What Made You Decide to Become a Vegetarian? (dinner, food, meat)

[Jammie]

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x268/Jammie1955/DANCINGWOOHOOGIRL.gif (broken link)

Alright!! I get to start the first thread in our Veggie Forum. I'd just like to thank Administrator for finding a spot for us and also the Veggie people who promoted this.

I was curious as to what made everyone become vegetarian. For me~I grew up on a farm and still have nightmares about awful things that were done to animals. At that time, I was horrified but thought that is the way life HAS to be in order for humans to survive. I won't go into detail right now, but it was gruesome. Then when I was in the third grade, our skip day was at Morrells. Another nightmare.

What made you decide on this lifestyle?

[Jammie]

OH never mind. I must've gotten here while they were in the process of sorting posts cause there weren't any here yet.

[need4Trees]

For me it was Sudden. I went to a volunteer orientation at a Humane Society and near the end of the class they went over "animals that don't have rights" specifically about chickens/hens and the life that is taken from them.

Sure most of you would know about the horrific reality of the whole meat industry. I decided then and there that I would no longer eat chickens and only eggs that were from cage free/free range farmed (although i have since learned even more about the lives of even free range hens/chickens face and no longer wish to support or consume).
I continued to eat beef until i let myself become educated on cows and then all other animals too.
I was easy for me. i just love all animals, what can I say.

I never was a big meat eater anyway. I would have to finish all my dinner, veggies were no problem but chewing those stringy pieces of meat was just horrible. Could not get it down. I had to drink with it and practically just swallow it whole.

Anyway, Glad to know that there are people with the same interests as me and this will be a great place to discuss such topics! I am excited for this...

I want to be Vegan soon, my goal, by the end of this year! I'll need help, so i'll be asking lots of q's!!!

Again thanks to the Admin.

[Xpat]

Thanks to the admin and everyone who supported starting this sub-forum.

I initially became a vegetarian for health reasons since I wanted to feel lighter and stronger for rock climbing. Plus, cancer and GI problems run in our family so I thought it would help avoid the invevitable.

It was also around the time I started into yoga and I became more able to hear my body's signals about what to eat/not eat. Unfortunately, I did not adopt a very healthy diet and my wife was less than 100% supportive (not to mention the friends and family who thought I had gone off the deep end). We had moved back to Europe, Bavaria to be exact, where it was extremely difficult to maintain.

So, I ended up going back to being an omnivore but kept trying to reduce my intake. I cut out red meat, then slowly reduced the pork, chicken, and fish portions while upping the beans and veggies. I tried again 2 years ago after some minor colon issues but then returned to eating chicken and fish. By now, DW was cool with Boca burgers and the like and she severely reduced her meat intake. Beyond health, we both started to realize the social impacts of land use, not to mention killing animals for food when so many options exist. She is still tempted by a big steak now and then.

This past year, I upped my yoga practice to a daily one and suddenly, meat gave me up - not so much vice versa. Now, the look and smell of it are not tempting at all. I feel too good every day on a veg diet to give it up. My running speed and endurance have increased and I have loads of energy. I think this time I'll be able to stick with it since I am feeling the positive effects so strongly.

Instead of telling my wife (who has always been iffy on the whole idea) what I am trying to do, I'm letting my actions speak for me. Once she knows I'm serious, she'll know its for good (and perhaps not try to plop a steak on my plate). I know she'll back me up when she knows it is for real. Why eat something which is not appealing which is going to make you feel bloated and heavy anyway?

[Roma]

I became a Vegetarian because I didn't want to kill animals. For me, it's about that, the animals.

[katzenfreund]

My main reason is that I believe animals should not merely exist to end up on my dinner plate, when I can easily survive and live very well without meat.

This sums it up for me


Poor Animals! How jealously their guard their pathetic bodies...that which to us is merely an evening's meal, but to them is life itself.
T Casey Brennan

Been a vegetarian for over 20 years and would never go back to eating meat.

[Topaz]

I've always had a negative visceral reaction to eating animals, although I used to be able to talk myself through it if the taste of the food was good and the food was disguised well enough. As I've gotten older and more attuned to my body and spirit, I don't want to talk myself out of it any more. I just feel better emotionally and physically when I stick to a vegan lifestyle.

[Adrian71]

I try to live with a consistent reverence for life. Not to turn this into a political forum, but for me, being vegetarian is part and parcel of being pro-life.

I first had an ethical dilemma about eating meat back when I was in college. I lived at home, with my meat-eating parents, so it didn't last long.

Then after I met my wife, we were getting to know each other's ethical and political views, and we found that we both shared an interest in living a life that caused as little harm to other beings as possible. Going veg wasn't a big deal for her, since she didn't eat all that much meat to begin with, but I came from a meat-and-potatoes family. If the meal didn't have meat in it, it wasn't a meal.

So anyway, we tossed around the idea of going veg but never quite made the leap ... until I stumbled across a post someone had made online about "100 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian." The health benefits caught my attention, and the environmental impact of eating meat was an eye-opener, but what sealed the deal for me were the points about slaughterhouses and animal suffering. That just reaffirmed my earlier decision to go veg.

The next day, I went vegetarian cold turkey, no pun intended! My last bit of meat was sausage gravy over toast ... I still remember it. That was in 2000. I haven't touched a piece of meat since then.

We're hoping to go vegan someday, but amazingly, it seems harder to go from vegetarian to vegan than it did to go from meat-eater to vegetarian. There are so many hidden animal products in EVERYTHING!

[Wicked Felina]

Originally Posted by Roma

I became a Vegetarian because I didn't want to kill animals. For me, it's about that, the animals.

There you go. I can identify with what everone said. I, too, don't believe that animals exist soley for our benefit, as Topaz said.

Part of my reasoning, too, was learning about what complex societies and communication systems animals have - not just the primates, either. Whales, dolphins, sharks, elephants...even rats (which are highly trainable) have been trained to sniff out land-mines in Africa...Oh well, and on and on!

There's more to heaven and earth than meets the eye!

[rehan+riz]

i am very happy to listen there r somany pepol who think like me about animal and there problem which is happen in farm house could u bleave when ever i eat meet i feel horibal nd sad i think i am eating a live thing just for our taste is there any way i qut to eat animal , its my dream to declare even only one contant for anamal there were no man there i like to declared to announce africa no man land where r only animal i hope and pray for them