisoning me.
Here are my troubles I had:
1)Not getting enough nutrients
This gave me so much trouble when I started as I was not informed of the nutrients that I will miss.
2)Not having food available when going out or going to meet up with people.
3)Public pressure for being vegan