Comments on: Observation: it ain’t all that hard.

By: Chauncey

Chauncey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:59:20 +0000

I’ve been vegan for 3 months (vegetarian for 6 months before that) and overall, it hasn’t been all that hard. I still do miss cheese, however, as it was included in about 50-75% of my meals (I live in Wisconsin!). Also, traveling can be a pain in the ass, as getting a vegan meal on the go (espcially a hot one) can be difficult. There are options out there, but how many plain veggie Subway subs can a person really eat?
Food labeling has come a long way (and still needs to come further), but I hate that there is such a lack of transparency when it comes to food preparation. Was this fried in vegetable oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, or lard? Do these refried beans have lard in them? Was the bread made with milk and/or eggs? Is te soup stock animla-based? All this stuff pissed me off well before I went vegetarian even. Restaurants should be held to the sme standards that food processors are held to. You should not have a license to serve food to peol if you can’t supply an exact list of ingredients to those people. It seems like a no-brainer to me, but then again, I don’t work for the National Restaurant Association.
It’s frustrating to the point that I rarely eat out at places that aren’t Asian joints. Since they don’t use dairy products, all I have to do is order something that isn’t fried and be VERY clear that I do not want anything with eggs. Any other type of restaurant is a crapshoot unless they have things on the menu that specifically say “vegan.”
Anyway…. back to the topic. When I am at home, being vegan is no problem at all. I have all the ingredients I need (yeah, legumes) and no one is slipping ingredients in under my nose. Aside from the occasional serious cheese craving, life is good. I miss meat, butter and milk not at all. My cholesterol and blood pressure have dropped. I am a very “regular” guy these days. Being vegan is sweet.

By: daryl

daryl — Thu, 19 May 2005 12:23:19 +0000

Yesterday I CRAVED fruit. It was a great crave. So I got some…even some organic (hard to find where I live if you don’t want to drive too far) Anyway, It was so good not to want cake or chips, you know, junk food…I did eat too much though and ended up with a tummy ache…it was nice.
d

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 08 May 2005 18:03:11 +0000

Congratulations on your compassionate choice! For great alternatives to cheese try the Uncheese Cookbook (do a Google, you’re sure to find it in Petamall, etc too). For vegan candies there are plenty of options; try these:
http://www.veganstore.com/index.html
http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/VeganShoppingQS-Snacks.asp?Category=Snacks
and my own favorite: http://www.decasa.com/
Cheers,
Rob

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:27:52 +0000

I’m trying to become a vegetarian (I’m on day 6) and am having the hardest time giving up cheese and candy. Any suggestions?
Thanks

*thanks, Ryan for the advice, btw.

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 19:49:45 +0000

Congrats on going vegan! I never found being vegan to be hard, though I did miss a few of my favorite non-vegan foods at first. I’ve been vegan for years now and find that I know A LOT more about food than your average meathead. When you explain to most non-vegans what they are actually eating they are often shocked. Ignorance is bliss for the eater, but hell for the animals. Thanks for helping to spread vegan information!

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:09:00 +0000

Hear hear! Especially what pleather said - I assumed, because I loved cheese so much, that veganism would mean being miserable for months or years until I got over my cheese withdrawal. But it was really only about a couple days before I was feeling great and thinking “what was it I needed cheese for again?”

By: Devyne

Devyne — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 02:45:42 +0000

Hey :) I just went vegan on April 2nd. Just woke up and decided no more meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, leather, wool, etc.
Something in my life didn’t seem right and that something happened to be my eating habits!

I feel liberated, I feel purified, I feel beautiful :)

By: pleather

pleather — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 19:21:07 +0000

I think it is extremely easy to become vegan. I thought I’d be craving cheese constantly, and now I find I don’t miss it one bit, especially because I feel so much better not eating it. And every day it seems like there are more and more pre-packaged vegan things on the market. (Thanks for all your reviews - they’re really helpful!)

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 15:30:05 +0000

I was relatively quiet about my going vegan, but I made the “final decision” on the day before my birthday last year, though I’d be steadily working towards it to one degree or another since I became vegetarian.

With regards to processed foods, there are a *lot* of good vegan prepared foods these days. They can be a little pricey since they’re not in as high of demand as meat-centric processed foods, but even regular grocery stores are starting to carry a pretty good variety.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 15:10:13 +0000

I haven’t been paying attention! I didn’t realize you’d gone vegan. (I usually only read your regular site, but I finally added veg blog to my newsreader.) Funny you should mention doughnuts…I had one this morning, which is a pretty rare occurrence for me.

I do think being vegan would be hard for me, though, because I am such a major consumer of processed foods.