My name is Shaneen, and I have been a vegetarian for close to 10 years. Being a vegetarian was as easy as flipping a switch for me and I found living it really easy too. I felt like I was doing my part and that my meat free diet showed my compassion towards animals. I wore leather, bought wool, I drank milk and ate obscene amount of cheese but these were by products or from a kinder industry. It was only in the last couple of years that I started to question wearing leather, I like most people found the thought of wearing real fur repulsive... why then did I find leather and wool acceptable? I was always told that real leather meant quality, a leather sofa... what a luxury. A leather biker jacket... how cool do they look? Leather shoes... they will last a lifetime, these were all things I grew up believing. I also assumed that leather is a by product of the meat industry but after a little research I realised I was wrong, it isn't always a by product and it actually comes from a much darker place. The leather industry was no longer something I wanted to support which then lead me to question the dairy industry and soon enough I was done with it all. I was a vegan.
The first thing that became apparent was how good I felt. Almost euphoric. I was doing a good thing and the food I was eating wasn't that hard to prepare, it was far more simple than I thought it would be especially as veganism is growing and there are vegan alternatives for absolutely everything. Everything you like to eat or drink has literally been veganised. It was not hard. I hung on to diary for so long and now I really wish I'd made the changes earlier.
I lost weight. I'm an active person, I don't have a huge amount of weight to lose but I am constantly trying to lose the last few pounds/inches that seem to want to hang around. Those pounds and inches are falling off far quicker since I switched to a vegan diet. With the little weight loss you are probably thinking my energy is low? Wrong! all the whole foods are giving me so much energy and I feel so much stronger, and less sluggish.
After the initial euphoria I felt sad. Really sad. I questioned my faith in humanity and felt hugely frustrated that most people around me aren't able to understand what is going on, and how wrong it all is. People don't want to hear it. It is a fact that we don't need meat to survive, a simple fact. We also don't need a cows milk anymore than we need the milk from a giraffe. The meat and dairy industries have been normalised so much in our day to day lives that a person who chooses to abstain from animal products is considered the odd one out. I felt ashamed to be a human in our barbaric, murderous and selfish world.
When people hear I'm a vegan they are either intrigued and ask really great questions, or they bark out words like "bacon, mmm pigs, mmm steak". I've even had someone tell me in graphic detail about the time they ate lambs testicles and how great they were. In that conversation I was considered the odd one for eating a vegetable risotto instead of lambs nuts. I was odd for eating vegetables yet he was completely normal for chowing down on the testicles of a baby sheep. *scratches head*
I made mistakes and beat myself up for it. Without thinking I grabbed a piece of garlic bread and ate it, realising half way through that I was eating butter. I know that this sounds a bit dramatic, and the people around me at the time laughed at my reaction. I guess to someone who thinks it's ok to eat the secretions of another animal it was dramatic but as I don't think its ok to eat those things it was a big deal to me. I also bought some free from chocolate rock road bites from Asda and ate one without checking the label only to find one of the ingredients was pork gelatine. What actual fudging reason is there to put frigging pork in chocolate Asda!! sort it out!!
I lost faith in humanity in one minute and regained it in bucketfuls minutes later, repeatedly. People share some pretty messed up stuff on social media, in the space of 5 minutes I saw fur being ripped from a screaming cashmere goat in the most horrific way to a farmer declaring himself vegan and turning his land into a sanctuary for farm animals. That farmer will always be my hero for that dark Tuesday morning when I hated the world.
People became really annoyingly interested in my protein intake. I didn't have this reaction once in my 10 years of being a vegetarian. A vegan gets their protein the same way a meat eaters dinner gets theirs! Think about it, all the strong, great and powerful animals are vegetarian. Elephants, gorillas, rhinos. Stop worrying about my protein intake, if a Gorilla can sustain themselves I sure as hell can too.
The biggest struggle is cosmetic and household items. I was so pleased to learn that my beloved benefit don't test on animals and are very careful about the products in their cosmetics. They aren't entirely vegan but working towards it... or thats how they want to sell it to you. In truth they don't test on animals but they do sell to the Chinese market and allow them to test on animals before selling Benefit themselves. They choose the huge financial gain from selling in China to the lives of the furry little bunnies they preach about not harming. I was gutted! Its a sad world when you have to dissect every bit of information to find a cruelty loophole in the cosmetics and household cleaner industry. That being said a change is coming and it is getting easier to find vegan products.
So whilst I have been riding an emotional roller coaster I am pleased I made the change and it feels good to see the world slowly but surely changing too. Hell, Ben and Jerrys a company that survives purely on the dairy industry are now facing a huge demand for vegan ice cream and the shelves are filling up with cruelty free products! I try to remember this when I am faced with something that makes me want to hide under the duvet.
Recent Comments