The psychology behind becoming a vegan...

[Nicole Zabel]

Hi everybody!
I just decided to Google "vegan forums" in hopes of connecting with more like-minded people. About a month ago, I decided to try a 1 week vegan challenge, and I can thank the YouTuber Ralph Smart with the channel "Infinite Waters" for my transition. He's a personal development junkie, and he's very interesting to watch. He has a very positive presence and has helped changed my outlook on life.
I love personal development and I think that is what got me to become a vegan. I've been watching a few different YouTube channels for around 2 years now and I have grown immensely from them. I've done exercises and I've accepted different perspectives. I feel like I'm a lot more aware of myself, others, and the world. I'm not perfect by any means, but I'm better than I was.

I've loved dogs ever since I can remember. My love for them has always been present and I've never questioned it, nor have I ever thought of eating one. I used to think, and I think a lot of people think, "well yeah, that's my pet, I love him. He's different than a cow." How though? I've always cringed at seeing animal abuse of any kind, yet I never used to think about how that animal got on my plate. Not only did it have to go through abuse, but it died for me.
I think it takes a certain level of consciousness to realize what we are doing to these animals. It's frustrating because a lot of people don't fully get it. They like what I'm doing but they won't do it themselves. Or they'll say, "it's awesome what you're doing, but if you wanna have a plate full of bacon, go ahead."
No. I don't want a plate full of bacon, I don't want to eat any animal products.
People don't see that we are all one. Everything on this earth is meaningful and we are not superior to anything else. We're not superior to a dog, cow, or even a mosquito. We are all on this earth, we are all beings. Just because we have different levels of consciousness does not make us smarter than the next thing. Think about it, there could be a being much more conscious than us looking down upon us just like we look down on little bugs. It's not a fat cry, and I wish that we could all love everything on this universe.
I have so much more I could say, but I'm gonna stick with that for now.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Interesting perspective. This forum can be a bit quiet though.

How did you the challenge go? Do you need any help? Do you have any questions about whatever, recipes, nutrition, ethics?

 

[Sally]

I completely agree with you. For me being vegan isn't about my health it's about the animal's. If people don't get that then being vegan is just a diet or worse a fashion or fad. I truly believe that the human race has no hope until it accepts that it is not superior to, but equal to, everything else. My friends tell me they are almost eating a vegan diet but don't feel as healthy on it as they do when they eat meat, I'm supposed to pat them on the back and tell them what a good job they are doing, instead I tell them that the reason they feel better on meat is because of all the chemicals in it, which is true. I still would not eat meat even if I wasn't slimmer and fitter and healthier on a plant based diet, because that is just a happy side-effect of not eating animals. Good for you. We all eat too much anyway and don't get scared by B12 stories and so on, for my part I find I don't really need supplements as it seems a healthy diet, with the odd bar of chocolate is fine.

 

[Veganite]

To open up a healthy debate here. I beg to disagree that any other outlook, other than animal welfare, is just a diet or a fad. While I, myself, also love animals and feel just as passionate about them, I think health is a very strong motivator for many people, including myself.

Just think if you had diabetes or heart disease, and then all of a sudden, you discover some very well educated doctors saying you can reverse these life threatening diseases. I'd say that's a pretty strong motivator, wouldn't you?

With all due respect, I care about animals too. I've watched all the relevant documentaries, plus my share of YouTube videos as well. It's a sobering reality, isn't it? It certainly played a role for me, but without my health, I wouldn't be here to love animals at all, would I? I'd say that takes precedence for me.

 

[Plant Muncher]

Becoming vegan for me was a choice that addressed a lot of issues and I would find it hard to rank each issue by importance but fortunately, I find the entire ranking process unnecessary at best and a distraction at worst. I have recently been contemplating the whole B12 issue. If the only source of B12 we have is from animals, and our bodies can't make B12 on their own, isn't animal consumption at least partly natural or at least through millennia of evolution, haven't we changed ourselves biologically to consume animal protein?

 

[GTing]

Just think if you had diabetes or heart disease, and then all of a sudden, you discover some very well educated doctors saying you can reverse these life threatening diseases. I'd say that's a pretty strong motivator, wouldn't you?

I agree, I've been suffering from brain fog (which I noticed someone else on the forum was also mentioning) which I believe may be attributed to the years of nothing but fast food and no exercise, and I saw a TED talk about how dairy products and meat are primary contributors to memory loss/poor memory. At this stage in my life I've set my heart on writing a series of novels that mean a lot to me, and I'm desperate to get back the mental acuity I had in my youth (if you're wondering, I'm 30, but my mind is so far from what it was in my youth. The folks around me in their forties have sharp minds and such and I feel my thinking to be almost a slog).

I spent so much of my life (most of it to be honest) just having food be the thing I look forward to, the prize at the end of the day, the reward, so on and so forth. I have things I want to accomplish and I don't want for food to be my end goal, for once I want more than just the next special meal. It's a habit I'm struggling to fight, but vegan options are plentiful and they've eased the transition.