How does it feel to realise that meat(etc) has to go?

It wasn't a very sturdy settee. It felt to bits not long after that.

I have gone through quite a few over the years.
 
Giving up meat was the easiest part for me. Fish/seafood, not so much. Milk and eggs, easy, except for having to give up ready made cakes/donuts/other yummy desserts. One of the hardest things is not being able to go shopping and stop at a coffee house like DD or Starbucks and have a donut or piece of cake. Sure, I can bake yummy things at home, but not having the convenience of grabbing something when I'm out is very frustrating. Cheese was the killer for me...I still crave it after 8 years. :( I love Daiya but there is no replacement for a chunk of fresh mozzerella or parmesan cheese. At least not for me. I definitely feel the deprivation at times. I know others do not and that's great for them. Luckily, I can suck it up and get over it. :)
 
KLS52 said:
Giving up meat was the easiest part for me. Fish/seafood, not so much. Milk and eggs, easy, except for having to give up ready made cakes/donuts/other yummy desserts. One of the hardest things is not being able to go shopping and stop at a coffee house like DD or Starbucks and have a donut or piece of cake. Sure, I can bake yummy things at home, but not having the convenience of grabbing something when I'm out is very frustrating. Cheese was the killer for me...I still crave it after 8 years. :( I love Daiya but there is no replacement for a chunk of fresh mozzerella or parmesan cheese. At least not for me. I definitely feel the deprivation at times. I know others do not and that's great for them. Luckily, I can suck it up and get over it. :)
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Dun Well Doughnuts in Brooklyn are vegan. I saw a programme on Food Network the other day.
 
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I thought maybe shyvas meant to edit to add the part about it being s popular place and ended up adding it inside a quote instead? Hopefully I didn't make it more confusing, lol.
 
KLS52 said:
stead? HI thought maybe shyvas meant to edit to add the part about it being s popular place and ended up adding it inside a quote inopefully I didn't make it more confusing, lol.
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I don't remember what I intended to do. I tried to post a photo of their doughnuts but I guess it didn't turn out.:p
 
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I felt great when I finally went vegan 8 years ago this month. Looking back (I've been vegetarian then vegan for 21+ years) I feel bad that I didn't get the dairy. I gradually was switching to non dairy but still eating things with trace dairy at times. Finally it clicked and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

So yes, I feel a little sad when I think and wish I had gone vegan sooner. I'm just glad I got there.
 
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For me vegetarianism wasn't such an abrupt change, as I had mentally prepared for it for a couple of years, so when I finally got started I felt nothing but relief. I realized it was just not going to happen while I was still living with my parents, but once I moved out I started experimenting with vegetarian food. I had almost zero experience with cooking for myself at all, meat or no meat, so all the cooking was of course a challenge, and I wasn't eating properly in the beginning. As time passed though, my cooking improved esp. after purchasing some cookbooks and talking to a dietician.

Some years later I was ready to try veganism. It wasn't such a big change, because I wasn't heavily relying on dairy products, and I wasn't eating eggs anyway. I had already switched to non-animal clothes for the most part since my main motivation for vegetarianism was animal rights / welfare. Again I felt relieved.

I've seen many vegans talk about feelings of guilt for what they had been eating before, but that feeling has been absent with me. Given my situation it's a small miracle I managed to go vegan, so I tend to praise rather than blame myself.
 
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For me, going vegetarian was pretty easy. I already didn't eat a lot of meat, and was super picky about what I did eat.

Vegan is more difficult, but only from the standpoint of convenience. I've gotten to where it's (fairly) easy to spot vegetarian convenience food, but vegan will mean either much less convenience food or much more label reading. Which I think is a good thing, generally, just different!

I've also had a bit of a mental obstacle around holidays/tradition/etc. My family are generally willing to accommodate vegetarian, but my mom (for example) doesn't know how to make a vegan main dish. It's difficult for me to bring something because of having to travel to get there. So I've got some feelings that I will be "left out." I suspect some omnis feel this way about going vegetarian.
 
I've never missed meat or other animal products at all, strangely. My reaction, especially with giving up other animal products once I was vegetarian, was more like... annoyance.

When I first went vegetarian I think I was more emotionally connected to the decisions I was making, I was sad about the animals, and I felt bad that I'd been contributing to that for so long. Now occasionally I get really fed up about being vegan. Not about me being vegan, but because the rest of the world isn't, and it makes my life difficult. I guess I feel like I don't have much choice, because it's what I believe is right, but it's mighty inconvenient that the rest of the world doesn't agree with me!

:D That sounds kind of petulant. Understand I don't feel like that 99% of the time. 99% of the time, I'm happy being vegan, and it's not really a big deal. Every now and again, it's very annoying.
 
Being vegan is very hard here as New Zealand is completely obsessed with dairy, and also eggs, so whenever you go out to eat it is like "You are vegetarian! You must want to eat a giant plate of cheese with some eggs on the side! "

Or sometimes it is "You are vegetarian! You must want to eat a roasted vegetable panini with feta and dairy based dressing! " (pre prepared so that it is already sitting in the cabinet covered with the dressing and with bits of cheese crumbled into it)

Or "You are a vegetarian! You must want egg and spinach quiche, which also has feta!"

I prefer going to Asian and Indian restaurants, they usually have a much bigger menu for me :) .
 
I felt bad about eating animals for as long as I can remember, I wanted to go vegetarian a few times but I was unsure on how to tell the family, what the hell I would eat.. if they'd be accepting.. I also worried that I'd miss meat, stuff like that.
Giving up meat was easy for me, but dairy and eggs was hard. Took 3 years to give it up xD
 
It's still relatively new for me, being veggie and working towards vegan, but I feel a bit stupid that I never thought about the meat I ate as an animal or how that animal was treated. I didn't realise until recently how dairy animals are treated because its just the 'norm' to eat and not question! Now I look at everything I eat and question where it's come from etc!
 
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For the most part, it's been really easy. I was never a big fan of cheese. I never put it on meals I made for myself, I'd only eat it if it was served to me already on the food. Other dairy isn't a problem either. Sure I liked yogurt and I liked ice cream, but the thought of living without it just isn't an issue.

Same with meat. Back in my Omni days I did enjoy it, but it wasn't an everyday thing either. We'd have it sometimes as part of dinner, but not everyday. Rarely had any meat in breakfasts -- I have a super sensitive stomach for breakfast -- and not very often as lunch. So like dairy, it's just an omission, not something I had to "give up."

I've always hated seafood and refused to touch it. (Forutnately the rest of my family -- save for my dad -- felt the same, so it wasn't around me very often to refuse)

Honey however, is my Achilles heel. I LOVE honey. I mean I love it. Every morning my oatmeal feels like something's missing, and I used to love to drizzle a tiny bit along with some cinnamon on blueberry bagels. Now and then for a treat, I'd drizzle a little bit on toast and add a bunch of cinnamon on top. I also loved to drink hot water with honey and lemon. While I'm managing to get on without it, it does make me sad that it's no longer a part of my life. I thought I could fill the void with agave nectar, but apparently it's not very healthy as new research shows despite its low glycemic rating.

If anyone has any ideas on a good replacement to honey, I'm all ears.
 
The only honey replacement I know of is agave nectar...I think it is good but it does not really taste like honey, IMO.
 
Clueless Git said:
Only honey tastes like honey, Honey.

Only Maple Syrup tastes like Maple Syrup and honey ain't in the runnin' when there's Maple Syrup around :)
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Sorry, I should've been more clear. I just meant something similar to honey, not something that tastes exactly the same.

@Danielle

That seems pretty intriguing! :) Is it fairly safe to consume? Not that honey is a super food either, but you know.
 

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