Vegan Theory Club Weekly Mega thread: 2024-10-26 - 2024-11-2
Vegan Theory Club Weekly Mega thread: 2024-10-26 - 2024-11-2
Welcome to the Vegan Theory Club Weekly Megathread!
Question of the week:
What made you decide to go vegan?
Feel free to talk about anything, whether it’s vegan-related or not. This is a chill space for connecting, sharing ideas, and supporting each other.
Looking forward to hearing what everyone’s up to!
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i'm sure my story's not that interesting, but that's never stopped me before!
i had a friend go vegan in high school, probably 2002 or 2003; i thought she was nuts. we lived in Iowa which is hardcore meat and potatoes territory. but this was my first real-life exposure to that ideology. Alice, if you're out there, i hope you're still vegan and know that while i was not cool about it then, it affected me!
anyway, fast forward many, many years of loving animals but never thinking about where food came from. i ate the standard American diet, drank too much, lived a sedentary life; by the time i sort of "came to" i was over 400lbs (180+kg), a pack-a-day smoker, a heavy drinker, etc. shortly after i realized what i was doing to myself i got diagnosed with diabetes and moved to Colorado. the more active lifestyle out here combined with some other choices helped me get a bit healthier, stop smoking, and some other things. i think this was the first time i tried going vegan myself, maybe 2011 or 2012. it was really difficult and my complicated relationship with food made it not work.
around this same time i began practicing Zen Buddhism, which i continue doing to this day. i tried going vegan several times over the years and never lasted longer than about six months - the Buddhism strongly encouraged the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, but it still didn't click.
in 2022 my wife and i bought a house and got two cats. they are an absolute joy in my life, and it was that which made me realize ever buffalo wing or hamburger i ate came from a creature with as rich an internal life and as much feeling and personality as my boys, and i couldn't do it any more. in 2023 i became a vegetarian, and in 2024 (April-ish) i became a vegan and have stuck it out since then. the kitties, the zen, and the internet have all helped.
additionally, going vegan made tremendous positive impacts on my health. for the first time in my life my diabetes is under control, my depression is moderated, my gout isn't flaring up, and i'm almost 100lbs lighter than i was when i started all this stuff.
so... yeah! tofu is amazing.
On the contrary I think your story is extremely interesting. I'm really glad you've been able to turn it around and come to the side of peace, justice and caring for others. No matter what pathway we take to get there it doesn't matter as long as we arrive. I appreciate you joining us and pushing the book club forward. Thanks for that!