One Vegan's Journey
My journey as a vegan began in 1991, when I was a recent college graduate. For some reason, I started to wonder if it was ethical to eat animals. I had a nagging sense that eating meat had health and environmental implications, in addition to the obvious fact that it caused incomprehensible suffering to animals. Like most people, I suppressed this line of thought, knowing that if I concluded eating animals to be wrong, I would be in the horribly uncomfortable position of having to take action and change my way of eating.
It seems simple now, but back then, on the cusp of consciousness, it was agonizing. I didn’t much care for salads, so how could I become a vegetarian? What in the world could I eat for lunch besides peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? The enormity of the process of becoming vegetarian weighed heavily on my young shoulders. |
Several months after I began to question the morality of eating animals, I met a woman my age who had been vegetarian since high school. She was not one of those “holier than thou” vegetarians, but rather someone who quietly went about living her life, happy to discuss her dietary choice if asked.
I asked.
Speaking with this new friend and mentor, I started to feel more convinced that my hunch about eating animals was right. More importantly, I started to feel more comfortable with how to incorporate vegetarianism into my life, including some terrific ideas for lunches!
In June of 1992 I pledged to be a vegetarian for one day. I knew that was not going to be difficult whatsoever – even hardcore meat-eaters can survive a day without eating meat. I started reading a book called Diet for a New America by John Robbins. It put language to all the nagging feelings I had been having: how factory farming tortures animals, how meat production ravages the environment and compromises human health, how a plant-based diet improves all of these conditions.
On my first day as a vegetarian, I patted myself on the back for eating a container of yogurt. Yogurt, I knew, was something that “real vegetarians” ate. Although I never liked yogurt, I was committed to being healthy as I explored vegetarianism. After easily surviving the one day without meat, I resolved to be vegetarian for the next two days. Inspired by Diet for a New America, I easily met the challenge. When I looked at meat, all I saw was the animal from which it had come. I felt upset and nauseous just thinking about eating meat. My next mini-goal was to go the entire week without eating meat. |
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At the end of that week, I announced to my parents that I was now a vegetarian.
They laughed. They said, “But you don’t even like salad!” The idea that I, of all people, would become vegetarian was rather ludicrous in their eyes. But I imagine that they, like most people confronted with the immorality of eating meat, wanted to avoid the issue entirely – just as I had done for some time. As it turned out, salad minus the tomatoes suited me reasonably well, and I was quickly learning to prepare enough vegetarian dishes to eat quite comfortably. My parents, while surprised that I really did stop eating meat, were very supportive of my choice. This was huge for me, especially since I was living with them at the time! The next week, my vegetarian friend and I interviewed a woman in her 50s for a video documentary we were producing. This woman rocked both our worlds when she told us about veganism. Neither of us had considered the implications of consuming eggs and dairy products, how those foods are also part of the system of animal cruelty and environmental degradation. Our heads spinning, we both decided to become vegans. |
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I missed ice cream.
My friend missed cheese. After a while, she decided to go back to being a vegetarian, glad that she had tried being vegan. I suffered without ice cream…But then I discovered Tofutti and was exceedingly happy with this non-dairy alternative. It was expensive for someone just getting their footing in the professional world, but it was worth it as an occasional indulgence. Years later, I found recipes to make my own vegan ice cream using an ice cream maker. The ice cream maker continues to be my very favorite small kitchen appliance! |
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Honestly, it didn’t take long for me to feel very comfortable as a vegan. I had enough recipes and motivation to stay the course.
About five years later, though, I made a decision to become vegetarian for a period of time. I was going on a long-distance backpacking adventure, taking six months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. This level of physical activity required significant dietary increases of calories, fat, and protein. Another factor in my decision was that, while I would dehydrate backpacking meals ahead of time, I would also be going to local food markets and restaurants along the Trail, and it would be difficult to find vegan fare in many of those establishments. I did not go right back to a vegan diet after completing my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in the fall of 1998. But about six months later I was feeling like I needed to re-center myself, and I realized that being 100% vegan was what was missing. I have remained vegan since then. I now have two sons, born in 2004 and 2007, both of whom have been lifelong vegans. As my sons get older, they will choose for themselves if they want to continue their vegan journeys. But just as my parents allowed me the freedom to choose my own path, my sons must be free to choose theirs. |
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I know this is totally off-topic, but here is the two-part video that I made of my Appalachian Trail thru-hike. Enjoy!
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