My Journey Into Becoming Vegan

This morning as I ate my lovely vegan breakfast of chocolate hummus, onion and avocado on sourdough toast, I thought it might be useful for others to see my journey and to see how easy it is to change your diet and your life.

The first time I tried to become vegetarian I was twenty years old and living in Fayetteville (Arkansas). My reasons were beyond pathetic for choosing a lifestyle change. It was because all the cool Fayetteville people were vegetarian and they were thin and I struggled with my weight. I failed miserably, because that’s just not enough.

Over the next forty years I continued my path of struggle. A few years ago, every time I even thought about eating meat it made me ill. But alas, that soon passed. From time to time I’d think of it and wonder what had occurred to make this come and go.

But over the last few years, I have been an animal advocate, totally against animal cruelty. I haven’t bought Proctor and Gamble in years (good-bye Charmin). I have also seen articles about how loving cows and pigs are. Pigs are highly intelligent, and I even have fantasies of owing one. Then last holiday season (2018-2019), I started seeing videos on social media about factory farming. I saw pics of a mother pig essentially feeding her baby pigs through bars, with her in a cage where she could barely turn around. And I was through.

So, I became a pescatarian. And for about 8-9 months I was a happy pescatarian, eating all of my favorites. I ate crawfish and crab and shrimp and lobster and tilapia and salmon and . . . And then my daughter posted on social media about how crab and lobster are killed. What do you mean they are boiled alive? What do you mean they feel pain? What do you mean that oysters can be or are alive until the cord is cut (which means they could die when I scoop them out of the shell)? All I can say to the oysters is “ew, gross!”

Okay, so for about 2 weeks I was a vegetarian. That was very short-lived for two reasons: 1. My daughter became vegan and if she can do it, I can do it and 2. I began to see the hypocrisy in not participating in factory farming but eating cheese?  I tried to buy organic cheese but when I looked up how baby cows are separated from their mother at about 5 days so that their dairy cow mothers don’t miss them too much or become too attached. I began to struggle. Then I learned that veal is brought about by our love of cheese. And eggs, well, I am originally from Arkansas, and I know all about Tyson’s.

Let me state here and now: if you own a farm and are raising your animal cruelty free, are raising them with the respect they deserve, and they are living good lives, I have zero problems with you eating meat. It’s the rest of us, those that are so removed from our food that the mere thought of thanking the animal for it’s sacrifice seems strange and foreign, we are the problems. If you have backyard chickens for your eggs, I’m not talking to you.  If farming was done at home, or if you have a cousin who raises beef cows and lets the baby stay with the mom and feed part of the time, I’m not talking to you. This it for those of us who get excited when we see a cow or a pig or a sheep and show them to our children. “Look Johnny, it’s a cow. Aww. Moo!” We are the ones that have left behind our humanity.

Mahatma Gandhi is attributed with saying, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” We often lament how crime has risen, or how people are treated. Well, we are barbarians, eating the flesh of another living, sentinent being. We are destroying out world and our leaving behind a shithole for our children and children’s children. But more than that, we are destroying out humanity, but feeding off the flesh of others without respect and reverence.

Benefits

Some of the actual benefits I have already seen are a lowering of my blood pressure. In January 2019, I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was 200/120ish. When I went back to the doctor in October, my blood pressure was 90/40 and they had to lower my medication. In march 2019, my cholesterol was 246. When I had it rechecked in September 2019 it had gone down to 221.  And then last week, just a few days after Thanksgiving, I had it tested again. 179 with a ldl of 59 and an hdl of 73.

Also, my blood pressure has dropped significantly.