Becoming Vegan

I became vegan just under two years ago, and have never regretted it. It is one of the best decisions I have made for myself. Not only for health reasons such as feeling healthier and losing some weight, but for the animals themselves. You may think that being vegan you instantly care about the animals, and yes that is true to some extent. However you don't really think about that side of things to at-least about a month into becoming vegan; at least I didn't really think about it that way until then. 

Everyone has their own reason for becoming vegan, mine happened over night. It all happened when my husbands family dog became suddenly ill, and sadly had to be put to sleep. I remember thinking to myself at the time, that this was one of the nicest ways in which animals are put to rest, and that not all animals receive this same kind of treatment, especially when it comes to being used for the meat industry. Im not one of those vegans which go out and hassle farmers or protest about animal rights outside the abattoir. At the end of the day I don't see anything wrong with expressing your feelings regrading these matters, but I personally feel that they should be done in such a way which doesn't involve bad publicity.

Since becoming vegan the food industry has grown and adapted to the vegan movement, I remember when I first started I was one of those people like what the hell am I going to eat, but soon released that there was a variety of things on offer. Don't get me wrong it wasn't easy but you soon learn to adapt. However in the last year or so the vegan industry has doubled if not tripled and now there are hundreds of products to choose from, which have been clearly labeled suitable for vegans. I was one of those people who used to get the grocery shopping from one shop and that would be it, however when becoming vegan you soon have to adapt to traveling to at least three different shops to get all your vegan goodies.  

One thing that I missed when going vegan was takeaways, vegan options just didn't exist. I used to love having a pizza or burger for my local takeaway shop down the road, but when going vegan that wasn't an option anymore. Don't get me wrong yes you can make your own at home or go to pizza hut and ask for a pizza without cheese, but i'm not being funny it doesn't have the same appeal as a unhealthy takeaway. However in just the last few months this area has exploded, from restaurants having there own separate vegan menus, to takeaways also offering there vegan friendly pizza's with vegan cheese.

A few thing that I have noticed since becoming vegan is that I no longer like the smell of meat cooking. Don't get me wrong it didn't happen over night and there were some foods for the first month I still wanted, but after a while of becoming vegan your brain adapts to no longer liking the smell of things such as burgers and bacon. Its not because you think that it is an animal, but the smell just no longer appeals to you anymore. It is hard to explain but if your vegan and are reading this you will understand what I mean; well I hold you do. Another thing that I also noticed was that I started losing weight, trust me when I say this, there are plenty of unhealthy vegan snacks out there, but in the first few months I did start losing a few pounds. I still have a long way off from reaching my goal, but it has definitely made a difference. You also feel healthier in the sense that I don't tend to get as ill as offered. My asthma has also improved not only for me but also for my husband, who suffers from this extremely bad, to the point where he had to take his inhaler twice a day. Now he only has to take it twice a fortnight if that. 

There is a huge vegan community out there from hundreds of facebook groups to vegan fairs around the uk every year. I love the passion and excitement the groups have when someone posts a new vegan item they have spotted when shopping or even some new vegan restaurant in the local area. The community is huge, and for the most part everyone is helpful and supportive, don't get me wrong you do sadly still get the odd miserable person, but you sadly do everywhere. 

I hope that you found this blog post interesting, and if any of you out there are vegan I would love to hear from you.