My journey to veganism started when I was very young but at the same time it's not really something I consciously saw coming.
As a kid I just preferred vegetables over meat. It wasn't about any sort of agenda or about saving the animals, it was just about eating what I liked. I would still eat meat from time to time but I certainly ate more meals than not without it. Growing up I ate all meat and fish except for pork. I'm not really sure why except that I think I recall hearing somewhere when I was really young (like 6 or 7 maybe) that pigs were dirty so that was a deal breaker for me. Sure chickens pecked around in the dirt but wallowing in mud just seemed wrong. So pigs were out but everything else was in. But looking back I also think my meat eating mom planted a few seeds as well.
I remember her telling me about a time when she was young and went to stay at her aunt's farm down in mississippi. While there she befriended a chicken who she used to play with and talk to - I think she even named him. Well no surprise what happened next, she was after all on a farm in mississippi. Sure enough her friend, let's call him Larry, wound up fried for dinner one night. When my mom realized what happened of course she couldn't eat dinner and cried and cried (much to the amusement of the adults).
Like my mom when I heard that story I felt sorry for what happened to her friend but neither of us was moved enough to stop eating chickens. Larry's death was merely a speed bump on our carnivorous road, sure you kinda notice it but then you keep going like nothing ever happened. When I think back, I wonder why this event didn't have a more profound or long lasting effect on her. Sure she skipped one meal but why didn't that spark a realization in her - that perhaps chickens have personalities and friends just like us, and perhaps they don't need to exist for the sole purpose of feeding us...but I digress. Back to the story.
So I liked eating vegetables and some animals but not pigs. Something else you should know is that I was a very opinionated child; and once I made my mind up about something it really didn't matter what other people thought. Actually I probably liked being different and a little particular too. I was the kind of kid who felt like I was on the same level with adults so I expected my thoughts and opinions to valued just as highly as theirs.
Around middle school I decided there was just something about cows that I really liked... their eyes I think, plus they just always looked so peaceful and nice. So now cows are out. That's the way it was for a long time, about until after college. I remember cooking chicken one day and there was something about the way in looked in the pan that grossed me out.* That was the beginning of the end for me. I ate the chicken that day but after a couple of weeks I just decided to give it up (and turkey too). Again no real reason except that it just felt like the right thing to do. I had the feeling that not eating meat was the more healthy choice, although I'm not really sure why I thought that. It was only much later that I became interested in nutrition and discovered that I had wandered into some great decisions.
Anyway, even after giving up meat I never expected to give up dairy and I was always on the fence about fish. For a while I gave up fish but then I started eating it again for a few months. I had given up crustaceans a long time ago because again, they grossed me out. I saw a lobster in the Bahamas once that had these long thick antennae-yuck. There's no way that looks like something I want to eat, that combined with the fact that they're scavengers put an end to it for me. Looking back, it seems the "yuck" and gross out factor was essential in my transition to a plant based diet.
With fish however I couldn't figure out what to do. But by this time the decision about fish wasn't about being grossed out, this felt like a moral question. So I set an intention, actually more specifically, I asked for a sign. I wanted to know-for sure this time- if eating fish was right or wrong. I can't recall exactly how long it took for me to receive my sign but I know it was fairly quickly. I was shopping for groceries, as I usually did, at a market near my house; and this was one of those markets that sells fresh fish in tanks. As I walked in to pick out my produce for the week, I suddenly made eye contact with this one particular fish. It was so beautiful, it's eyes and "face" so expressive. In that moment I connected with that fish in a way that I'd never done before, and in that moment it was abundantly clear, I had received my answer.
Veganism may now seem like a foregone conclusion but I can assure sure that even as a steadfast vegetarian, I had no intention of ever giving up dairy. I loved dairy. Cheese, yogurt, ice cream...all my favorite things. Actually it was my love for them that ultimately ended it for me. I had a phase where I was addicted to ice cream and no I don't use that word lightly. When I say addicted, I mean that I would eat a minimum of 1 pint a day and if I tried to resist and skip a day the food fantasies and cravings would be too much to take. Some days I would have 2 pints or more, and like most addicts it is also something I was deeply ashamed of and I knew it was disgusting but I couldn't stop.
But eating all that ice cream also led me to the realization that I was definitely lactose intolerant or allergic or something. It was clear my body didn't like this stuff. I noticed changes in my skin as well as unwanted digestive issues. Now, some of you might say that all this happened simply because of the quantity of dairy I was eating. Well yes, I'm sure quantity played a role but at the same time, if instead of ice cream I had been over doing it with apples, I don't think the look of my skin would have declined.
So I decided I wasn't interested in limiting my dairy intake, I wanted to get rid of it all together. I mean, why eat something that you know your body doesn't like or want? something that's making you less healthy? Is slowly poisoning yourself really so much better than doing it all at once? Well for me the decision was made.
After months and months of my ice cream habit I kicked dairy cold turkey, after an exhaustive search for non-dairy ice cream of course. I discovered a soy ice cream that I loved and my affair with dairy was over and I've never looked back. Plus once I switched to the dairy-free ice cream I no longer felt compelled to consume it in such monstrous portions...I think they probably add some really addictive chemicals in some of that dairy stuff too because my cravings were out of control...
Anyway, there are so many wonderful vegan products, recipes and restaurants out there that no taste sacrifice is necessary and I hope to show that to all of you.
*chicken grossed me out once before but I put it out of my mind. I remember one day when I was in high school, a group of us were at a friend's house and she ordered a bunch of wings. We put all of the bones in one bag and I was so incredibly grossed out when i saw the bag full of chicken bones. It still makes me grimace to think about it.
