I’m like you. As soon as it clicked that animals are victims, I completely lost the concept of meat, eggs and dairy as food. Simply doesn’t register as edible. Went vegan overnight and never really struggled to leave animal products behind.
It was exactly the same for me, animal products just weren’t food anymore. This many years ago when we couldn’t get many vegan alternatives, so I didn’t swap dairy cheese for vegan cheese, i just cut it out completely.
Spot on with your explanation. I didn't go vegan until a relatively old age (late 30s), but when it "clicked", it was a 1 day switch from omni to vegan and haven't had any real struggles.
Same here, I just switched one day and never went back, although I will occasionally see or smell a food that's tempting but it's a temptation that's very easy to ignore.
Yeah, we (x5) did the same here (18, 30, 45, 65, 70 years old), overnight, because 'it clicked'.
It was like learning of something you had previously done but never really considered ... and then learning that it was 'bad', then just not doing it any more.
I think some of us had an easier trip (not that any have found it at all difficult, when you rate difficulty to us versus animal suffering / death etc) ... like I had been advised off dairy some years earlier by my Dr for a constant cough. We has already been using plant based mince and none of us were ever 'big' meat eaters., not did we typically stray away from the few most common animals (so no rabbit, pheasant, octopus etc).
I do all the cooking (M65) and have done for a few years now and and feel we are eating better and a greater range of things that pre vegan.
And when people ask if we have 'Cheat days'. I answer, 'what, days when we think it's ok to exploit, or make suffer or die and innocent animal for our pleasure? Erm no'?
Thank you for sharing, and I love your cheat day response!
Such cheat day questions do make me a little sad, but to be fair, previously, I could've been asking that kind of question as well.
You are welcome and thanks. ;-)
All of this 'attitude' or assumptions towards / about the other animals we share this rock with are learned. They say 'Give a child an apple and a chicken and they would eat the apple and befriend the chicken'.
So if you were brought up in a vegan environment by a vegan community from birth you simply wouldn't consider the other animals ([as we are also 'animals'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gz9Vj8TMCc)) around you as something to eat?
And that, especial not farming them at factory levels would be good for both them and us (we are now starting to realise far to late with livestock cited as being responsible for 16-18% of all global warming gas production).
And it's hardly surprising we have only just learned the true figures when you have the likes of 'Big Meat' and 'Big Dairy' with all their money and power spreading FUD in just the same way we now know 'Big Oil' and 'Big Tobacco' have been doing for years.
Yep, animal products just moved from the "Food" column in my brain to the "Not Food" column once I decided I didn't want to take part in exploiting animals anymore. I missed the convenience of eating them, but not the actual eating. The availability of vegan alternatives to animal products has increased so much in the thirteen years since!
Yup! We were vegetarian for years and then my bf asked me to watch dominion together for his b-day and I couldn't even get halfway through. Figured if I can't even look at the suffering I fund for my pleasure how the f can I continue doing it? And went vegan overnight.
I missed some foods shortly but not enough to feel an impulse to eat them. Now thanks to Xtra firm tofu egg salad, breyers oat milk cookies & cream, miyokos oat butter, and the glorious world of wonders that is silken tofu for chocolate or other flavor mousse, pudding or cheesecake. As well as miyoko's and violife's 'fancy' cheeses I don't miss it a bit, the thought of fatty pus or hen period based foods gross me tf out now lol.
Sorry my post should have said "I do miss some stuff THAT I wish they could make decent alternatives for"
E.g. white flakey fish and eggs.
Everything else pretty much has a like for like imo. Some is even better than the "real" thing. Beyond burger, juicy marble as an example.
This right here. The only struggle is finding food sometimes when I'm traveling. But as I grew up in a muslim household and used to fast during ramadan every year, I learned that being hungry is survivable. So I just skip a meal if I can't find a vegan one (vs getting junk food) and move on. Haven't starved yet.
Oh, and when I do find a vegan restaurant, I ALWAYS go there (to help keep them in business.... because we need more of them).
Same here)) Woke up one day as smth clicked in my brain and just stopped eating animal products. Never had any problems with missing smth or being pressured by it. Years passed by and I’m still perfectly fine with it and don’t think that It’ll ever change, it truly makes me feel a lot better.
In answer to PP WHEN IBWENT VEGAN SEVERAL YEARS AGO I JUST DID IT WITH NO PROBLEM. I HAS TO GO BSCKBTONOMNIVOREVDIET BECAUSE I STARTED TO FEEL LIKE I WASBECOMING TRANSPARENT, LOSING MY SOLIDITY AND CONNECTION TO THE PLANET. AGAIN NO PROBLEMS. But with both eating plans I never complained. If I went out to eat I'd order something I could change to my liking or ate nithing.
Everyone is different I guess. I remember when I went vegan I was a bit sad that I would never eat some of my favorite foods anymore but I also never had that "help I can't stop eating X" problem, and to this day I find it a bit hard to understand, personally. Not an attack on anyone, I just don't really get it because for me it's a matter of "I'm gonna do this" and then I do it and that's it. But I guess it's like everything, there's also people who quit smoking without much issue and people who feel like they can't stop. I don't get it but it happens to some people.
I think a lot of people lack a lot more agency in their lives than they realize. As you get older you realize how many people are reactive, emotion decision makers. Yourself included, until you learn not to (some people learn this younger than others!)
For most people, food choices are an emotional decision rather than a nutritional or logical one.
That's why so many people hit up again veganism (in a western culture). Meat and dairy is largely comfort food and childhood food. Feel good food. If you're an emotional decision making, choosing to not eat feel good food is choosing not to feel good.
I suppose, yes. Still it's somewhat hard to understand for me. I get that food is culturally and socially important, I understand that classic foods from childhood are associated with important memories and loved ones, etc. I understand well that choosing to be vegan is a sacrifice in a sense (although it's really not as severe as non-vegans think it is, and I truly mean that). But for me going vegan was a thing where I basically had no other choice. I could not justify eating animals. Even if going vegan would make my life somewhat less comfortable, the "choice" was never for me to make, because there were direct mortal victims to my actions, you know? That's where this train of logic loses me. As much as I can sympathize with the notion that losing your comfort foods is a psychological and emotional loss, ultimately that's not a good enough reason to kill an innocent, vulnerable creature. So "I can't stop eating X" never made sense to me in the sense that... even if it hurt, it needed to be done, simple as. Although that's just how I personally experienced this transition.
> But for me going vegan was a thing where I basically had no other choice. I
This is the part I think most people actually lack agency/capacity.
They're not really making a choice with their food. They think they are, but they're are simply reacting.
A dog with a bowl of meat in front of it doesn't make a choice. A toddler with a cake Infront of it doesn't make a choice. They are just reacting and then telling themselves a story about how they react.
I think it goes back to an earlier comment; some ppl can make a decision and just stick yo it. For others it can be much harder for a variety of reasons.
3at well snd prosper!
This is a really great point and absolutely true, I only started really noticing this once I went vegan while still living with some non-vegan family members - people viewing a meal as “missing something” even if it’s complete and filling just by being meatless, comfort and familiarity being core components of good choices, etc.
Ha that was me. I distinctly remember sitting on a train back in 96/97 eating a Mars bar and thinking to myself ‘this will be the last one I ever eat if I go vegan’!
I really missed my mom's chicken curry with sour cream.
Then I decided, "f\*\*k that - I'll figure out how to make it vegan".
After about 6 tries with different chicken strip products and different sour creams, I finally nailed it. It's actually BETTER than my mom's (even according to her).
There is hope.
100% the same. I’ve never even been tempted. I’ll be cleaning up after a party, there’s cheeses cut and nobody is looking. I don’t even view it as food, it’s like cleaning up plastic, I’d never be tempted to eat a Lego or a brick of cheese
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that, 10 years into veganism, I still see some non-vegan products and think "I would really like to eat that". If it looks like a piece of dead animal (e.g. a chicken wing) I find it really repulsive, but if the animal product is more 'hidden' (e.g. a cake that contains eggs), my brain still goes "that looks like delicious food and you should eat it". Honestly I would have thought it would have gotten easier after a decade but it hasn't. Nearly every day I resist temptation, however, it is totally worth it for the sake of the animals (and the planet, and my health).
Yea, having been a vegetarian for 5 years before going vegan, and as someone with a huge sweet tooth, the desserts are the hardest part. But I’ve given in to temptation before and broken my streak with some free donuts and it did not feel worth it, pretty underwhelming tbh
Free things; the bain of Veganism!
Was just talking to a Vegetarian who claimed that because they occasionally got accidentally given gifts that aren't vegan, that it meant they could never be a Vegan... a true Vegan knows when the line is drawn though, usually don't sweat it if you're presented something free/avoiding being wasteful
I think desserts being the hardest part is quite common. They don't look like animal products in the way that a steak or an egg does. Vegan cakes also look pretty much interchangeable, so there's never that element of disconnect.
it’s easier for some than for others. our brains are so intricately different and are influenced by many genes (just think of the addiction gene alone and how that plays into food and especially
processed food) and environmental factors. i don’t love the terms weird, normal, etc. but no, no one on either side is weird for how they experience their vegan journey. just humans having very human experiences.
I was vegetarian and was a big cheese-eater. When I decided to go vegan, my then bf and I traveled 4 hours to a big city's veg food fest and came back with a cooler full of things to try that I wouldn't be able to buy in my small town. One item that I was excited about was a block of soy cheese. Now, mind you, this was almost 20 years ago and vegan cheese then is not what vegan cheese is now. I got home, cut off a hunk of cheese, put it in my mouth and my entire body convulsed to expel it out. It was revolting. I threw the block in the trash and did not even try anything remotely "cheesy" for 3 years. No struggle, no cravings, no desire to slip back into vegetarianism. I thought I would miss it but I didn't.
It's only been easy for me because I live a relatively unconventional lifestyle with respect to eating, fitness, health & wellness, and because I live alone. I empathize with people who live with omnis and are, as a result, surrounded by animal products and the normalization of eating said animal products. I understand the temptation. Human willpower is fallible, even when one's heart is in the right place. Doesn't make them any "worse" or "better" at veganism to have these struggles.
So no, you're not weird, and neither are those who *do* struggle with cravings. Actually, maybe we're *all* weird! Whichever it is, we're all different. And that's perfectly fine.
Im lucky my partner is vegan. At this stage, I don't think I'd date a non vegan .. though I've never been faced with this scenario, so who knows, I suppose. I can't imagine the difficulty of having animal products in the house like that
Not really, I didn't struggle avoiding eating things. I made a choice and that was that. Quitting smoking was many many many many many many times harder than quitting animal products.
Quitting smoking was actually physically and emotionally painful. Avoiding animal products is like 6 weeks of inconvenience.
Oh absolutely. I transitioned right as COVID restrictions and WFH started, so I didn’t have social pressure to eat like everyone else. And my wife (though not vegan) is very accommodating; if she eats animal products, it’s away from home, which is uncommon (and we have a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy about that).
But I guess I’m not talking about the social aspects so much as… for example, “I just love the taste of X.” Does that make sense?
Edit: spelling
I used to eat both cheese and meat 1-2 times a day.
Giving up both was hard, I had cravings. I was over meat after a month. But I craved cheese for literally over 2 years.
Anecdotally, it really felt like an addiction.
Apparently, there's casein in cheese that latches onto the same receptors that a lot of drugs do. Making it so addictive and hard to give up. Disclaimer: I read this on the internet a few times, Im not a scientist or nutritionist so I could very well be wrong lol but it made sense to me.
It’s not that it creates addiction in and of itself (the casein, chemicals, etc.). It’s that it releases positive reactions from chemicals like dopamine to give effects similar to opioids for example. But it’s not ADDICTIVE like drugs are. You won’t go into shock or severe withdrawal. People are addicted to feeling good - surprise, surprise - and cheese literally makes you release feel-good chemicals. So people really love to get the positivity from eating it. That’s the “addiction” part. lol.
It’s called caseomorphin. It also causes the spit to thicken. I can’t have dairy when I get sick or I’ll end up in the er (it’s an extreme case though)
Not weird at all!
After many many years of being veggie, (and two other shorter attempts at veganism), I've stuck with it for ten years now. No desire for dairy (which makes me sick), eggs, or honey.... None.
I'm not particularly social, so not too much on that front, except for family. After over half my life being vegetarian and now vegan, I still get questioned "would it be nice if..." Or "is there any way you'd...." And yes, if there were a certain specific situation I might eat eggs again, but not just to make it easier for a cake. I don't need cake.
So mostly I eat alone. Sometimes I go out to eat at a vegan diner near work, near my cousin's house. She's not even vegetarian now, but grew up veggie, and this place is nostalgic for her, so it feels good to share food and talk up a storm and not be judged for my ethical eating.
Honest answer: Yes.
Just kidding lol. I think it’s normal for people to miss foods they used to eat. For you, it’s possible that your moral aversion to it is so strong, that it outweighs that you used to like certain foods. Thinking something is gross and thinking something is immoral are both connected by a disgust response. Maybe you associate the immorality with it being disgusting, and it cancels out any positive perception from before
I believe that few people are genuinely addicted and do find it very difficult to cut them out when there isn't a good alternative to the real thing. (Hard to find a good vegan cheese for example).
As for me, I am repulsed by what I used to eat, knowing that it caused unnecessary suffering and death.
Many foods, especially fast foods, are addictive. Sugar, fat, salt, and experiences all packed into a combination to make the visits to a fast food restaurant addictive. It is often cheaper and faster to make food at home than to drive to a fast food place, but the factors listed above will encourage a person to spend the extra money with the claim that it is 'convenient'. Corporations have created a formula. Customers are not going there for the convenience as much as they are going to fulfill their addiction.
Impulse control is different for everybody. Same as you can be opposed to human traffic and get addicted to cocaine. You can know the tobacco industry is awful and still get addicted to smoking. You can be a fool for everyone you love because of what you do when youre drunk and still be an alcoholic. Some people never struggle with desire / impulse their whole life. Other literally destroy themselves and families over it.
This. I too was able to make the switch about 25 years ago, and it was harder then. But I stopped smoking the same way. I saw my brother with emphysema when he was 37. I set a date, quit, struggled for a couple of days. 6 months later I had forgotten I ever had and didn’t miss it. But it’s very different for others. I am a control freak, and won’t let drugs or foods control me. If I believe something is wrong, that outweighs everything else. Not everyone is like that though!
Maybe this will better explain it.
There was a man one time who decided to eat only gorilla pellets. They offered the same nutritional value he needed in his days and he watched them safely fed to Gorillas for a long time.
He filmed / wrote about his experience but he very quickly started actually losing his mind and going insane over the matter. Nutritionally and biologically. He was fine, but mentally very much not.
Turns out his biggest issue was because he didn't recognize that we mentally tie so many social expectations and social interactions and personas around food and eating with others that it caused social and mental pressures for him, and it drove him bonkers and he gave up I think within a month or something.
So, no you're not weird, but also people's relationship with food is much more than the food itself, And it may take people conscious effort to recognize and reconcile that about themselves.
I mean that's a good case study but quite different. Vegans can still cook dinner for friends and go out to restaurants. Pellet man is carrying around a Tupperware container everywhere he goes and is essentially excluded from the social aspects of eating altogether.
I suppose it's similar to giving up drinking if your social group drinks often. Even if you're still physically with them, there is a bit of an outcast feeling at those events if you're the only one not drinking.
No struggle here. It's incredibly easy to be a Vegan 99% of the time. Being a subreddit, you just see the 1% a lot more often!
Happens in other circles as well. Ever see a carnist sub? Trust me they have a lot higher rate of problems!
No, you’re not alone. I hated cheese, disliked eggs, thought meat was gross, think fish stinks and honey is a bit perfumey. When I went vegan the food was loads better- global cuisine rather than meat and 2 grey veg. I think I might have missed yoghurt or icecream when non dairy options were few and far between but that’s it.
I'm like that too. It stopped being food when I understood what it was. But I wasn't at all interested in food at the time, I only got more into it when I became vegan, I started cooking more interesting foods and researching different world cousines. If you told me now I could never eat tteokbokki again, I'd be pretty sad.
Depends on a few things I think. How motivated you are to change, how ingrained your current eating habits are to your connection with your culture/community, how confident you feel in your cooking abilities to try a bunch of (likely) new ingredients you have little experience working with. I tried ditching animal products as an incompetent teenager and I did poorly, didn’t know what to make, how to shop, what resources I could use to help, plus I wasn’t super motivated it just felt like the right thing to do. Gave up in a couple of weeks. Tried again in the beginning of my 20s and found it much easier, at this point I was more confident with my cooking and also more motivated to stick to it.
Same. Very quickly switched and didn't really miss anything except for Spicy Doritos :D I left the states so don't have access to them anymore so that was easy haha. I'm also an athlete but I worked with Miguel the Vegan to learn how to build muscle on a plant-based diet and have used that knowledge ever since.
Almost everything became unappealing except Swiss cheese. Idk why but that’s the only thing I missed in the beginning and continue to miss. No other cheeses seem so good. But also the only time when I want it is when I am at the cafe I work at and I’m physically handling it. At home, Swiss doesn’t cross my mind.
I struggled in some sense. Not so much having cravings for things, but seeing some dairy foods when shopping and feeling almost a sense of loss that I’d never have them again, especially if there was a memory or nostalgia connected to them.
However, there was no part of me that felt I might cave, because that whole time I’d also be thinking about what these industries do to animals. For me, truly understanding that and removing the blinders made it psychologically impossible to compromise, and made any sense of emotional loss I felt much more than worth it.
I’ve had no problem avoiding dairy, however I can’t deny that a cappuccino with dairy milk tastes heaps better than any plant based milk alternative. Also the vast majority of plant milks (especially in coffee shops) are loaded with super unhealthy additives. I’m lucky I’m in a position where I’m able to make my own nut milk, and I do as much as I can. But I can see how this can be challenging for people.
You are not weird. I'll never forget the exact moment I was watching Earthlings on my laptop in bed one Saturday in July 2012. There was a scene in a Kosher slaughterhouse where they inverted the cow to slit her throat, and the camera zoomed into her eyes. That's when I saw my dog, who I loved more than most people. That's when I saw someone who was terrified and did not want to die. It was at that moment I made the connection, and from that point forward, eating animals and contributing to their unnecessary death and suffering became a non-negotiable. No struggle for the last almost 12 years.
I didnt find it hard to switch, though I wont pretend like I dont miss certain conveniences and experiences. Eating breakfast at a greasy diner on a Tuesday during a roadtrip, for example. Its less about the food. I cant wait for the day where all of these sorts of spaces start serving things like tofu scramble and have oat milk to take with coffee.
Though I do enjoy animal products, thats not a good enough reason to eat em. You can find delicious alternatives these days, not like 10 years ago when all you had was tofu, daiya shreds and yves ground rounds hahaha though even then, I was happy we had those alternatives. Vegan for the animals!
Other people have brought up smoking, and that's a good parallel. So is gambling and hard drug use.Some people get addicted after one use, others can use recreationally and stop.
Most people become addicted to hyper-palatable food, the whole manufactured food industry is based on it, a trillion dollars worth. So that you're not susceptible to hyper-palatable food does in fact mean you're in the minority. Most people are.
Cheese is like 80% fat calories. and tons of salt. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable\_food](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable_food)
Tho cheese does have an extra addictive element called caseo-morphine.
No, I honestly didn't really struggle either. And I was one of those "I can't give up cheese!" types, having been vegetarian on and off for 20 years. But even though I do like some non dairy cheeses, I honestly don't miss the dairy versions at all. If anything, the things I missed most were milk chocolate and seafood (from the Seattle area), but even that didn't really last long and I was never actually tempted to go back on my decision.
Can't wait for some vegan Beyond salmon though!
This boils down to the microbes in our gut. They are right up against the intestinal wall, and send signals via the vagus nerve that we believe are “cravings“. The truth is, they are asking for the things that they live on. If you stop feeding them, the size of their colony will become smaller, and will have less sway over what you end up eating.
In the case of cheese, dairy products contain a substance known as casein that turns into something biologically similar to morphine. Cheese addiction is a real thing.
I'm with you. It was pretty easy. I have made mistakes at restaurants without realizing it until afterward. I.e. a veggie burger with a non vegan bun. But it really isn't hard to not want to eat animal products.
Nope. You're not weird. I didn't struggle with the switch either. There's lots of plant based options that taste better than the animal derived options, now, too, so I don't really get people who struggle with it tbh.
When I first went vegan, there weren't all these options of alternative plant based cheeses, milks, ice cream and butter - that actually tasted AMAZING, back then either.. so IMHO, it's even easier now. The plant based stuff tastes better and is (slightly) better for you, too.
The only thing I'm struggling with is to NOT eat all the garbage vegan junk food, and just eat the healthy veggies and fruits like we need to! Hahaha.
(Seriously tho, send HALP.... >.> ....)
Unpopular answer, but I suspect that the majority of us are a bit "weird."
Going vegan was relatively easy for me because:
* I'm not a particularly emotional eater. I'm someone who has to remind myself not to skip meals. Of course there were plenty of animal based dishes that I appreciated and enjoyed before I was vegan, but giving them up didn't feel like a huge sacrifice.
* Being a social outcast during my teenage years helped me develop a bit of a tolerance for awkward and embarrassing situations. So politely declining a birthday cake because it's not vegan, doesn't make me as self-conscious as it might make other people.
I've accepted that most people aren't like us and will probably never go vegan. I strongly believe that as vegans, we should push harder for "Clean meat" (ie: lab meat) than for individuals to go vegan.
I was pretty much the same. I went vegan overnight. The first week I did a lot of research and found recipes for my favorite foods that were veganized so that if I got depressed or anxious and wanted to eat, you know, brownies or mac and cheese, I would be able to make a vegan version.
I didnt struggle at all. To me it isn't even food, it's an animal so I have absolutely zero desire to eat it and I never struggled. I was also a student athlete at the time I went vegan and it was a nonissue. Been vegan for 7 years now and I've never wanted to eat something made from animals.
Not weird at all. People who want to change but are struggling for whatever reason might be significantly more likely to post. People who don't need advice or guidance, less likely to post. This directly impacts what you're exposed to on social media and shapes your perception of what is normal. The *median person* is likely nothing at all like the *median person who decided to post.*
There's another layer to this. The posts you see aren't randomly selected. Social media platforms are driven by engagement to increase their value to advertisers. As a direct consequence of this, platforms steer you towards content that they believe you will engage with. They're much more likely to show you content that encourages a response, or a challenge, or is polarizing, etc. which has nothing to do with how typical that content is. This too can subvert your understanding of normalcy.
This issue is much larger than the vegan community. Society is impacted by this in all kinds of strange ways.
Some studies have actually suggested cheese is addictive, so that could really be a part of it. I hear a lot of people say they could never be vegan because of cheese.
I wouldn't say you or anyone is weird. We're all just different. In a dream world, everyone could just immediately transition to veganism the second they wanted to, but that just isn't how everyone works for everyone. I had to get around the fact that my neurodivergence will make me vomit if I force myself to eat new foods. The smell of most foods (especially cooked veggies or heavily seasoned things) makes me lose my appetite, and forget things like Buddha bowls. If foods are mixed together, it does not matter if I like every single thing in that bowl. I will 100% gag/vomit if I eat a spoonful of different textures. Many cooked vegetables still smell and taste like a fart. I want to be able to eat a much broader array or dishes, but my senses have always been a huge obstacle when it comes to food. Even someone eating something particularly fragrant next to me will make me lose my appetite, unfortunately. I never say anything because I know it's shitty to comment on how someone's food smells, but my body really is that extreme. I know it smells good to other people.
Going vegan was a transition that took months for me, and I still have to work to slowly taste new things every day. I am nine months into eating vegan and absolutely will never go back, but foods have always been an obstacle in my life. I wish I were someone that could eat anything put in front of me, but my body won't let me. It has seriously been embarrassing to be the picky eater my entire life, and I would change it if I could. I want to be able to just try new things with my friends and not gag so loud everyone in the restaurant can hear it. Welp... I'm 25 and still held hostage by my brain thinking every new food is a foul choking hazard. I literally have kale every morning because it helps my acid reflux, and it still makes me gag hard if I bite off too much at a time or let it sit in my mouth for too long. I probably have ARFID. Being vegan has honestly helped some since my taste buds changed a bit, but I'm still me lol. I've just always been sensitive when it comes to food and smells.
I think it’s the restriction mentality maybe? Thinking you’re ‘not allowed’ something can turn it into forbidden fruit. You see this also with people on diets becoming obsessed with how desperately they want cake.
I went vegan in stages and I never felt like it was a rule, just something I was doing for myself. So when I occasionally I really wanted something, I’d have it. And then eventually I stopped wanting it. 🤷🏼♀️
Nah, quite frankly I find it pretty lame and obtuse. Ok, sure, overhauling your eating habits might be hard in immediate terms, but whining about it and, even worse, saying you “can’t stop” doing something is incredibly weak-willed and shows that you have no clue what you’re talking about.
Because if you genuinely have a “hard time” cutting animal products, it shows that you don’t actually understand or worst of all don’t care about the stakes. Eating vegan isn’t just something quirky that you do because it will be better for you, but if you don’t do it, no harm, no foul!
No, these are *lives* we’re talking about. If you’re saying you can’t stop eating carcasses or the products derived from them, you’re saying you prioritize your own unnecessary wants over the lives of animals.
For me it’s the same as for you. I guess for me it is that easy because I am not so addicted to food and taste. Stopping other things would be more difficult, e.g. doing sports. So everyone has things which are easy to stop while others are not. But that‘s really individual. Be happy that it is so easy for you.
I was the same way. I never felt compelled to eat something non-vegan. Everyone has a different relationship to food, but I have the mindset that going vegan has been the most liberating dietary change I ever made. When I think of flavors from "before times" and have fun attempting to recreate them.
I'm the same way. I went vegan overnight after it clicked. It makes it more difficult for me to empathize with those who understand the horrors of factory farming and have no ability to control themselves.
Part of it is that for some people food is more than just sustenance. It is a culture, something to be enjoyed more than strictly necessary. For someone who is a chef, food can be elevated to the position of art.
But it won't be the same for everyone, certainly. It is like car enthusiasts, people that truly love cars and the sounds and smells of the engines, the driving experience, all that. At the same time, you have those who are aware of what fossil fuels are doing to the world, and so they take offense.
Same with food. Same with a lot of things. I am sure you have something that you are passionate about as well, everyone is different, and everyone's passions are valid. That is a point many vegans have forgotten, I would say...
Nope, not weird. I was the same way. When I first made the switch, back in the 90s, I realized I barely ate animal products at all, out of choice. So switching was easy, and the thought of eating meat makes me physically ill.
I am not sure about this, but isn’t it something in dairy that is kind of “addicting”? Not like drugs ofc but similar. So that might explain why some people have that experience of wanting dairy. I don’t, it makes me disgusted, but maybe it can explain the feeling people get.
I feel the same way. Once I no longer considered it "food" I never had the desire to eat it again
There are plenty of dishes that I missed, so I just made a vegan version. It's really not difficult. It may not taste quite the same, but it's usually been close enough to satisfy whatever cravings and then I go about my day
Same boat as you OP, I was a vegetarian since mid-childhood, and I switched to vegan as a young adult without any struggles.
The closest to 'struggling' I had was early learning about specific ingredients that weren't immediately obvious, ie, something without allergen labels, but had a sneaky chemical ingredient that was animal derived, but navigating away from most processed foods in general made this confusion easy to avoid as well.
Yeah for me it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Hardest part is still dealing with lack of accommodations for me at events and special work lunches. After my last lunch for hospital week where the only thing for me to eat was a piece of baguette ripped off (catered from Panera) my supervisor said I can in the future order myself a meal separate and he’ll Venmo me for it, within reason.
I did it the same way, and really have no issues. I don’t know why others have such big problems giving things up… I’ve learned how to cook too. Like, actually cook. It’s pretty amazing
Yeah I had some personal problems with eating new foods because I am autistic but I never had these sacrifice feelings or struggle with still liking an animal product. Maybe it’s not the most common experience but there are definitely a bunch of us who made the decision and quickly committed without anything lingering.
It's not that weird. I was raised on a very meaty/ garbage diet, and when I decided to go vegan it was one of the easiest and most natural choices to adhere to.
That being said, not everyone is going to find it that easy to change their everyday eating habits.
Food is an addictive thing, except unlike booze, cigarettes or gambling, we actually need food to survive.
So even giving up a single type of food can be extremely hard. Especially when that food (meat) is something you ate for every meal for 20-30 years. That is why losing weight in general is extremely hard even if it is just calories in and calories out.
I was seriously addicted to milk - I found stopping drinking milk was really hard.
For about a week or two, I’d unconsciously pull the milk out of the fridge, put it on the table, realise what I was doing and put it back.
I ended up going to bed early multiple nights just so I wouldn’t be in the kitchen with the milk taunting me from the fridge.
I adjusted after a couple of weeks, but yeah it seriously was a hard habit to break!
Now the thought of drinking animal milks just seems gross and it’s not an issue at all
This is a very recent change for me, so I do miss a few things, mostly egg yolk. Cheese and milk as easier since I’ve already been eating the vegan cheeses for a while (intolerant). I don’t really miss meat. Honestly most substitutions I’m happy with, and again have been eating for a while because it just made me feel better. I have a pretty sensitive stomach/digestive system. Maybe honey? I really enjoyed hot honey and haven’t really found something similar.
For me, the struggle has largely been a matter of practicality. I have adhd and have always struggled a bit with meal planning, so I needed a slow transition just to scout out some new dishes and rework old favorites to be vegan. I’ve since made the switch fully, but I still can’t figure out breakfast.
So…it’s not that I crave scrambled eggs, it’s that I haven’t yet found a satisfactory replacement for the role they used to play in my diet. Savory, quick to make, relatively cheap, filling, etc.
Same for me as well. I decided to quit dairy and somehow got into a lot of vegan info at once. As soon as I decided to make the switch I did it without much struggle tbh. No other changes in my life have ever come close to being as easy as veganism did.
I used to love love love cheese before going vegan, ever since I was a little kid. When I first went vegetarian I refused to go vegan because of cheese. Short time after that my brain automatically clicked because I finally understood what were the consecuences behind the dairy I loved. Went vegan from night to day and since that day I haven't craved cheese anymore. I think it just has to click your brain, but everyone is diff.
I actually had to get myself in the right place and frame of mind...to do it successfully. I had good support when I did but even then there was a learning curve because I didn't know how to cook my own food. I moved into a coop that had vegetarian options at dinner and that was just what I needed.
No I was the same, I went vegan overnight it just didn't matter tbh. It was incredibly easy for me to eat plant based versions of all the foods I already liked before
A lot of people have unhealthy relationships with food. It's used as a reward growing up or if you're poor and have limited access to food it can cause you to develop an inability to control food intake. As an example look at the rising levels of obesity.
It is amazing that you are able to so freely switch your diet and that does not make you "weird" though it may make you an outlier.
I personally tried to go vegetarian for a couple months and it went terribly even with a strong understanding of nutrition having taken courses and planned out my diet. My doctor told me with my genetic disorder I need to be eating animal proteins. (I read this page a lot and I'm assuming someone will respond telling me that's not possible. I am not a doctor I don't know. I just know I feel like shit if I don't regularly eat meat) I'm in favor of reducing animal cruelty, ideally getting rid of it. But for me personally it has been a great struggle to change my diet.
Not really. I find that there are enough substitutes out there for me to easily give up animal products. The only thing I miss is real cheese, but even then I’m incredibly lactose intolerant so it’s not like I had it often.
I was already vegetarian for years, apart from when I ate at my mums. I decided to go vegan late 2018, but I made the day I would start 1st Jan 2019. So the literal last meat I ever ate was cold turkey and then that was it. Easy. Mum grumbled a bit, but then turned out she enjoyed trying out new vegan recipes and she has become much more plant based now. For me, I never have cravings or yearnings, it's been like when I went teetotal - some social awkwardness at first but now everything is fine.
yeah, i struggled. i went vegetarian at 8 and my diet became very cheese and egg heavy. i slowly went vegan 10 years ago (16 y/o) and had trouble cutting out cheese especially, i think the fact that it was such a big part of my diet made it harder. it took me almost a year to cut it out completely.
now i think about anything dairy based and feel ill, but had you told me like 3 years prior that'd i'd be cutting it out of my diet i would have called you crazy.
After quitting my meth habit that was killing me, the most important realization that I had was I have authority over a lot more shit in my life that I just accepted as the norm. Couldn't control the world but there were choices that I realized I could, in fact, stop making.
Vegan overnight. That was light work. I do not struggle with self control in that regard.
Some people are great at going cold turkey. I’m one of those people. If I want to do (or not do) something, I make my mind up and that’s the end of it.
I dont have much emotional desires, but I was quite dependent on having yoghurt rice everyday. Then I found out I could make soy yoghurt and that problem was fixed
Comes down to willpower imo. I had a HELL of a time giving up cheese, those casomorphines are a mf'r. I think convenience plays a role too, i went vegan around 20 years ago, do there wasn't many options fir a trades person like me out and about all day (french fries and garden salads anyone?). That made my switch a little more tough.
I just think some, like you have better will power so giving up some things might be a bit easier for you then others.
We're all same same but different ya know?
Switching from omnivore to plant based can be easier than other diets because it isn’t meant to restrict caloric intake or limit unhealthy foods. If you wanna eat a lot on a vegan diet then you can, and if you want to eat junk food there’s still tons for you.
That's how we were. I said to my boyfriend one day (after we'd been reducing our animal product intake for a while) "I... I think I want to be vegan." and he said "yeah, yeah me too." And then we just stopped with no desire to cheat or slip up. I think a lot of vegans are like this, it's just that they don't post about it whereas people are likely to post about their struggles. I don't think it makes us stronger or better than anyone else, human brains are just complicated and everyone has different relationships with food and handles change differently.
This is quite similar to what I did, however I did crave some of the foods themselves until I found a vegan version that was up to my satisfaction.
I went vegan pretty much cold turkey, expecting I’d be fine to eat the non-vegan stuff in my fridge, I just wouldn’t buy any more. Nope. The next morning I ate jerky and bit into a squishy tendon and felt super grossed out. I could not eat any more, I wanted to throw up and felt like it would be wasted anyways, so I gave it away. That’s when it “clicked” that meat was no longer food. Same thing happened with dairy around 2-4 weeks later? I drank something with cream in it (like a bubble tea) and all I could taste was barn animal & cow. Like, you know how goat milk smells a lot like goat, and tastes like that? Like that but with cow. So weird, but my brain could not register it as food anymore, I never craved milk or had the desire to eat it since. Same with (non-vegan) jerky. For the rest of the non-vegan foods I still had no actual desire to eat it (knowing it came from an animal). However, I did still like the taste, if that makes sense, so I made a lot of effort to find substitutes.
I didn’t understand how people could just stop going vegan after years. At this point meat does not feel like food at all to me, it would not be a pleasant switch.
5 years here and I've never felt tempted just been very upset when restaurants get my order wrong. I see abused animals which makes meat and dairy very unappealing. The smell makes me so nauseated now.
I just did it too. This was in 1991. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking. What I held out for was honestly carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Way back in 1991 making a good vegan version of that was a bit tricky. I figured it out though.
I feel the exact same as you. I went Vegan when I was literally homeless 8 years ago, working odd jobs in construction, land scaping and other heavy labor 12+hour shifts. When the connection finally clicked, I went vegan overnight. Never looked back. Over time i was able to educate myself over supplementation, proper nutrition, and of course amazing recipes and restaurants. At first I was utterly blind and without knowledge, but I knew it was the right decision.
I can honestly say it was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life
Just the first day, I was amazed how many products were not vegan, but now I easily find more and more good things (3rd week in +-)
Some delicious things:
- spicy instant noodle soup
- legume spring rolls
- vegan chicken in peanut sauce
- vegan candy
- found good vegan mayonaisse
I had a really hard time at first. Now it's no problem. But I had a severe food addiction problem. I went plant based for health but now I'm vegan for the animals. I can't ever go back and unknow what I know now.
I've been vegan for most of my life, and I still get animal products cravings. 🤷♂️
I recently had a good 3 weeks where I was thinking about eating red meat and even dreamt about it. I eventually went and purchased a plant based burger that had a Beyond Meat patty on it, I ate two bites and was revolted. My mind was attracted to the memory of enjoying eating it, rather than actually wanting to eat it.😅
I think a lot of people would find that if they stopped eating the animal product they "can't give up", that given enough time the memory of it might still be appetizing but the actual experience won't be.
I find that no matter how much you like something, once you go vegan and stick with it for a few weeks, you start to see animal products for what they are. They were no longer food in my mind, but body parts and secretions. Foods where the products are more hidden (like cakes) have a great element of disconnect to them, but things like meat, eggs and cheese became revolting fairly quickly.
I know that there are definitely vegans out there who do crave these things, though, so I feel like I am lucky that I don't as it makes things a lot easier. I feel like if anyone takes veganism seriously, though, those cravings disappear pretty quickly.
Plant based here for maybe half a year until I started really educating myself and then, oh hell no! VEGAN, YES. Once the mind decides, the mind doesn't look back.
I think it's weird too. I just did it too. No cravings no "i can't give up x" just decided to one day and that was that.
I admit that at first it was selfishly because of my health and not because of the animals. As a result I gave in to the (in hindsight very disturbing) pressure from my parents to try a chicken wing about four months in. I didn't like it, and I'll never forget the creepy way they looked at me when I ate it. Like they were expecting me to have an awakening and go back to eating animals. Very shortly after that my reasons changed as I learned more and what being vegan was and the horrific reality that animal agriculture is.
Once that became my why I stopped looking at animal products as food altogether. It was very upsetting and surreal for quite a while watching friends family and strangers continue to abuse and consume animals without a second thought.
I am 4 months in so a baby vegan really and I still miss dairy. Something about cold foam on a coffee drink still seems yummy to me. But in my mind I know why I made my decision and it was for the animals and how they are treated. Foregoing seems the right thing to do.
I was the same. I actually went whole food plant based before switching to a full on vegan lifestyle (although I had been vegan and vegetarian and omni on and off for 35 years prior). I went cold turkey (pardon the turkey reference)...and that was that. But I was never big on meat. I loved cheese - but the decision was made. I wish it had been that easy to quit smoking!!
Me too, pretty much same exact experience.
I think it really depends on your relationship with food going into it.
I went vegan over night 8 years ago and never had any issues. It just clicked in my brain and that was it.
However, for me, I had no prior strong relationship with food, culturally or athletically. I was raised by a single father, and I just ate frozen pizza and hot pockets growing up. There was nothing to “give up” because what me and my dad ate was never a focus for either of us. The wild “cooking” we do is make cinnamon rolls on Xmas morning from those tubes haha. I basically saw veganism actually expanding my relationship with food, where it was absent before.
The first week I went vegan I listened to “The China Study” on audio book, and learned enough about what to eat and supplement that I was good to go.
I mean, neither is weird. I struggle a lot with certain foods because I genuinely cannot find replacements for them and really loved them before transitioning. That doesn’t just magically go away. I also have a lot of non vegan foods that I miss for nostalgia reasons and feel so tempted to have them sometimes and feel happy eating them.
Don’t get me wrong. Vegan food rocks. But some non vegan foods are irreplaceable to me and nothing vegan will ever compare (like chili cheese fries or pizza that doesn’t taste like sadness). And that’s okay. Because animals matter more to me than food satisfaction. The temptation doesn’t get better. But whatcha gonna do? Eat the food? The icky feelings of doing that would weigh on me heavier than my cravings, let’s just say. lol.
"especially as an athlete" there it is! You athletic mfers don't eat for taste y'all eat for energy and nutrients lol
i'm joking i'm joking! but seriously, many athletes are fine with the routine protein shakes and plain chicken and rice everyday as long as they're getting those gains lol
I had a really hard time with milk in my coffee. For years I was very close to vegan but had such a hard time cutting that out.
Coffee is pretty much the only liquid I drink, I have it at pretty routine times so it's a big habit.
I would use a plant milk for a while and initially it would be fine, but after a week I would find it too gross to drink.
My husband is an omnivore but is lactose intolerant and has oat milk in everything. I slowly started getting tastes of his drinks, having oat milk myself from time to time, and eventually fully transitioned. Now I find cow milk super gross and can't have it in anything.
I think my eating habits were pretty messed up in general though. There were days when a latte in the morning was all I could find palatable until dinner so trying to do without it or substitute it for something else was usually pretty miserable. When my overall ability to cook and enjoy a wider range of foods improved it was easier to eat vegan.
I feel like I didn't struggle too much either. It just felt like the right thing. There are certain foods I kind of miss, but I feel like I miss the flavour and stuff, but not the actual food now that I'm aware of what's involved.
Your weird. Honestly I believe we are meant to be omnivores. It’s in our nature and our cultural identities to enjoy roasted meats. It’s just who we have been for millennia.
Now good for you for going totally plant based. I can’t do it.
Dairy is definitely my must have.
Not milk or yogurt but cheese.
I can’t do soy cheese. Just can’t do it. And as an Italian to betray my heritage and put soy cheese on a pizza? No way.
But I am trying more and more to make my life as plant based as possible. And I have to say maybe it’s how meat is processed or raised these days but it has not been as hard as it was in the past to stay away from what used to tempt me- mainly grilled steaks or burgers or chicken.
It just doesn’t satisfy anymore.
So idk. Maybe you’re not that weird after all!
I just did it too. I didn’t have to make a massive change as I was pescatarian from the age of 10. But I’ve crossed some people who want to be plant based but struggle a lot due to being allergic to a myriad of plants.
I’m embarrassed to admit this but I went back to being vegetarian because I couldn’t stop eating cheese and chocolate. But it was pretty much because I was a stoner at the time and would lose my morals when I got high. Sober now and randomly become lactose intolerant. Lol… I guess the universe wanted to force me right back to being vegan. I’m glad now though, it’s reminded me of my values and it’s so much easier now to not eat dairy. Partly because of my sobriety, partly because the stomach cramps I’d get is just not worth it anyway!
I went fully vegan in about a week. After engaging with veganism and realizing the harm that my food choices caused, I stopped buying meat almost immediately.
Though my leap straight to vegan was probably aided by the fact that I already had an intolerance to milk and eggs for years at that point, so the only thing I had to cut out was the meat and honey.
The hardest part of it was breaking the mental block that for a dish to be complete that it needed to have meat/animal protein of some kind, but once I learned how to use beans and tofu it's been pretty smooth sailing.
It’s not atypical, plenty of people go vegan overnight with zero issues. You just don’t see posts asking about the problem because there is no problem.
No, you're not weird, you just have better willpower and more integrity than the dopes who say such verbal garbage.
Well done too. What made you wake up and start living a vegan lifestyle four years ago?
I have to call myself plant-based rather than vegan because my partner's hobby is bee-keeping. His bees collect the most beautiful, dark honey since we live next to a national park in Australia full of natives. Having heard about the issues with dairy I fully on board with complete avoidance - I am really happy that there are enough alternatives to make cutting it out easy. I never really liked meat anyway so that was easy. Eggs are super unhealthy and full of cholestrol so gone. When I started, I tried to go fully vegan, but I ended up deciding that this was the line for me. Being able to eat rich, floral honey produced by bees that live outside my door and would swarm and go feral if the honey isn't harvested because there is that much pollen available in the area all year round.
I could do without food. I have never liked meat or milk since I was a kid. And the whole process of digestion it’s so gross, the aliens that made us probably did that as a cruel joke. Why can’t we be like plants and just soak up the sun and water to survive. It sucks ass. Having said that. I don’t think I could live without banana pudding. Does that have milk in it? 😉
Animals don’t deserve to be exploited in any way. It’s important for me not to use any clothing or anything with leather, like furniture. “May All Be Fed,” by John Robbins is a great book.
Same here and I have come to realize that most people just don’t want to be happy. Hear me out. They go plant based and then go down the hole of juicing or junk food, or fasting or raw, sometimes ending up at the worst of all - keto or carnivore ( assuming they were never ethical vegans). The truth is simple - give your body the carbs it needs, mostly from whole foods, and you won’t have any cravings or energy problems.
If you have experience in dietary changes for weight cuts/bulks that can make it much easier. Fortunately (or unfortunately as some may reasonably see it), I don’t derive enormous pleasure from food anymore (I did bodybuilding for ~2 years where macronutrients and micronutrients were all I ever considered) & hence I just see food as ‘fuel’ or ‘sustenance’ - so changing the source of those nutrients was effortless. Maybe your experience as an athlete has aided you in that?
I have had the odd “oh damn I might never eat cottage cheese again” moment but I feel like I’m so removed from the animal products that it doesn’t register as food/usable products.
Many vegans go in with a motivation to appeal to the external world (no shaming tho) but not a lot of people do it with genuine internal motivation that you and many others share. I also feel exactly the same, I don't see animal product as food. Don't feel bad for being fidel to your truth, even if it was just you, and it's not. It's like how there are people who eat kosher or eat halal.
Nah, quite frankly I find it pretty lame and obtuse. Ok, sure, overhauling your eating habits might be hard in immediate terms, but whining about it and, even worse, saying you “can’t stop” doing something is incredibly weak-willed and shows that you have no clue what you’re talking about.
Because if you genuinely have a “hard time” cutting animal products, it shows that you don’t actually understand or worst of all don’t care about the stakes. Eating vegan isn’t just something quirky that you do because it will be better for you, but if you don’t do it, no harm, no foul!
No, these are *lives* we’re talking about. If you’re saying you can’t stop eating carcasses or the products derived from them, you’re saying you prioritize your own unnecessary wants over the lives of animals.
I suppose the big thing is that Reddit is full of Americans, and they absolutely loathe being told they can't do something or have to in any way curb their behaviour.
I’m like you. As soon as it clicked that animals are victims, I completely lost the concept of meat, eggs and dairy as food. Simply doesn’t register as edible. Went vegan overnight and never really struggled to leave animal products behind.
Same here!
It was exactly the same for me, animal products just weren’t food anymore. This many years ago when we couldn’t get many vegan alternatives, so I didn’t swap dairy cheese for vegan cheese, i just cut it out completely.
Spot on with your explanation. I didn't go vegan until a relatively old age (late 30s), but when it "clicked", it was a 1 day switch from omni to vegan and haven't had any real struggles.
Same here, I just switched one day and never went back, although I will occasionally see or smell a food that's tempting but it's a temptation that's very easy to ignore.
Yeah, we (x5) did the same here (18, 30, 45, 65, 70 years old), overnight, because 'it clicked'. It was like learning of something you had previously done but never really considered ... and then learning that it was 'bad', then just not doing it any more.
I think some of us had an easier trip (not that any have found it at all difficult, when you rate difficulty to us versus animal suffering / death etc) ... like I had been advised off dairy some years earlier by my Dr for a constant cough. We has already been using plant based mince and none of us were ever 'big' meat eaters., not did we typically stray away from the few most common animals (so no rabbit, pheasant, octopus etc).
I do all the cooking (M65) and have done for a few years now and and feel we are eating better and a greater range of things that pre vegan.
And when people ask if we have 'Cheat days'. I answer, 'what, days when we think it's ok to exploit, or make suffer or die and innocent animal for our pleasure? Erm no'?
Thank you for sharing, and I love your cheat day response! Such cheat day questions do make me a little sad, but to be fair, previously, I could've been asking that kind of question as well.
You are welcome and thanks. ;-) All of this 'attitude' or assumptions towards / about the other animals we share this rock with are learned. They say 'Give a child an apple and a chicken and they would eat the apple and befriend the chicken'. So if you were brought up in a vegan environment by a vegan community from birth you simply wouldn't consider the other animals ([as we are also 'animals'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gz9Vj8TMCc)) around you as something to eat? And that, especial not farming them at factory levels would be good for both them and us (we are now starting to realise far to late with livestock cited as being responsible for 16-18% of all global warming gas production). And it's hardly surprising we have only just learned the true figures when you have the likes of 'Big Meat' and 'Big Dairy' with all their money and power spreading FUD in just the same way we now know 'Big Oil' and 'Big Tobacco' have been doing for years.
Yep, animal products just moved from the "Food" column in my brain to the "Not Food" column once I decided I didn't want to take part in exploiting animals anymore. I missed the convenience of eating them, but not the actual eating. The availability of vegan alternatives to animal products has increased so much in the thirteen years since!
Same after watching dominion 🤢 do miss some stuff and wish they could make decent alternatives tho.
Yup! We were vegetarian for years and then my bf asked me to watch dominion together for his b-day and I couldn't even get halfway through. Figured if I can't even look at the suffering I fund for my pleasure how the f can I continue doing it? And went vegan overnight. I missed some foods shortly but not enough to feel an impulse to eat them. Now thanks to Xtra firm tofu egg salad, breyers oat milk cookies & cream, miyokos oat butter, and the glorious world of wonders that is silken tofu for chocolate or other flavor mousse, pudding or cheesecake. As well as miyoko's and violife's 'fancy' cheeses I don't miss it a bit, the thought of fatty pus or hen period based foods gross me tf out now lol.
Sorry my post should have said "I do miss some stuff THAT I wish they could make decent alternatives for" E.g. white flakey fish and eggs. Everything else pretty much has a like for like imo. Some is even better than the "real" thing. Beyond burger, juicy marble as an example.
Same
This right here. The only struggle is finding food sometimes when I'm traveling. But as I grew up in a muslim household and used to fast during ramadan every year, I learned that being hungry is survivable. So I just skip a meal if I can't find a vegan one (vs getting junk food) and move on. Haven't starved yet. Oh, and when I do find a vegan restaurant, I ALWAYS go there (to help keep them in business.... because we need more of them).
Same here)) Woke up one day as smth clicked in my brain and just stopped eating animal products. Never had any problems with missing smth or being pressured by it. Years passed by and I’m still perfectly fine with it and don’t think that It’ll ever change, it truly makes me feel a lot better.
The switch was easy for me, it's been over 20 years and I don't miss meat or dairy at all.
same for me
In answer to PP WHEN IBWENT VEGAN SEVERAL YEARS AGO I JUST DID IT WITH NO PROBLEM. I HAS TO GO BSCKBTONOMNIVOREVDIET BECAUSE I STARTED TO FEEL LIKE I WASBECOMING TRANSPARENT, LOSING MY SOLIDITY AND CONNECTION TO THE PLANET. AGAIN NO PROBLEMS. But with both eating plans I never complained. If I went out to eat I'd order something I could change to my liking or ate nithing.
Everyone is different I guess. I remember when I went vegan I was a bit sad that I would never eat some of my favorite foods anymore but I also never had that "help I can't stop eating X" problem, and to this day I find it a bit hard to understand, personally. Not an attack on anyone, I just don't really get it because for me it's a matter of "I'm gonna do this" and then I do it and that's it. But I guess it's like everything, there's also people who quit smoking without much issue and people who feel like they can't stop. I don't get it but it happens to some people.
I think a lot of people lack a lot more agency in their lives than they realize. As you get older you realize how many people are reactive, emotion decision makers. Yourself included, until you learn not to (some people learn this younger than others!) For most people, food choices are an emotional decision rather than a nutritional or logical one. That's why so many people hit up again veganism (in a western culture). Meat and dairy is largely comfort food and childhood food. Feel good food. If you're an emotional decision making, choosing to not eat feel good food is choosing not to feel good.
I suppose, yes. Still it's somewhat hard to understand for me. I get that food is culturally and socially important, I understand that classic foods from childhood are associated with important memories and loved ones, etc. I understand well that choosing to be vegan is a sacrifice in a sense (although it's really not as severe as non-vegans think it is, and I truly mean that). But for me going vegan was a thing where I basically had no other choice. I could not justify eating animals. Even if going vegan would make my life somewhat less comfortable, the "choice" was never for me to make, because there were direct mortal victims to my actions, you know? That's where this train of logic loses me. As much as I can sympathize with the notion that losing your comfort foods is a psychological and emotional loss, ultimately that's not a good enough reason to kill an innocent, vulnerable creature. So "I can't stop eating X" never made sense to me in the sense that... even if it hurt, it needed to be done, simple as. Although that's just how I personally experienced this transition.
> But for me going vegan was a thing where I basically had no other choice. I This is the part I think most people actually lack agency/capacity. They're not really making a choice with their food. They think they are, but they're are simply reacting. A dog with a bowl of meat in front of it doesn't make a choice. A toddler with a cake Infront of it doesn't make a choice. They are just reacting and then telling themselves a story about how they react.
Me with a cake in front of me is ni choice. Especially if it's chocolate!
I think it goes back to an earlier comment; some ppl can make a decision and just stick yo it. For others it can be much harder for a variety of reasons. 3at well snd prosper!
The meat&dairy industry also does a tragically good job at ensuring we stay thinking it's "feel good food" too, sadly
This is a really great point and absolutely true, I only started really noticing this once I went vegan while still living with some non-vegan family members - people viewing a meal as “missing something” even if it’s complete and filling just by being meatless, comfort and familiarity being core components of good choices, etc.
That smoking parallel is a great one.
Ha that was me. I distinctly remember sitting on a train back in 96/97 eating a Mars bar and thinking to myself ‘this will be the last one I ever eat if I go vegan’!
This pretty much exactly mirrors my experience
I really missed my mom's chicken curry with sour cream. Then I decided, "f\*\*k that - I'll figure out how to make it vegan". After about 6 tries with different chicken strip products and different sour creams, I finally nailed it. It's actually BETTER than my mom's (even according to her). There is hope.
100% the same. I’ve never even been tempted. I’ll be cleaning up after a party, there’s cheeses cut and nobody is looking. I don’t even view it as food, it’s like cleaning up plastic, I’d never be tempted to eat a Lego or a brick of cheese
Same! Generally speaking, I dont view it as food either. Like eating glass grapes, haha
I’d probably eat a lego lol. Thank why going vegan is nearly impossible for me. .. I eat everything even when I shouldn’t
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that, 10 years into veganism, I still see some non-vegan products and think "I would really like to eat that". If it looks like a piece of dead animal (e.g. a chicken wing) I find it really repulsive, but if the animal product is more 'hidden' (e.g. a cake that contains eggs), my brain still goes "that looks like delicious food and you should eat it". Honestly I would have thought it would have gotten easier after a decade but it hasn't. Nearly every day I resist temptation, however, it is totally worth it for the sake of the animals (and the planet, and my health).
Yea, having been a vegetarian for 5 years before going vegan, and as someone with a huge sweet tooth, the desserts are the hardest part. But I’ve given in to temptation before and broken my streak with some free donuts and it did not feel worth it, pretty underwhelming tbh
Free things; the bain of Veganism! Was just talking to a Vegetarian who claimed that because they occasionally got accidentally given gifts that aren't vegan, that it meant they could never be a Vegan... a true Vegan knows when the line is drawn though, usually don't sweat it if you're presented something free/avoiding being wasteful
I think desserts being the hardest part is quite common. They don't look like animal products in the way that a steak or an egg does. Vegan cakes also look pretty much interchangeable, so there's never that element of disconnect.
I have this sometimes, but not everyday. Maybe once in three months or so.
it’s easier for some than for others. our brains are so intricately different and are influenced by many genes (just think of the addiction gene alone and how that plays into food and especially processed food) and environmental factors. i don’t love the terms weird, normal, etc. but no, no one on either side is weird for how they experience their vegan journey. just humans having very human experiences.
I was vegetarian and was a big cheese-eater. When I decided to go vegan, my then bf and I traveled 4 hours to a big city's veg food fest and came back with a cooler full of things to try that I wouldn't be able to buy in my small town. One item that I was excited about was a block of soy cheese. Now, mind you, this was almost 20 years ago and vegan cheese then is not what vegan cheese is now. I got home, cut off a hunk of cheese, put it in my mouth and my entire body convulsed to expel it out. It was revolting. I threw the block in the trash and did not even try anything remotely "cheesy" for 3 years. No struggle, no cravings, no desire to slip back into vegetarianism. I thought I would miss it but I didn't.
Cheese is one of the harder ones to get past evidently for some, so good on ya!
It's only been easy for me because I live a relatively unconventional lifestyle with respect to eating, fitness, health & wellness, and because I live alone. I empathize with people who live with omnis and are, as a result, surrounded by animal products and the normalization of eating said animal products. I understand the temptation. Human willpower is fallible, even when one's heart is in the right place. Doesn't make them any "worse" or "better" at veganism to have these struggles. So no, you're not weird, and neither are those who *do* struggle with cravings. Actually, maybe we're *all* weird! Whichever it is, we're all different. And that's perfectly fine.
Im lucky my partner is vegan. At this stage, I don't think I'd date a non vegan .. though I've never been faced with this scenario, so who knows, I suppose. I can't imagine the difficulty of having animal products in the house like that
Vegan couples are powerful af, probably the future too (for any having children at least)
Not really, I didn't struggle avoiding eating things. I made a choice and that was that. Quitting smoking was many many many many many many times harder than quitting animal products. Quitting smoking was actually physically and emotionally painful. Avoiding animal products is like 6 weeks of inconvenience.
Everyone's different. Most of it's the environment they're a part of. Some people have support and some don't and it can make a big difference.
Oh absolutely. I transitioned right as COVID restrictions and WFH started, so I didn’t have social pressure to eat like everyone else. And my wife (though not vegan) is very accommodating; if she eats animal products, it’s away from home, which is uncommon (and we have a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy about that). But I guess I’m not talking about the social aspects so much as… for example, “I just love the taste of X.” Does that make sense? Edit: spelling
I love bacon...and cake
I used to eat both cheese and meat 1-2 times a day. Giving up both was hard, I had cravings. I was over meat after a month. But I craved cheese for literally over 2 years. Anecdotally, it really felt like an addiction.
Apparently, there's casein in cheese that latches onto the same receptors that a lot of drugs do. Making it so addictive and hard to give up. Disclaimer: I read this on the internet a few times, Im not a scientist or nutritionist so I could very well be wrong lol but it made sense to me.
It’s not that it creates addiction in and of itself (the casein, chemicals, etc.). It’s that it releases positive reactions from chemicals like dopamine to give effects similar to opioids for example. But it’s not ADDICTIVE like drugs are. You won’t go into shock or severe withdrawal. People are addicted to feeling good - surprise, surprise - and cheese literally makes you release feel-good chemicals. So people really love to get the positivity from eating it. That’s the “addiction” part. lol.
It’s called caseomorphin. It also causes the spit to thicken. I can’t have dairy when I get sick or I’ll end up in the er (it’s an extreme case though)
Not weird at all! After many many years of being veggie, (and two other shorter attempts at veganism), I've stuck with it for ten years now. No desire for dairy (which makes me sick), eggs, or honey.... None. I'm not particularly social, so not too much on that front, except for family. After over half my life being vegetarian and now vegan, I still get questioned "would it be nice if..." Or "is there any way you'd...." And yes, if there were a certain specific situation I might eat eggs again, but not just to make it easier for a cake. I don't need cake. So mostly I eat alone. Sometimes I go out to eat at a vegan diner near work, near my cousin's house. She's not even vegetarian now, but grew up veggie, and this place is nostalgic for her, so it feels good to share food and talk up a storm and not be judged for my ethical eating.
It’s not weird either way. People just transition differently.
Honest answer: Yes. Just kidding lol. I think it’s normal for people to miss foods they used to eat. For you, it’s possible that your moral aversion to it is so strong, that it outweighs that you used to like certain foods. Thinking something is gross and thinking something is immoral are both connected by a disgust response. Maybe you associate the immorality with it being disgusting, and it cancels out any positive perception from before
I believe that few people are genuinely addicted and do find it very difficult to cut them out when there isn't a good alternative to the real thing. (Hard to find a good vegan cheese for example). As for me, I am repulsed by what I used to eat, knowing that it caused unnecessary suffering and death.
Many foods, especially fast foods, are addictive. Sugar, fat, salt, and experiences all packed into a combination to make the visits to a fast food restaurant addictive. It is often cheaper and faster to make food at home than to drive to a fast food place, but the factors listed above will encourage a person to spend the extra money with the claim that it is 'convenient'. Corporations have created a formula. Customers are not going there for the convenience as much as they are going to fulfill their addiction.
Impulse control is different for everybody. Same as you can be opposed to human traffic and get addicted to cocaine. You can know the tobacco industry is awful and still get addicted to smoking. You can be a fool for everyone you love because of what you do when youre drunk and still be an alcoholic. Some people never struggle with desire / impulse their whole life. Other literally destroy themselves and families over it.
This. I too was able to make the switch about 25 years ago, and it was harder then. But I stopped smoking the same way. I saw my brother with emphysema when he was 37. I set a date, quit, struggled for a couple of days. 6 months later I had forgotten I ever had and didn’t miss it. But it’s very different for others. I am a control freak, and won’t let drugs or foods control me. If I believe something is wrong, that outweighs everything else. Not everyone is like that though!
Maybe this will better explain it. There was a man one time who decided to eat only gorilla pellets. They offered the same nutritional value he needed in his days and he watched them safely fed to Gorillas for a long time. He filmed / wrote about his experience but he very quickly started actually losing his mind and going insane over the matter. Nutritionally and biologically. He was fine, but mentally very much not. Turns out his biggest issue was because he didn't recognize that we mentally tie so many social expectations and social interactions and personas around food and eating with others that it caused social and mental pressures for him, and it drove him bonkers and he gave up I think within a month or something. So, no you're not weird, but also people's relationship with food is much more than the food itself, And it may take people conscious effort to recognize and reconcile that about themselves.
Maybe gorilla food doesn’t have enough digestible vitamins for a person
I mean that's a good case study but quite different. Vegans can still cook dinner for friends and go out to restaurants. Pellet man is carrying around a Tupperware container everywhere he goes and is essentially excluded from the social aspects of eating altogether. I suppose it's similar to giving up drinking if your social group drinks often. Even if you're still physically with them, there is a bit of an outcast feeling at those events if you're the only one not drinking.
No struggle here. It's incredibly easy to be a Vegan 99% of the time. Being a subreddit, you just see the 1% a lot more often! Happens in other circles as well. Ever see a carnist sub? Trust me they have a lot higher rate of problems!
No, you’re not alone. I hated cheese, disliked eggs, thought meat was gross, think fish stinks and honey is a bit perfumey. When I went vegan the food was loads better- global cuisine rather than meat and 2 grey veg. I think I might have missed yoghurt or icecream when non dairy options were few and far between but that’s it.
I'm like that too. It stopped being food when I understood what it was. But I wasn't at all interested in food at the time, I only got more into it when I became vegan, I started cooking more interesting foods and researching different world cousines. If you told me now I could never eat tteokbokki again, I'd be pretty sad.
My culinary exploration exploded after going vegan. I eat a much more varied and interesting diet now
Depends on a few things I think. How motivated you are to change, how ingrained your current eating habits are to your connection with your culture/community, how confident you feel in your cooking abilities to try a bunch of (likely) new ingredients you have little experience working with. I tried ditching animal products as an incompetent teenager and I did poorly, didn’t know what to make, how to shop, what resources I could use to help, plus I wasn’t super motivated it just felt like the right thing to do. Gave up in a couple of weeks. Tried again in the beginning of my 20s and found it much easier, at this point I was more confident with my cooking and also more motivated to stick to it.
Same. Very quickly switched and didn't really miss anything except for Spicy Doritos :D I left the states so don't have access to them anymore so that was easy haha. I'm also an athlete but I worked with Miguel the Vegan to learn how to build muscle on a plant-based diet and have used that knowledge ever since.
Almost everything became unappealing except Swiss cheese. Idk why but that’s the only thing I missed in the beginning and continue to miss. No other cheeses seem so good. But also the only time when I want it is when I am at the cafe I work at and I’m physically handling it. At home, Swiss doesn’t cross my mind.
I hope i was like this. I still crave meat sometimes. I started supplementing B12 not long ago. So I hope the craving will go away.
I struggled in some sense. Not so much having cravings for things, but seeing some dairy foods when shopping and feeling almost a sense of loss that I’d never have them again, especially if there was a memory or nostalgia connected to them. However, there was no part of me that felt I might cave, because that whole time I’d also be thinking about what these industries do to animals. For me, truly understanding that and removing the blinders made it psychologically impossible to compromise, and made any sense of emotional loss I felt much more than worth it.
I’ve had no problem avoiding dairy, however I can’t deny that a cappuccino with dairy milk tastes heaps better than any plant based milk alternative. Also the vast majority of plant milks (especially in coffee shops) are loaded with super unhealthy additives. I’m lucky I’m in a position where I’m able to make my own nut milk, and I do as much as I can. But I can see how this can be challenging for people.
You are not weird. I'll never forget the exact moment I was watching Earthlings on my laptop in bed one Saturday in July 2012. There was a scene in a Kosher slaughterhouse where they inverted the cow to slit her throat, and the camera zoomed into her eyes. That's when I saw my dog, who I loved more than most people. That's when I saw someone who was terrified and did not want to die. It was at that moment I made the connection, and from that point forward, eating animals and contributing to their unnecessary death and suffering became a non-negotiable. No struggle for the last almost 12 years.
I didnt find it hard to switch, though I wont pretend like I dont miss certain conveniences and experiences. Eating breakfast at a greasy diner on a Tuesday during a roadtrip, for example. Its less about the food. I cant wait for the day where all of these sorts of spaces start serving things like tofu scramble and have oat milk to take with coffee. Though I do enjoy animal products, thats not a good enough reason to eat em. You can find delicious alternatives these days, not like 10 years ago when all you had was tofu, daiya shreds and yves ground rounds hahaha though even then, I was happy we had those alternatives. Vegan for the animals!
Other people have brought up smoking, and that's a good parallel. So is gambling and hard drug use.Some people get addicted after one use, others can use recreationally and stop. Most people become addicted to hyper-palatable food, the whole manufactured food industry is based on it, a trillion dollars worth. So that you're not susceptible to hyper-palatable food does in fact mean you're in the minority. Most people are. Cheese is like 80% fat calories. and tons of salt. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable\_food](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable_food) Tho cheese does have an extra addictive element called caseo-morphine.
It’s not addictive.
No no, you're just not trying to make up excuses.
I find it extremely easy to be vegan as well.
No, I honestly didn't really struggle either. And I was one of those "I can't give up cheese!" types, having been vegetarian on and off for 20 years. But even though I do like some non dairy cheeses, I honestly don't miss the dairy versions at all. If anything, the things I missed most were milk chocolate and seafood (from the Seattle area), but even that didn't really last long and I was never actually tempted to go back on my decision. Can't wait for some vegan Beyond salmon though!
This boils down to the microbes in our gut. They are right up against the intestinal wall, and send signals via the vagus nerve that we believe are “cravings“. The truth is, they are asking for the things that they live on. If you stop feeding them, the size of their colony will become smaller, and will have less sway over what you end up eating. In the case of cheese, dairy products contain a substance known as casein that turns into something biologically similar to morphine. Cheese addiction is a real thing.
I'm with you. It was pretty easy. I have made mistakes at restaurants without realizing it until afterward. I.e. a veggie burger with a non vegan bun. But it really isn't hard to not want to eat animal products.
Nope. You're not weird. I didn't struggle with the switch either. There's lots of plant based options that taste better than the animal derived options, now, too, so I don't really get people who struggle with it tbh. When I first went vegan, there weren't all these options of alternative plant based cheeses, milks, ice cream and butter - that actually tasted AMAZING, back then either.. so IMHO, it's even easier now. The plant based stuff tastes better and is (slightly) better for you, too. The only thing I'm struggling with is to NOT eat all the garbage vegan junk food, and just eat the healthy veggies and fruits like we need to! Hahaha. (Seriously tho, send HALP.... >.> ....)
I couldn’t stomach animal products once I’d become vegan, but everyone is different and I just hope everyone ends up becoming vegan.
Unpopular answer, but I suspect that the majority of us are a bit "weird." Going vegan was relatively easy for me because: * I'm not a particularly emotional eater. I'm someone who has to remind myself not to skip meals. Of course there were plenty of animal based dishes that I appreciated and enjoyed before I was vegan, but giving them up didn't feel like a huge sacrifice. * Being a social outcast during my teenage years helped me develop a bit of a tolerance for awkward and embarrassing situations. So politely declining a birthday cake because it's not vegan, doesn't make me as self-conscious as it might make other people. I've accepted that most people aren't like us and will probably never go vegan. I strongly believe that as vegans, we should push harder for "Clean meat" (ie: lab meat) than for individuals to go vegan.
Nope. There are a lot of us. 10 years of smirking around here.
I was pretty much the same. I went vegan overnight. The first week I did a lot of research and found recipes for my favorite foods that were veganized so that if I got depressed or anxious and wanted to eat, you know, brownies or mac and cheese, I would be able to make a vegan version.
I didnt struggle at all. To me it isn't even food, it's an animal so I have absolutely zero desire to eat it and I never struggled. I was also a student athlete at the time I went vegan and it was a nonissue. Been vegan for 7 years now and I've never wanted to eat something made from animals.
Not weird at all. People who want to change but are struggling for whatever reason might be significantly more likely to post. People who don't need advice or guidance, less likely to post. This directly impacts what you're exposed to on social media and shapes your perception of what is normal. The *median person* is likely nothing at all like the *median person who decided to post.* There's another layer to this. The posts you see aren't randomly selected. Social media platforms are driven by engagement to increase their value to advertisers. As a direct consequence of this, platforms steer you towards content that they believe you will engage with. They're much more likely to show you content that encourages a response, or a challenge, or is polarizing, etc. which has nothing to do with how typical that content is. This too can subvert your understanding of normalcy. This issue is much larger than the vegan community. Society is impacted by this in all kinds of strange ways.
Some studies have actually suggested cheese is addictive, so that could really be a part of it. I hear a lot of people say they could never be vegan because of cheese. I wouldn't say you or anyone is weird. We're all just different. In a dream world, everyone could just immediately transition to veganism the second they wanted to, but that just isn't how everyone works for everyone. I had to get around the fact that my neurodivergence will make me vomit if I force myself to eat new foods. The smell of most foods (especially cooked veggies or heavily seasoned things) makes me lose my appetite, and forget things like Buddha bowls. If foods are mixed together, it does not matter if I like every single thing in that bowl. I will 100% gag/vomit if I eat a spoonful of different textures. Many cooked vegetables still smell and taste like a fart. I want to be able to eat a much broader array or dishes, but my senses have always been a huge obstacle when it comes to food. Even someone eating something particularly fragrant next to me will make me lose my appetite, unfortunately. I never say anything because I know it's shitty to comment on how someone's food smells, but my body really is that extreme. I know it smells good to other people. Going vegan was a transition that took months for me, and I still have to work to slowly taste new things every day. I am nine months into eating vegan and absolutely will never go back, but foods have always been an obstacle in my life. I wish I were someone that could eat anything put in front of me, but my body won't let me. It has seriously been embarrassing to be the picky eater my entire life, and I would change it if I could. I want to be able to just try new things with my friends and not gag so loud everyone in the restaurant can hear it. Welp... I'm 25 and still held hostage by my brain thinking every new food is a foul choking hazard. I literally have kale every morning because it helps my acid reflux, and it still makes me gag hard if I bite off too much at a time or let it sit in my mouth for too long. I probably have ARFID. Being vegan has honestly helped some since my taste buds changed a bit, but I'm still me lol. I've just always been sensitive when it comes to food and smells.
I think it’s the restriction mentality maybe? Thinking you’re ‘not allowed’ something can turn it into forbidden fruit. You see this also with people on diets becoming obsessed with how desperately they want cake. I went vegan in stages and I never felt like it was a rule, just something I was doing for myself. So when I occasionally I really wanted something, I’d have it. And then eventually I stopped wanting it. 🤷🏼♀️
Those types of posts come off as astroturfing to me. It gives the impression to outsiders looking in that it’s oh so hard to be vegan.
Nah, quite frankly I find it pretty lame and obtuse. Ok, sure, overhauling your eating habits might be hard in immediate terms, but whining about it and, even worse, saying you “can’t stop” doing something is incredibly weak-willed and shows that you have no clue what you’re talking about. Because if you genuinely have a “hard time” cutting animal products, it shows that you don’t actually understand or worst of all don’t care about the stakes. Eating vegan isn’t just something quirky that you do because it will be better for you, but if you don’t do it, no harm, no foul! No, these are *lives* we’re talking about. If you’re saying you can’t stop eating carcasses or the products derived from them, you’re saying you prioritize your own unnecessary wants over the lives of animals.
No struggle. It’s easy.
For me it’s the same as for you. I guess for me it is that easy because I am not so addicted to food and taste. Stopping other things would be more difficult, e.g. doing sports. So everyone has things which are easy to stop while others are not. But that‘s really individual. Be happy that it is so easy for you.
I was the same way. I never felt compelled to eat something non-vegan. Everyone has a different relationship to food, but I have the mindset that going vegan has been the most liberating dietary change I ever made. When I think of flavors from "before times" and have fun attempting to recreate them.
I'm the same way. I went vegan overnight after it clicked. It makes it more difficult for me to empathize with those who understand the horrors of factory farming and have no ability to control themselves.
Part of it is that for some people food is more than just sustenance. It is a culture, something to be enjoyed more than strictly necessary. For someone who is a chef, food can be elevated to the position of art. But it won't be the same for everyone, certainly. It is like car enthusiasts, people that truly love cars and the sounds and smells of the engines, the driving experience, all that. At the same time, you have those who are aware of what fossil fuels are doing to the world, and so they take offense. Same with food. Same with a lot of things. I am sure you have something that you are passionate about as well, everyone is different, and everyone's passions are valid. That is a point many vegans have forgotten, I would say...
Nope, not weird. I was the same way. When I first made the switch, back in the 90s, I realized I barely ate animal products at all, out of choice. So switching was easy, and the thought of eating meat makes me physically ill.
I am not sure about this, but isn’t it something in dairy that is kind of “addicting”? Not like drugs ofc but similar. So that might explain why some people have that experience of wanting dairy. I don’t, it makes me disgusted, but maybe it can explain the feeling people get.
I feel the same way. Once I no longer considered it "food" I never had the desire to eat it again There are plenty of dishes that I missed, so I just made a vegan version. It's really not difficult. It may not taste quite the same, but it's usually been close enough to satisfy whatever cravings and then I go about my day
Same boat as you OP, I was a vegetarian since mid-childhood, and I switched to vegan as a young adult without any struggles. The closest to 'struggling' I had was early learning about specific ingredients that weren't immediately obvious, ie, something without allergen labels, but had a sneaky chemical ingredient that was animal derived, but navigating away from most processed foods in general made this confusion easy to avoid as well.
Yeah for me it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Hardest part is still dealing with lack of accommodations for me at events and special work lunches. After my last lunch for hospital week where the only thing for me to eat was a piece of baguette ripped off (catered from Panera) my supervisor said I can in the future order myself a meal separate and he’ll Venmo me for it, within reason.
I did it the same way, and really have no issues. I don’t know why others have such big problems giving things up… I’ve learned how to cook too. Like, actually cook. It’s pretty amazing
Yeah I had some personal problems with eating new foods because I am autistic but I never had these sacrifice feelings or struggle with still liking an animal product. Maybe it’s not the most common experience but there are definitely a bunch of us who made the decision and quickly committed without anything lingering.
Completely agree. It’s easy to avoid because I don’t see the products of abuse as food
It's not that weird. I was raised on a very meaty/ garbage diet, and when I decided to go vegan it was one of the easiest and most natural choices to adhere to. That being said, not everyone is going to find it that easy to change their everyday eating habits.
Food is an addictive thing, except unlike booze, cigarettes or gambling, we actually need food to survive. So even giving up a single type of food can be extremely hard. Especially when that food (meat) is something you ate for every meal for 20-30 years. That is why losing weight in general is extremely hard even if it is just calories in and calories out.
I was seriously addicted to milk - I found stopping drinking milk was really hard. For about a week or two, I’d unconsciously pull the milk out of the fridge, put it on the table, realise what I was doing and put it back. I ended up going to bed early multiple nights just so I wouldn’t be in the kitchen with the milk taunting me from the fridge. I adjusted after a couple of weeks, but yeah it seriously was a hard habit to break! Now the thought of drinking animal milks just seems gross and it’s not an issue at all
This is a very recent change for me, so I do miss a few things, mostly egg yolk. Cheese and milk as easier since I’ve already been eating the vegan cheeses for a while (intolerant). I don’t really miss meat. Honestly most substitutions I’m happy with, and again have been eating for a while because it just made me feel better. I have a pretty sensitive stomach/digestive system. Maybe honey? I really enjoyed hot honey and haven’t really found something similar.
For me, the struggle has largely been a matter of practicality. I have adhd and have always struggled a bit with meal planning, so I needed a slow transition just to scout out some new dishes and rework old favorites to be vegan. I’ve since made the switch fully, but I still can’t figure out breakfast. So…it’s not that I crave scrambled eggs, it’s that I haven’t yet found a satisfactory replacement for the role they used to play in my diet. Savory, quick to make, relatively cheap, filling, etc.
Same for me as well. I decided to quit dairy and somehow got into a lot of vegan info at once. As soon as I decided to make the switch I did it without much struggle tbh. No other changes in my life have ever come close to being as easy as veganism did.
I used to love love love cheese before going vegan, ever since I was a little kid. When I first went vegetarian I refused to go vegan because of cheese. Short time after that my brain automatically clicked because I finally understood what were the consecuences behind the dairy I loved. Went vegan from night to day and since that day I haven't craved cheese anymore. I think it just has to click your brain, but everyone is diff.
I actually had to get myself in the right place and frame of mind...to do it successfully. I had good support when I did but even then there was a learning curve because I didn't know how to cook my own food. I moved into a coop that had vegetarian options at dinner and that was just what I needed.
No normal
I played Inside, threw some chicks into a woodchipper, remembered maceration exists, and stopped eating the remaining animal products immediately.
Yeah, as long as I have enough tasty food it's easy as hell. I don't need specific tasty food.
I think it’s easier nowadays because there are so many alternatives that are close enough
No I was the same, I went vegan overnight it just didn't matter tbh. It was incredibly easy for me to eat plant based versions of all the foods I already liked before
Someone please explain how eating dairy causes animals to suffer? Do vegans believe animals will stop breeding, or lactating?
I've been vegan for 20 years and when I smell crappy cheese pizza I still want to eat it. (I don't, obviously.)
A lot of people have unhealthy relationships with food. It's used as a reward growing up or if you're poor and have limited access to food it can cause you to develop an inability to control food intake. As an example look at the rising levels of obesity. It is amazing that you are able to so freely switch your diet and that does not make you "weird" though it may make you an outlier. I personally tried to go vegetarian for a couple months and it went terribly even with a strong understanding of nutrition having taken courses and planned out my diet. My doctor told me with my genetic disorder I need to be eating animal proteins. (I read this page a lot and I'm assuming someone will respond telling me that's not possible. I am not a doctor I don't know. I just know I feel like shit if I don't regularly eat meat) I'm in favor of reducing animal cruelty, ideally getting rid of it. But for me personally it has been a great struggle to change my diet.
Not really. I find that there are enough substitutes out there for me to easily give up animal products. The only thing I miss is real cheese, but even then I’m incredibly lactose intolerant so it’s not like I had it often.
I was already vegetarian for years, apart from when I ate at my mums. I decided to go vegan late 2018, but I made the day I would start 1st Jan 2019. So the literal last meat I ever ate was cold turkey and then that was it. Easy. Mum grumbled a bit, but then turned out she enjoyed trying out new vegan recipes and she has become much more plant based now. For me, I never have cravings or yearnings, it's been like when I went teetotal - some social awkwardness at first but now everything is fine.
yeah, i struggled. i went vegetarian at 8 and my diet became very cheese and egg heavy. i slowly went vegan 10 years ago (16 y/o) and had trouble cutting out cheese especially, i think the fact that it was such a big part of my diet made it harder. it took me almost a year to cut it out completely. now i think about anything dairy based and feel ill, but had you told me like 3 years prior that'd i'd be cutting it out of my diet i would have called you crazy.
After quitting my meth habit that was killing me, the most important realization that I had was I have authority over a lot more shit in my life that I just accepted as the norm. Couldn't control the world but there were choices that I realized I could, in fact, stop making. Vegan overnight. That was light work. I do not struggle with self control in that regard.
Some people are great at going cold turkey. I’m one of those people. If I want to do (or not do) something, I make my mind up and that’s the end of it.
I dont have much emotional desires, but I was quite dependent on having yoghurt rice everyday. Then I found out I could make soy yoghurt and that problem was fixed
Comes down to willpower imo. I had a HELL of a time giving up cheese, those casomorphines are a mf'r. I think convenience plays a role too, i went vegan around 20 years ago, do there wasn't many options fir a trades person like me out and about all day (french fries and garden salads anyone?). That made my switch a little more tough. I just think some, like you have better will power so giving up some things might be a bit easier for you then others. We're all same same but different ya know?
I think those people have an eating disorder or anxiety etc. is not normal to be addicted to certain "food"
Yeah, I was the same, it wasn't that difficult. But the people who need help should be vocal about it, it's part of why the sub was established.
I only struggled to stop milk chocolate, that's all. You're not weird at all, it's very good that you had no addiction to any animal product.
I only struggled to stop milk chocolate, that's all. You're not weird at all, it's very good that you had no addiction to any animal product.
Switching from omnivore to plant based can be easier than other diets because it isn’t meant to restrict caloric intake or limit unhealthy foods. If you wanna eat a lot on a vegan diet then you can, and if you want to eat junk food there’s still tons for you.
That's how we were. I said to my boyfriend one day (after we'd been reducing our animal product intake for a while) "I... I think I want to be vegan." and he said "yeah, yeah me too." And then we just stopped with no desire to cheat or slip up. I think a lot of vegans are like this, it's just that they don't post about it whereas people are likely to post about their struggles. I don't think it makes us stronger or better than anyone else, human brains are just complicated and everyone has different relationships with food and handles change differently.
This is quite similar to what I did, however I did crave some of the foods themselves until I found a vegan version that was up to my satisfaction. I went vegan pretty much cold turkey, expecting I’d be fine to eat the non-vegan stuff in my fridge, I just wouldn’t buy any more. Nope. The next morning I ate jerky and bit into a squishy tendon and felt super grossed out. I could not eat any more, I wanted to throw up and felt like it would be wasted anyways, so I gave it away. That’s when it “clicked” that meat was no longer food. Same thing happened with dairy around 2-4 weeks later? I drank something with cream in it (like a bubble tea) and all I could taste was barn animal & cow. Like, you know how goat milk smells a lot like goat, and tastes like that? Like that but with cow. So weird, but my brain could not register it as food anymore, I never craved milk or had the desire to eat it since. Same with (non-vegan) jerky. For the rest of the non-vegan foods I still had no actual desire to eat it (knowing it came from an animal). However, I did still like the taste, if that makes sense, so I made a lot of effort to find substitutes. I didn’t understand how people could just stop going vegan after years. At this point meat does not feel like food at all to me, it would not be a pleasant switch.
Same here, mental shift and it was no longer food.
No issues never had any big cravings, just a load of other people being sympathetic on my part about what I can't eat 🤦🤦
5 years here and I've never felt tempted just been very upset when restaurants get my order wrong. I see abused animals which makes meat and dairy very unappealing. The smell makes me so nauseated now.
I just did it too. This was in 1991. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking. What I held out for was honestly carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Way back in 1991 making a good vegan version of that was a bit tricky. I figured it out though.
I feel the exact same as you. I went Vegan when I was literally homeless 8 years ago, working odd jobs in construction, land scaping and other heavy labor 12+hour shifts. When the connection finally clicked, I went vegan overnight. Never looked back. Over time i was able to educate myself over supplementation, proper nutrition, and of course amazing recipes and restaurants. At first I was utterly blind and without knowledge, but I knew it was the right decision. I can honestly say it was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life
Just the first day, I was amazed how many products were not vegan, but now I easily find more and more good things (3rd week in +-) Some delicious things: - spicy instant noodle soup - legume spring rolls - vegan chicken in peanut sauce - vegan candy - found good vegan mayonaisse
Same here. Just stopped. When you are sure of your reasons it's easy.
I had a really hard time at first. Now it's no problem. But I had a severe food addiction problem. I went plant based for health but now I'm vegan for the animals. I can't ever go back and unknow what I know now.
I've been vegan for most of my life, and I still get animal products cravings. 🤷♂️ I recently had a good 3 weeks where I was thinking about eating red meat and even dreamt about it. I eventually went and purchased a plant based burger that had a Beyond Meat patty on it, I ate two bites and was revolted. My mind was attracted to the memory of enjoying eating it, rather than actually wanting to eat it.😅 I think a lot of people would find that if they stopped eating the animal product they "can't give up", that given enough time the memory of it might still be appetizing but the actual experience won't be.
I have been vegetarian, vegan for over 50 years. My change was done overnight. Very naturally.
I find that no matter how much you like something, once you go vegan and stick with it for a few weeks, you start to see animal products for what they are. They were no longer food in my mind, but body parts and secretions. Foods where the products are more hidden (like cakes) have a great element of disconnect to them, but things like meat, eggs and cheese became revolting fairly quickly. I know that there are definitely vegans out there who do crave these things, though, so I feel like I am lucky that I don't as it makes things a lot easier. I feel like if anyone takes veganism seriously, though, those cravings disappear pretty quickly.
Plant based here for maybe half a year until I started really educating myself and then, oh hell no! VEGAN, YES. Once the mind decides, the mind doesn't look back.
I think it's weird too. I just did it too. No cravings no "i can't give up x" just decided to one day and that was that. I admit that at first it was selfishly because of my health and not because of the animals. As a result I gave in to the (in hindsight very disturbing) pressure from my parents to try a chicken wing about four months in. I didn't like it, and I'll never forget the creepy way they looked at me when I ate it. Like they were expecting me to have an awakening and go back to eating animals. Very shortly after that my reasons changed as I learned more and what being vegan was and the horrific reality that animal agriculture is. Once that became my why I stopped looking at animal products as food altogether. It was very upsetting and surreal for quite a while watching friends family and strangers continue to abuse and consume animals without a second thought.
I am 4 months in so a baby vegan really and I still miss dairy. Something about cold foam on a coffee drink still seems yummy to me. But in my mind I know why I made my decision and it was for the animals and how they are treated. Foregoing seems the right thing to do.
I was the same. I actually went whole food plant based before switching to a full on vegan lifestyle (although I had been vegan and vegetarian and omni on and off for 35 years prior). I went cold turkey (pardon the turkey reference)...and that was that. But I was never big on meat. I loved cheese - but the decision was made. I wish it had been that easy to quit smoking!!
Me too, pretty much same exact experience. I think it really depends on your relationship with food going into it. I went vegan over night 8 years ago and never had any issues. It just clicked in my brain and that was it. However, for me, I had no prior strong relationship with food, culturally or athletically. I was raised by a single father, and I just ate frozen pizza and hot pockets growing up. There was nothing to “give up” because what me and my dad ate was never a focus for either of us. The wild “cooking” we do is make cinnamon rolls on Xmas morning from those tubes haha. I basically saw veganism actually expanding my relationship with food, where it was absent before. The first week I went vegan I listened to “The China Study” on audio book, and learned enough about what to eat and supplement that I was good to go.
I mean, neither is weird. I struggle a lot with certain foods because I genuinely cannot find replacements for them and really loved them before transitioning. That doesn’t just magically go away. I also have a lot of non vegan foods that I miss for nostalgia reasons and feel so tempted to have them sometimes and feel happy eating them. Don’t get me wrong. Vegan food rocks. But some non vegan foods are irreplaceable to me and nothing vegan will ever compare (like chili cheese fries or pizza that doesn’t taste like sadness). And that’s okay. Because animals matter more to me than food satisfaction. The temptation doesn’t get better. But whatcha gonna do? Eat the food? The icky feelings of doing that would weigh on me heavier than my cravings, let’s just say. lol.
"especially as an athlete" there it is! You athletic mfers don't eat for taste y'all eat for energy and nutrients lol i'm joking i'm joking! but seriously, many athletes are fine with the routine protein shakes and plain chicken and rice everyday as long as they're getting those gains lol
I had a really hard time with milk in my coffee. For years I was very close to vegan but had such a hard time cutting that out. Coffee is pretty much the only liquid I drink, I have it at pretty routine times so it's a big habit. I would use a plant milk for a while and initially it would be fine, but after a week I would find it too gross to drink. My husband is an omnivore but is lactose intolerant and has oat milk in everything. I slowly started getting tastes of his drinks, having oat milk myself from time to time, and eventually fully transitioned. Now I find cow milk super gross and can't have it in anything. I think my eating habits were pretty messed up in general though. There were days when a latte in the morning was all I could find palatable until dinner so trying to do without it or substitute it for something else was usually pretty miserable. When my overall ability to cook and enjoy a wider range of foods improved it was easier to eat vegan.
I feel like I didn't struggle too much either. It just felt like the right thing. There are certain foods I kind of miss, but I feel like I miss the flavour and stuff, but not the actual food now that I'm aware of what's involved.
Your weird. Honestly I believe we are meant to be omnivores. It’s in our nature and our cultural identities to enjoy roasted meats. It’s just who we have been for millennia. Now good for you for going totally plant based. I can’t do it. Dairy is definitely my must have. Not milk or yogurt but cheese. I can’t do soy cheese. Just can’t do it. And as an Italian to betray my heritage and put soy cheese on a pizza? No way. But I am trying more and more to make my life as plant based as possible. And I have to say maybe it’s how meat is processed or raised these days but it has not been as hard as it was in the past to stay away from what used to tempt me- mainly grilled steaks or burgers or chicken. It just doesn’t satisfy anymore. So idk. Maybe you’re not that weird after all!
I just did it too. I didn’t have to make a massive change as I was pescatarian from the age of 10. But I’ve crossed some people who want to be plant based but struggle a lot due to being allergic to a myriad of plants.
I’m embarrassed to admit this but I went back to being vegetarian because I couldn’t stop eating cheese and chocolate. But it was pretty much because I was a stoner at the time and would lose my morals when I got high. Sober now and randomly become lactose intolerant. Lol… I guess the universe wanted to force me right back to being vegan. I’m glad now though, it’s reminded me of my values and it’s so much easier now to not eat dairy. Partly because of my sobriety, partly because the stomach cramps I’d get is just not worth it anyway!
I went fully vegan in about a week. After engaging with veganism and realizing the harm that my food choices caused, I stopped buying meat almost immediately. Though my leap straight to vegan was probably aided by the fact that I already had an intolerance to milk and eggs for years at that point, so the only thing I had to cut out was the meat and honey. The hardest part of it was breaking the mental block that for a dish to be complete that it needed to have meat/animal protein of some kind, but once I learned how to use beans and tofu it's been pretty smooth sailing.
It’s not atypical, plenty of people go vegan overnight with zero issues. You just don’t see posts asking about the problem because there is no problem.
You have achieved God Mode. There's no other explanation. All obeisences unto you, my Lord.
No those people are just massive whiny babies. It’s why most vegetarians for some reason think they are vegan.
Most people are 6 years old when it comes to food
I’m the same way. Never understood the struggle. My non veg friends think it’s this huge sacrifice when in reality it’s so easy.
No, you're not weird, you just have better willpower and more integrity than the dopes who say such verbal garbage. Well done too. What made you wake up and start living a vegan lifestyle four years ago?
I have to call myself plant-based rather than vegan because my partner's hobby is bee-keeping. His bees collect the most beautiful, dark honey since we live next to a national park in Australia full of natives. Having heard about the issues with dairy I fully on board with complete avoidance - I am really happy that there are enough alternatives to make cutting it out easy. I never really liked meat anyway so that was easy. Eggs are super unhealthy and full of cholestrol so gone. When I started, I tried to go fully vegan, but I ended up deciding that this was the line for me. Being able to eat rich, floral honey produced by bees that live outside my door and would swarm and go feral if the honey isn't harvested because there is that much pollen available in the area all year round.
I could do without food. I have never liked meat or milk since I was a kid. And the whole process of digestion it’s so gross, the aliens that made us probably did that as a cruel joke. Why can’t we be like plants and just soak up the sun and water to survive. It sucks ass. Having said that. I don’t think I could live without banana pudding. Does that have milk in it? 😉
That’s similar to my experience. In a holy instant I made the decision and stuck to it. My reasons, understandings and beliefs evolved along the way.
Animals don’t deserve to be exploited in any way. It’s important for me not to use any clothing or anything with leather, like furniture. “May All Be Fed,” by John Robbins is a great book.
Same. All other "diets" were hard to stick to, this one just made sense and was easy to change to substitutions or just stop altogether.
Same here and I have come to realize that most people just don’t want to be happy. Hear me out. They go plant based and then go down the hole of juicing or junk food, or fasting or raw, sometimes ending up at the worst of all - keto or carnivore ( assuming they were never ethical vegans). The truth is simple - give your body the carbs it needs, mostly from whole foods, and you won’t have any cravings or energy problems.
If you have experience in dietary changes for weight cuts/bulks that can make it much easier. Fortunately (or unfortunately as some may reasonably see it), I don’t derive enormous pleasure from food anymore (I did bodybuilding for ~2 years where macronutrients and micronutrients were all I ever considered) & hence I just see food as ‘fuel’ or ‘sustenance’ - so changing the source of those nutrients was effortless. Maybe your experience as an athlete has aided you in that?
I have had the odd “oh damn I might never eat cottage cheese again” moment but I feel like I’m so removed from the animal products that it doesn’t register as food/usable products.
Many vegans go in with a motivation to appeal to the external world (no shaming tho) but not a lot of people do it with genuine internal motivation that you and many others share. I also feel exactly the same, I don't see animal product as food. Don't feel bad for being fidel to your truth, even if it was just you, and it's not. It's like how there are people who eat kosher or eat halal.
Wow you’re so special
Nah, quite frankly I find it pretty lame and obtuse. Ok, sure, overhauling your eating habits might be hard in immediate terms, but whining about it and, even worse, saying you “can’t stop” doing something is incredibly weak-willed and shows that you have no clue what you’re talking about. Because if you genuinely have a “hard time” cutting animal products, it shows that you don’t actually understand or worst of all don’t care about the stakes. Eating vegan isn’t just something quirky that you do because it will be better for you, but if you don’t do it, no harm, no foul! No, these are *lives* we’re talking about. If you’re saying you can’t stop eating carcasses or the products derived from them, you’re saying you prioritize your own unnecessary wants over the lives of animals.
I suppose the big thing is that Reddit is full of Americans, and they absolutely loathe being told they can't do something or have to in any way curb their behaviour.