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vegdad
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I've been reading here for quite awhile now. This seems like a great website with a lot of knowlegable people.

 

I've been vegetarian (boderline vegan) for the past four months. This is not the first time in my life I've given up meat but after the birth of my daughter I guess I really started to question things in terms of what's healthy and what's not. I read both of John Robbin's books and I haven't looked back.

 

I just wanted to say hey and I look forward to learning more and more. The Vegan lifestyle fascinates me and I find myself being drawn into it more and more. At first I told people I gave up meat for health reasons but the more I read the more I'm telling people it's both ethical and health. Thanks to you all for giving me a foundation for my views.

 

My hardest problem (I work in a school) is snack days (crackers and cheese are big and provided for free for everybody) and pizza day every Wednesday. I always take vegetarian pizza but the cheese is my hardest struggle. I've been reading that is common. I passed up on both the last two weeks. My fruit intake has gone through the roof and I can feel my energy changing.

 

Anyway, thanks again.

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hey vegdad!

 

Welcome! Yup - you will find that even those that start their vegan path for health reasons often become motivated by ethical considerations (see www.meetyourmeat.com - and you can always provide this link as another reason for going vegan to the skeptical or confused questioners of your veganism), and then even environmental considerations. It is like a process of awakening - dont really know how else to describe it. When you really read and ponder it, there is every compelling reason in the world for veganism and nothing compelling against it! I love love love knowing that I have chosen a path that respects my body, the earth and the anonymous individuals unfortunate enough to be born "food animals."

 

John Robbins is a great writer! I have such respect for the man for walking away from loadsa money as heir to the Baskin Robbins empire in order to tread upon the delicate earth as gently as possible. His books should be required reading in schools - maybe you can assign some parts of the book to your students? What grade do you teach?

 

Wish I could say my fruit intake has gone through the roof. I was a die hard carnivore before I went vegan and never cared for fruits or breads. It was all about the meat meat meat for me. but after having gone vegan, you are of course compelled to expand your gustatory horizons and I have found foods that I am absolutely crazy about now!

 

Feel free to check out our recipes section for some good vegan eats.

 

Yup, the cheese is always hard to give up. I found it harder to give up. When I had gone from omni to vegetarian, I was finding that I was substituting the lack of meat with cheese. It was horribly unhealthy. I finally woke up from my denial of thinking dairy was ethically benign and benign also from a health perspective, went vegan and have never looked back. There is some sort of scientific explanation for why cheese is literally addictive. Something in the cow's milk that is meant to be addictive so the litlle calves drink their mother's milk. Only problem though is that the poor little calves dont get their own mother's milk because we steal it for our own consumption. .

 

You may be interested in neal barnard's book Breaking the Food Seduction.

 

anyway, hope to see you on the boards.

Glad to have you join us.

Edited by compassionategirl
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Welcome vegdad.

Cheese was the hardest for me to give up also. I would put cheese on almost everything.

Regular meat wasn't that difficult though.

I also chose vegan for health.

I never really thought about the animals or the environment before.

Now I see that it is truely sad what we do to our animals and earth.

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Thanks for the welcomes, I appreciate it.

 

I watched meetyourmeat a month ago. It turned my stomach. I've always had trouble watching graphic videos of suffering and that was not easy.

 

I agree about John Robbins walking away from everything. That's what drew me to him.

 

I'm an educational assistant which means I work with handicap children and children with learning disabilities in the public school system.

 

Same as you, I was always having a side of steak with my steak and if I had room for vegetables that meant I just had room for more meat. I was always so back and forth with my eating habits. Either veg or extreme omni. I gave up milk at the same time as meat since I found that I love soy milk and rice milk and cheese is really only limited to two times a week, three at the most. I'm working on it.

 

My wife is very supportive but to a degree. She's always said do what you feel is best for you and that's great. But she's not ready to give up meat entirely. We work it out well though. She eats meat so seldom now I think it's just a matter of time

 

Anyway, thanks again for the welcome.

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There is some sort of scientific explanation for why cheese is literally addictive. Something in the cow's milk that is meant to be addictive so the litlle calves drink their mother's milk. Only problem though is that the poor little calves dont get their own mother's milk because we steal it for our own consumption. .

 

You may be interested in neal barnard's book Breaking the Food Seduction.

 

Here is a link to a 40 minute video of Dr Barnard

http://www.vegsource.com/video/barnard.htm

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veg dad - have you tried almond milk? Chocolate almond milk is very good.

 

What brand of soy milk do you like? For me, Chocolate SILK soy milk kicks ass - even dairy chocolate milk's ass! It is so good that I know many omnis which buy Silk instead of the dairy chocolate milk.

 

i've never tried the vanilla though as I am not a vanilla person. Tis all about the chocolate for moi!

 

Montana vegan: Thanks for the link!

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I'm a vanilla freak through and through. I love the stuff so that's what I usually buy. I buy either silk or so good. Usually I find one or the other on sale. I love the chocolate as well but I always try to have vanilla on hand.

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Welcome Vegdad!

 

Great to have you here. I've seen you logged in quite a bit reading through the forum pages, and I was hoping you were going to say hi sometime

 

Awesome to have you here and welcome aboard!

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Welcome vegdad! Like everyone else, so it seems, cheese was the hardest thing to give up. However, as far as the diet-health connection goes, giving cheese up made a bigger difference than anything else.

 

May I ask if you are/plan on raising your daughter on a vegan or veggie diet?

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Thanks for all the welcomes.

 

I would love to raise my daughter vegetarian or vegan but it's a joint decision and my wife isn't at that point yet. She grew up in a huge meat eating family and the fact that she's cut down as much as she has means a lot to me right now. Baby steps I guess We've come to the agreement our daughter can have meat a little bit and she can make her own mind up about it. However, she's still not old enough to eat it anyway right now and my wife has been saying lately how much better she feels without as much meat. So we'll see.

 

Thanks for telling me about that book. I checked my library online and they have a copy in so I'm going to pick it up this weekend.

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