The effects of being vegan for me.

[Dennie]

Being vegan for me is addicting. It just makes me feel great all the time. I don't feel great all the time because of being vegan, but it definitely is a contributing factor. I rarely feel sluggish anymore unless its because I haven't eaten, been drinking water, or haven't slept enough. If all of those things are in check when I'm ready to go. My mind has just become so much more active. I continuously think throughout the day. Not only that, but I feel great in the gym too. Its just really changed my life for the positive.
Originally I only became vegan because I watched this documentary called, "What the Health". It made me want to just give it a shot for optimum health purposes. But then, after just one month...I felt it. I just felt great every day. Of course, like anyone else you do have bad days. But, more often than that I just have a great outlook on life. It's not to say that being Vegan is the only reason for this. I enjoy my life because I've selected great people to surround me. I strive to do greater things and as a result feel and become successful. This is my mindset.
This mindset, I have discovered because of all kinds of factors that I am not going to get into because it's not that main point of this forum. Rather, I just wanted to say being Vegan with a great diet...has changed my life.
Please comment, what being Vegan is like for you. What noticeable ways has it impacted your life? Whether it be thought process, or emotions, or physically, or aesthetically,etc.

 

[Nekodaiden]

Welcome to the forum, Dennie. It's nice to see someone who's first post isn't some variation of "I'm miserable being Vegan, so nutrient deficient, so little energy etc etc"...it seems that while some people may have legit issues, there are a lot of trolls here that just start accounts because veganism threatens them in some way and they want to bash it.

The first thing I noticed going vegan was my sense of smell improved dramatically. It might be just going vegan but I upped my seed type food intake a lot especially in the beginning and mostly I soaked them overnight to start the germination process.

Energy lift - on a daily basis I have more energy than before.

Recovery from alcohol - improved

General well being - I am happier than I was.

General body odor is neutral to good where it was bad to worse as meat/dairy/egg eater - however I still get an unpleasant odor after drinking a bit too much beer. What's different is that I can smell it in my urine where when I was a meat eater I could not.

Mucous - greatly lessened. It appears in small amounts the morning after if I drink alcohol but it's nothing like when I was eating animal products.

I feel I am a more peaceful person overall compared to before. My outlook has changed.

 

[Breadandwine]

Hi folks

It's my contention that the act of going vegan makes a person more compassionate. I have this theory - which is not just mine, I've seen/heard it online, etc - that the meat that people eat come from animals in full flight/fight mode, with high levels of adrenaline and associated hormones present in the body. So the meat-eater ingests these hormones and - in some people at least - becomes less empathetic/less compassionate. Have there been any studies on this, I wonder?

I'm definitely much happier these days - one of my friends (an omni) reckons that my happiness is off the scale!

 

[Dennie]

Hi folks

It's my contention that the act of going vegan makes a person more compassionate. I have this theory - which is not just mine, I've seen/heard it online, etc - that the meat that people eat come from animals in full flight/fight mode, with high levels of adrenaline and associated hormones present in the body. So the meat-eater ingests these hormones and - in some people at least - becomes less empathetic/less compassionate. Have there been any studies on this, I wonder?

I'm definitely much happier these days - one of my friends (an omni) reckons that my happiness is off the scale!

Thats awesome to hear! And that would be an interesting study to be done by psychologists...

 

[Jamie in Chile]

It's good to hear from you Dennie. Improved health is just one of the reasons for veganism, the others are mainly environmental and ethical reasons which are also worth reading about.

I can say personally I had very little changes to my health.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Welcome to the forum, Dennie. It's nice to see someone who's first post isn't some variation of "I'm miserable being Vegan, so nutrient deficient, so little energy etc etc"...it seems that while some people may have legit issues, there are a lot of trolls here that just start accounts because veganism threatens them in some way and they want to bash it.

This is certainly a possibility. However another possible explanation is that people only come to the forum if they need help.

People who experience little change on going vegan will presumably have less need to ask for help, and less to talk about. This group might therefore be underepresented both on forums and also elsewhere. My guess is that this group is the largest.

People who have an amazingly positive experience will be likely to share it more, but no need to rush to a forum since they don't need help. Unclear whether this group would be more or less likely to post.

People who have a negative experience are more likely to complain about it - similar to the fact that people are more likely to write a review of a product online if they have a terrible experience, but not bother if they have a great one. Also, people who are having a negative experience are more likely to be asking specific questions or needing help, so more likely to post.

This, I would argue, would make negative experiences more likely on the forum, and neutral experiences less likely.

There is a counter argument though: people who have negative experiences may give up and not join vegan communities either online or elsewhere.

So perhaps more accurate to say that the negative experiences should be over represented for new members, but under represented for old timers on the forums.