How We Became Vegan

Vittoria
Sep 18, 2017
6 min read

I grew up in a little village outside Rome among the countryside, I spent my childhood in our big garden and I have always been an animal lover. We had lots of cats, turtles, fish and played outside surrounded by nature. When I was young I visited a local farm and I enjoyed so much feeding the pigs and the chickens that I asked if I could come back again to see them. But, to my horror, I was told that their fate was to eventually get killed for food, and that thought really saddened me and it never sat right in my conscience.

I tried my best to save lizards and mice from my cats and I cried the only time my uncle took me fishing. I definitely hated going to the zoo and I held my tears when I was taken to the circus because I couldn't bare to see how sad the animals seemed. However I put all those feelings aside and I grew up like anybody else: eating everything that was on my plate, convinced that meat, milk and eggs made me stronger and came from animals who lived happily in a farm somewhere.

Fast forward 10 years I moved to London and my ex-boyfriend had a revelation and decided to become vegan overnight. He told me the bullet points of what that meant and showed me a documentary, so I decided to become vegan too. I was still living at home at the time and my family wasn’t really supportive, so when the relationship ended so did my vegan efforts! I later realised I was doing it for someone else and not for myself, so as soon as he was out of the picture so were his ideals and I silenced once again my conscience.

3 years later it was April 2016, and I had never felt so unhealthy in my life: I had put on so much weight, I was out of shape, I hadn't exercised in 4 years, and my diet consisted of convenient food, fast food, frozen food; so pretty much grey goop! One day I stumbled upon a slaughter-house video on Facebook I decided to watch even though I knew exactly what I was about to see, and that it would probably upset me. I wasn't even 20 seconds in that all the feelings and experiences I collected over the years suddenly clicked together like puzzle pieced, and showed me such a horrific picture. I instantly knew what I had to do: I had to become vegan (for real this time)!

The Transformation

I spent a week on the internet looking at lectures, documentaries, websites, medical studies, YouTube videos, blogs, recipes and I stumbled upon the following question:

"If there was something you could do to be healthier while saving the animals and the planet, would you do it?"

and the answer could only be yes!

So how does veganism accomplish that? "Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></v:path> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></o:lock> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_s1026" type="#_x0000_t75" style='position:absolute;left:0;text-align:left;margin-left:400.1pt; margin-top:67pt;width:451.3pt;height:161.25pt;z-index:251658240;visibility:visible; mso-wrap-style:square;mso-width-percent:0;mso-height-percent:0; mso-wrap-distance-left:9pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:0;mso-wrap-distance-right:9pt; mso-wrap-distance-bottom:0;mso-position-horizontal:right; mso-position-horizontal-relative:margin;mso-position-vertical:absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative:text;mso-width-percent:0;mso-height-percent:0; mso-width-relative:page;mso-height-relative:page'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:/Users/compagnm/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg" o:title="" croptop="21782f" cropbottom="20338f"></v:imagedata> <w:wrap type="square" anchorx="margin"></w:wrap> </v:shape><![endif][if !vml][endif] In other words, a vegan would not eat any animal products and derivatives (meat, fish, dairy, eggs, honey), would not wear any clothing made with animal products (leather, wool, silk), and would not use any products which are tested on animals (make up, cleaning products, toiletries). A vegan would also not visit circuses, zoos, water parks and engage in activities that use animals as entertainment.

The first thing I did was sharing the news with Adam. We had been living together for two years at that point, and I explained that the choice was mine and that I didn't expect him to come on board. I told him about all my findings and he fully understood why I was making that decision but he couldn't ever see himself adopting that lifestyle...24 hours later he walked in the room and told me: "I think I want to be vegan too!". This definitely made things easier for the both of us, it was a joint effort and we helped each other to stay motivated.

We started just changing our diet and giving away all the food that contained animal products to friends and family because we couldn't bare the sight of it; and we made sure that every new thing that came in our pantry and fridge was vegan. Then we started replacing things as they ran out because it doesn't make sense to throw away something that has already been produced and it's still working just to waste more resources to make a new object; therefore, we introduced ethical cleaning products, make up and toiletries over the course of few months.

The health benefits were almost instantaneous: by only eating fruits and vegetables we hadn't touched in months we slept better, we had more energy, no more constipation, my skin improved, and for the first time in my life my conscience felt clean! To keep us on track we marked on the calendar the 22nd of each month and we would go on a vegan meal date somewhere to treat ourselves. After the first few months we looked into meetups and festivals to make some friends and get into the community.

Everyday Life

Everybody thinks being vegan is super hard, because the food is limited and boring, predominantly salad. Well that was maybe true 10 years ago, but nowadays being vegan is as easy as eating cake (vegan of course!).

A part from the abundance of vegetables and fruits, you have countless choices of legumes, seeds, grains, not to mention endless types of faux food! If you want to be healthy you will find a rainbow of vibrant option, but you don't have to renounce to the comfort of cheesy pastas, burgers, ice cream and doughnuts. There are thousands of amazing recipes that would fool even the best palate and that are totally delicious. If you are looking for some easy dishes to try out check Natureat for tasty simple recipes!

If you are not a great cook nowadays you can find at least 1 vegan dish in every restaurant or sandwich chain, even McDonald has a plant-based burger! Supermarkets are starting to clearly mark vegan products, and you can always read the label and figure out if it contains something you don't want to eat. Everybody is jumping on the heath wagon and you will be surprised how many cafes, bakeries, restaurants open every week. Don't want to read labels? You can use your phone to scan barcodes and find out if something is vegan or not, and you can also use apps to find vegan options wherever you are around the world (see Happy Cow).

How about travelling? I thought travelling was going to prove challenging but I found plenty of alternatives wherever I went, as vegetables and cheese-less pizzas are everywhere, and even on a remote island in Italy where there are only fish restaurants I managed to treat myself to a few vegan croissants for breakfast!

Where Can You Start?

I know it might seem like an incredible challenge and I ensure you I started right where you are and felt quite overwhelmed. Changing a lifestyle of 20, 30, 40 years won't come without some effort but none of the best things in life come without some sweat (sad violin playing in the background). However this is a journey and not a destination, you can take it one meal at the time, one ingredient at the time, one tiny little thing at the time. Or you can take the bull by the horns (without harming it) and dive right in by changing everything in one go, and if you then make some mistakes just move on and stick to the plan.

I would begin by researching everything you can about the topic, and look for anything that is unclear or that concerns you. There is great help and support on forums, but you can contact me and ask me anything you want and I will guide you to the next step.

The internet holds all the answers you are seeking and it's full of great examples of recipes and how-to guides. Here below are some of the tools I used at the beginning to get an understanding:

Websites: