We’re starting at the beginning – when people choose The Vegan Option.
Every year Vegan Campaigns in London supports over sixty people through potentially their first month as vegans. Many vegan groups – from Baltimore, USA to Victoria, Australia issue similar challenges. I talked to pledgers who took that challenge, asking them what the challenges had been.
Ananthi is a mother of two adorable daughters. Bryan and Cliff are a middle-aged gay couple. They took the challenge, and you’ll find out how they found a month of veganism in our first programme.
But there isn’t a boundary between (proto-) audience and contributors. Here’s a question for vegans (and ex-vegans). How was your first month as a vegan? What was most difficult when you went vegan? We’ll likely mention some of your answers in the programme.
Erick Clark
September 28, 2011 at 14:35
I wasn’t really vegan for the first month I was vegan. It took me a while to learn what animal ingredients to look for on the labels of things or to ask about in restaurants. I think it took me a few months to really get over the learning curve. It helped that I knew a few people who had already gone vegan and could give me advice and offer support. It also helped that I didn’t get too upset when I accidentally ate something with, for example, whey in it. Those were learning experiences as far as I was concerned. I’ve been vegan for about six years now and I couldn’t imagine going back.
DaDataMonkey
September 28, 2011 at 15:29
I went vegan over 30 years ago. Over a period of a year I went from veggie to vegan so there wasn’t a real singular time, it was gradual. Back then vegans ate honey too, but after about 6 months of being “vegan,” I gave that up. I guess it must be very different today, but in a way I think what I had to do enabled me to be a better vegan, from a cooking perspective. There was virtually no supermarket foods, and the internet was in it’s infancy. Plamil were the only ones producing vegan specific foods. So I had to learn to cook. Luckily I studied biology, and learnt all about what nutrients I needed and how to get them. Maybe that’s why I’ve lasted so long. I faced doctors, teachers etc telling me it wasn’t safe. Well, they were certainly wrong! I hope new vegans will take the time to learn to cook, and read all they can about the diet and how to be a healthy vegan. By this I certainly don’t mean giving up the pleasures in life (alcohol etc), but learning how to cook a wide range of food styles, a wide range of ingredients, and adding new dishes to your cooking all the time. Sometimes it isn’t easy being vegan (I once spent 5 days in Germany starving, but stayed vegan), but it is worth it!