It's almost been exactly six months to the day since I made the decision to go vegan. I didn't do it in stages, I did a full 360 overnight, from the girl who ate McDonald's and KFC three times (OK four times) a week to a fully plant based diet. You'll all be very shocked to hear I have not made a single slip up in those whole six months. No drunk nights out where I had a nibble on someone's burger. No secret snack on a bit of ham. Well, no conscious slip ups - the only slip ups I've made were accidentally eating fucking milk proteins which are in EVERYTHING - one of the things I accidentally ate that contained milk proteins was fucking vegetable flavoured dried couscous - come on!! (Oh and the night I thought I had broken my ankle my mum made me a cup of tea and in her state of panic about my ankle accidentally put milk in it, and In my state of panic about my ankle I accidentally drank several sips before realising. But that's it, promise)
I said in my initial post about going vegan that I would write about my experience after the first month, the draft of which I wrote, then rewrote, then deleted and wrote again. I totally put it off in the end. And that was because everything I drafted just came across as so angry. And I'm not angry. The whole vegan way of life is the oposite of angry. It's a lifestyle based around love, and peace.
The diet change wasn't hard. I actually found it really fun, cooking became a new hobby, and cutting out the majority of what I ate before somehow managed to broaden the variety of food I ate. I know that sounds like total BS - but I was the kind of person who found a pizza place, or a microwave meal, or a take away joint that I liked, and instead of experimenting with different items on the menu or new places I would just stick to what I knew and would have the same stuff over and over again. Suddenly I couldn't have macaroni cheese anymore, or a Big Mac meal. I couldn't even do my home cooked dishes (which was basically one of two meals, either spag bol or chicken stir fry). So I started making soups. One pot pastas. Curries, vegetable fajitas, homemade pizza, salad bowls, vegan burgers, vegan roasts. It showed me I had a talent for cooking which I wasn't aware of before, it showed me how much I loved to cook too. And I've read a few posts by vegans who have said you have to stop seeing food as a luxury or an indulgence and just see it as fuel for your body in order to be vegan. And I have to respectfully disagree with that - one of my biggest pleasures in life has always been food, and I don't want to have to give up that pleasure - and I haven't had to, not one bit. Vegan food can still be rich and indulgent and just as satisfying as any dish you've had before.
And more than that it kind of gave me a purpose. Yes, I am very dramatic, and yes that is quite a dramatic statement, but I mean it. Every day I feel like I'm living life by what I truly believe and changing the world just a little bit one day at a time. Up to 300 animals lives are saved a year just because of little old me (I know that sounds like a lot, but google it, no shit), and that is awesome. Even the days I'm sat on my lazy butt watching films and not achieving anything visible to anyone else, I have achieved something that's important to me.
It wasn't the diet part that made me angry. (Although sometimes the cheese cravings on a hangover may have made me a little short tempered, I'll admit that). It was the unbelievably negative responses I received. Freak, hippy, the grunt laughs, people telling me there's no way I would last, the 'eew why's', the people telling me how extreme it was, 'why don't you just go vegetarian?'.
Someone told me they had recently read an article about veganism and how it was 'just a trend' and it would pass. Not only did that person basically tell me they think I'm incredibly shallow and pretentious, but they just trod all over my beliefs, that are nothing but unarguably kind, and quite literally do not hurt anyone or anything.
How can you argue with 'I don't want any living creature to suffer for my benefit?'. How is there an argument for that? I make a point of not being remotely forceful about my decision. I don't share graphic videos online, and I don't introduce myself with 'hi I'm Sophia I'm a vegan'. I can laugh at a joke about veganism if it's made in good taste and not viscous, I've always been able to take the piss out of myself. I'll talk about my decision if it comes up in conversation or if someone asks why. I don't tell people they're gross and wrong for eating meat. I'm not being aggressive, so people don't have a reason o be defensive about eating meat, but for some reason they still are.
I like to think that the reason thy are so defensive is because they know that animals being tortured and murdered is wrong but I sadly think that I'm being incredibly optimistic. It's sad to think some people genuinely don't care at all, not one bit. I don't judge anyone, not even the people that don't care, because it's not my decision how they live their life or what food they put on their plate. I can't force them to believe what I believe. It disappoints me, but I can't waste my energy being disappointed for the rest of my life and I have to live with the faith that I'm doing something that makes a positive change.
The reason I don't judge others is because we are brought up to see the milk and the mince meat and the steaks and chicken breasts on the supermarket shelves as food. We are told where they come from and we know they had to die, but we are conditiond to disassociate the lives of the animals with the food on our plates. The reason I don't judge them is because I dissasosiated that food on my plate with the animals that suffered for 23 years. We are told it's just the food chain. The same as lions that hunt in the wild.
But the difference is we aren't creatures in the wild hunting out of instinct. We are creatures with consciences, and the intelegence and resources to find alternatives and make our own decisions about what we eat. Please don't tell me we have to eat meat to survive - the millions of vegans living in the world are proof that that is not true.
Now, if you can educate yourself on exactly how the food on your plate gets there and you are genuinely ok with it, you feel no guilt and it causes you no sadness at all, then although that is not ideal for me personally as it doesn't line up with my beliefs, then you do you. It is none of my business and that's you living your best life. But if you educate yourself fully on how it gets there and you feel any sort of sadness or guilt, please, I urge you, just give veganism a try. It is not as hard as you will think it's going to be. I'm lucky that a lot of people actually have been very supportive of my decision too and said things like 'that's wonderful I wish I was strong enough to do it'. You are. You can do it. And I can promise you, when you can say you live by what your heart truly feels you'll be so much happier, and you can pet people's dogs in the street with no guilt or sadness in your soul.
I'm not going to educate you, but I am going to encourage you to educate yourself. If you see a video of a dairy cow crying out as her new born baby is taken away from her minutes after birth, or see a bull being hung upside down with its throat slit, then you can tell me which lifestyle is extreme...
I shan't babble on for any longer, but I ask you if you are a non vegan reading this, whoever you are, please think about the reasons you find a lifestyle that doesn't support the suffering and death of living creatures so bizarre. If you don't want to do it yourself, that is fine. But please don't criticise something that leaves no room for criticism. I get no shit for supporting the gay community, for supporting equal rights for all races, for all genders, so why would I get shit for fighting for the rights of creatures with no voice of their own?
Just some food for thought.
Happy adulting friends X
