Earthlings Changed Me to be a Vegan

By: Silvia

I'm Silvia (25 years old) and for about an year I am a vegan (no meat, milk, eggs - just honey as I don't consider that we hurt the bees).

I became a vegetarian because I couldn’t eat something that had a parents, face, soul, heart and off course feelings. When I was a kid I only eat chicken (for my parents desperation), just because I thought that they are treat "humanly". But last year I saw the movie: 'Earthlings" and that change my point of view about chicken, milk and eggs.

Sometimes I eat some cheese from my aunt, she lives in the countryside, but I want to let it go also because I read that is not good for health all the lactate products.

My boyfriend still struggles with non eating meat. He eats only when he is stressed or upset with something. He cracks within the lust in that moments. But I am sure that he will win in a matter of months, maybe a year.

I get so angry when the people around me don't understand why I choose to be a vegan. They are so indifferent with all the other living beings on this planet. The only matters is their stomach.

I hope that in a bright future there will be more vegetarians than meat lovers.

P.S. (sorry for my bad English).

Please go to http://yummy-vegans.blogspot.ro/ to connect with Silvia.

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.

Vegetarian on a Budget

By : Christina Law

I was a vegetarian all through out high school, but gave it up when I moved out of my parent's house at 17. Within the past three years I have gotten married, had a baby, and have been a struggling student. Both my husband and I are full-time students, him in Medical School and myself working on my Bachelors in Biology and Chemistry. As movement towards family, we mutually decided that I would be a stay at home mother and raise our daughter while continuing my education. With this decision, we agreed that we would take out more student loans to live off. As a consequence, we live off a very, very strict budget. As my husband began to travel for his 4th yr audition clinical rotations, I started having to maximum our budget. I sat down and went over all our bills under a microscope. I discovered that meat is the most expensive thing in our grocery bill, so I cut it out. That decision took our weekly grocery bill from $160 to $80!!! It saved my family $320 a month!!!! As a treat to ourselves for our wedding anniversary, we went to an expensive steakhouse and got filet and lobster tails. Later that evening I became violently ill. Words cannot describe how ill I was. Yet, my husband showed no symptoms or illness. We deducted that it was the meat and that my body was not use to eating meat anymore. I sat back and thought, how can meat be good for you if when you eat it and your not use to it, you become sick? I felt as though meat was a poison that you must build a tolerance too. I just cannot see how meat is healthy anymore.

My friend, who is recently divorced and a single mom came to me a asking for financial advice. I gave her the same advice with cutting out meat on her grocery bills. She did the same financial move as I did and cut out meat. She was thankful for the money I was able to save her. She came to me not too long ago telling me her first encounter with chicken after she had cut it out, and had the same violent sick reaction. So, I feel validated in the fact that meat is poison. I know this is a very liberalized view, but I just cannot see how meat is healthy.

I feel so internally clean and enjoy my vegetarian lifestyle. I do not suffer from eczema, acne, dry/painful skin, IBS, or colds/flu anymore. I have not been sick in over 3 years and I feel that my vegetarian lifestyle is the reason.

I hope you can use my story to show that becoming a vegetarian has many different motives and one can be financial.

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.

Incredible Energy by Plant Based Diets

Renee Tassone -
43 Years old from North Adams, Ma

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This diagnosis came after years of odd illnesses that none of my doctors could figure out. I finally ended up in the Emergency Room one weekend. A few days later they performed a colonoscopy & endoscope. The doctor took some biopsies and in a few days told me the result was Celiac Disease. Neither one of us believed it, we thought maybe there was an infection of some kind going on and it was just masking itself as Celiac. He said I did not look like a classic Celiac patient, probably because of all the unexplained weight I was gaining. He put me on some antibiotics and said we would wait 3 months and then re-perform the procedures. Everyday I became sicker and sicker, after 2 months he decided we had better go ahead and do the procedures and not wait any longer. All tests came back positive for Celiac Disease. He said he was 100% sure I had the disease which by the way I had never even heard of before. He explained the seriousness of the disease and encouraged me to go gluten free right away.

A few days later I sat down with a nutritionist at our local Hospital and she guided me in the right direction. Honestly, it was all a bit overwhelming at first. I still did not believe that food was my problem but I told my doctor I would try it for one week but if it did not make a difference then we would need to do more tests. Well, by day 4 of being gluten free I was transformed in to a totally different person. I had incredible energy, my body rash started to subside, the tingling in my legs went away, I wasn’t as bloated and my cracked lips started to heal. From that point on I knew I would never eat gluten again. Since that time I have also found out that I am allergic to soy and nuts.

A few months into my new diet/lifestyle I decided to start a Celiac support group to help others. I also became a resource of the Celiac Sprue Association so I could help people that were newly diagnosed. I started reading everything I could about the disease. I was really enjoying helping people through their own diet transition. Then last summer I decided to do a diet cleanse. Again, I went and read everything I could about different cleanses until I found the one that was right for me. It was a 21 day healthy cleanse which I started on October 4, 2011. This cleanse changed my life. I felt even more incredible with tons of energy. The cleanse is basically a plant based, whole food cleanse so of course I started reading about plant based diets and was shocked at the information I found. Since October 4th, I have not eaten meat, poultry, dairy etc. and have adopted a whole foods, plant based diet. I do not eat any animal protein or any processed foods.

Soon after I started telling friends about the cleanse, ones I knew were not feeling well or had problems such as migraines, high blood pressure and thyroid issues. I shared the information and encouraged them to try it and they had amazing results. To date I have helped over 170 people in 6 different states through a cleanse and adopt a plant based, whole foods diet. The results have been amazing. I have helped people with diabetes, crohns, joint pain, parkinson’s and more. I have also done a lot of research on raw foodism, veganism and the macrobiotic diet. I am in the process of starting my own health consulting business and my goal is to turn as many people away from eating animal products as possible. For me, I never really paid much attention to the connection of animals and food so I was shocked to read the facts and now I feel compelled to share them with people who are interested in learning more.

I have lost a total of 40 pounds since my journey began and am at my perfect weight. I never have to count calories or worry about what I eat. I have incredible energy and my skin radiates and all I want to do is scream at the top of my lungs and share this information!! I am enjoying this path I am heading down and look forward to the day when I do this all day long. I am currently a General Manager of four weekly newspapers and also enjoy this job but sense things are going to be changing for me in the near future.

Please visit  http://weightototalhealth.wordpress.com/ to connect with Renee Tassone

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.

THINK BIG, THINK GREEN

By : Ricardo Hernandez

I believe I was always meant to be a vegan because of my love for the animals, when I was a kid I didn't had many friends at school, I was a bit sad. One day we adopted a dog from the street, he became my best friend, after that we adopted more pets in my family, and I really loved them all.

In 2010 I was a fan of a reality business competition called "The Apprentice", one day I was reading the stories of the 16 contestants, all of them had business-related information, but one of them surprised me and I saw something that made me curious. It was a 30-year-old woman named Brandy Kuentzel, she was a corporate attorney, very smart, her story had something that all the other 15 contestants didn't had, it said: "Brandy is a vegetarian and an advocate for animals rights" , I really liked those statements, it was something new and different. By that time, my 10-year-old Belgian shepherd, Bruno, passed away, he was a beautiful dog and his death made me think, so I remembered what I read on Brandy's story and I said to myself "I want to become an advocate for animals rights because I love animals and I also want to do it in Bruno's memory", so I contacted some people and in 3 months I was rescuing dogs & cats all over the place with some wonderful charities and some amazing & very friendly people, I was already deep into the advocacy world and I was in love with it, even though I loved animals all my life, my love for them increased a lot at that time and I realized that they are also alive, that they can also feel.

I was able to contact Brandy one day on Facebook, we became friends (By the way, she is now the Director of Advocacy for the San Francisco SPCA) and we used to talk about animals, and she encouraged me to become a vegetarian, so I decided that I would try to be a vegetarian, but at that point I didn't had any vegetarian/vegan on my friends circle so I was starting alone & clueless about the nutritional facts, I thought "Just don't eat meat! Simple!". A week later I had an appointment at the doctor (nothing to do with my new vegetarian lifestyle), I was having some blood test because I had the cholesterol of a 50-year-old man (I was eating just meat and no fruits nor vegetables at all),  my father mentioned the doctor that I stopped eating meat a week ago, the doctor turned to me immediately and said "I understand that you want to become a vegetarian, but at that age you need meat because of the protein, if you want to be a vegetarian, do it when you're 21 years old" (I was 15 at that time). So, when you're 15 years old, you are clueless about vegetarianism and a doctor tells you that you need meat, you end up believing him! Of course, now that I'm vegan I know that doctor knows nothing about nutrition, ironically that doctor also told me "Eat more fruits and vegetables" so I said to myself  "Ok, I can't be a vegetarian now, so I'll continue eating meat and when I'm 21 I'll try again". A year went by, I kept involved into animal advocacy and I met a new friend that recently became a vegetarian, I told her my story and she suggested me that I should give it another try, so I decided to do it again ,this time I had more knowledge about the vegetarian lifestyle and even discovered veganism, so I did it with more knowledge, I asked about nutritional facts, I asked about what I could eat, I was proud of myself, but I was interested in veganism.

I read more about veganism and liked it, but I found it so tough, so I said "I will be a vegetarian for at least 5 years and then I'll go vegan). 2 weeks later after I became a vegetarian, a new vegan friend that I made from the UK (Rennie) suggested me to watch Gary Youroufsky's speech, I watched it and as soon as it ended I said to myself (From now on, I'm vegan, I have no excuses to not do it), and since that day, I'm vegan! :) My life has changed drastically, at 17 years old most people don't care about animals or health, they just care on having fun, so of course when I have lunch with my friends at university and they find out that I'm vegan it sparks conversation, and that's exactly what I want because I can tell them facts and they become more interested and actually they end up saying "You're right, but I just can't go vegan, very tough", I tell them that they absolutely can, but they keep saying "I can't" , c'est la vie.

I am a really food lover, I love to eat and I really LOVE vegan food, it's delicious! Now my cholesterol is normal, I'm thinner and with way more energy and positivism than ever before. I highly recommend you to go vegan, it goes to the animals, to the environment, to the world, it's good for your health, you can still eat delicious food and it's cool to say "I'm vegan" because you are making a difference! :) I try to be a very classy, professional and respectful vegan and don't think all meat-eaters are bad people, because they just don't know the truth yet and we can't blame somebody for not knowing something, so I always try to be very respectful and professional, people respect that, and actually it's easier to make them think that way.

My biggest dream now is to create in some years the first luxury collection of vegan hotels, I want to create something spectacular where vegans can say "This is paradise" and non-vegans can learn about veganism on a very positive way, I hope to welcome you all on my vegan hotels someday! ;)

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.

Be Yourself, Be a Vegetarian and Be Happy

My name is Milda and I am 22 years old. All my childhood I was "chubby" and my family are the people who likes to eat so I was not an exception. After I turned 15 all the diet periods started, nothing really worked as I wanted to, I just got some sicknesses because I didn't eat normally. So all my diets were failed, I was really depressed, ugly and fat.

After 18th birthday I started to think WHAT do I eat and do I really like it. I have started to eat only food which I really enjoy to eat and I feel good after eating it. That's how step by step all the meat products were cut from my ration. One of the reasons to cut meat was that it DOESN'T HAVE ANY TASTE! All the taste it has is - spices we add. Of course my parents were telling me that I will get sick if I won’t eat meat and the word "vegetarian" sounded like a diagnosis of terrible diseases; but I was stubborn and I could feel that I am going right way. But after about 6 months I was still eating sea products. At about that time I started to think about esthetics, that animals are actually being killed to be eaten. That mind couldn't leave my head and in some months step by step I cut down all sea animals.

I was living as a vegetarian quiet long, but I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about it, I was reading articles on internet, trying to cook different meals, but I didn’t have any person who could help me, tell me about his experiences and so on. I was all alone. But I was lucky; after I turned 20 I met a person who had been vegetarian for 10 years. He showed me how many vegetarian and vegan people are around us, and how many different meals can be made. That vegetarian is not some kind of disease or bad thing; he showed me that I must be proud that I am vegetarian! (big big smile...)

Now I live not with my parents any more. I moved to Denmark, I live on my own. I always meet the people who are asking how I get my proteins, how do I survive, how...how... Some of them think that I am a real weirdo, but I have all arguments and sometimes we even have long discussions about food and life style.

Also I work in a restaurant, it is not veggie-friendly restaurant, I cannot change their attitude, and everybody thought that I am going to start eating meat, because we are getting staff food for free, and of course it is not vegetarian, but I don’t even think about eating meat when I know how it is made from the beginning. It doesn’t seem like food for me. Yes, I became picky and I am proud of it as well.

What I am doing now: I never buy eggs or milk when I am at home, but I still eat them, when they are a part of some kind of dish. Lately I started to feel that milk is not a right product for my body. Why? I feel so heavy after even a small amount of milk. And I cannot eat almost anything the rest of a day. So I started to avoid milk products. That means that I am on my way to become vegan.

To conclude: I don’t think person must force himself to eat or not to eat some kind of food, everything has to come naturally. And I wish everybody will start thinking what is suitable for them, when do they feel happy.

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.

Veganism - An ideal way of life!

By : Mira Balachandran

There is a lot more to vegetarianism than just non - consumption of animal matter. According to Indian culture and tradition that dates back to over 5000 years ago, having its  roots in the spiritual books like Vedas & Dharmasashtra, eating non- vegetarian food is detrimental to mental and spiritual growth. A diet devoid of meat , eggs or seafood is supposed to cleanse one of all negative qualities,  for in India,  we firmly believe that 'you are what you eat'. The kind of food we eat is supposed to have a huge bearing on our character and personality traits. The healthier and more natural the food, the better and non- violent a human you will be.

The Hindu scriptures of yore clearly state the kind of food we ought to have, the number of times it should be had, the manner in which it has to be had and the cooking methodology to be followed as well as the etiquette to be followed in having it. There are clear pointers to who should eat what type of food.  According to the scriptures, the kind of profession one follows dictates the pattern of food intake. For example a soldier's diet was concentrated more on giving him extreme fitness and physical well being that would help him in combat where as a scholarly person's diet most likely consisted  of ingredients that would help sharpen his mind and intellect.

Eating natural food not only keeps you healthy but stimulates  and creates positive responses within the body. Eating the remnants of animals that have been killed using aggression & violence [ there is nothing pleasant about inflicting pain on another - be it human or animal] in the grip of fear and pain only creates those kind of vibration in our person. Assimilation of these kind of energy is never going to help the cause of peace in this world. What has its origin in violence [ killing of animals] is only going to give rise to much the same as a chain reaction. It is just that this theory is not understood as having a scientific base by many. Once the ignorance is removed I am sure there will be many more converting to vegetarianism in the future.

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.

Go Veggie and Feel Better

By : Kelsey Haggerty

I have always had a deep love for the animal kingdom. I kissed worms while helping my mom garden; the family dog was always my best friend; I could always pass a baby carriage but not a leash. When I was about 5, I happened to get into a discussion with my mom about what a "hamburger" was and once she told me, she swears I cried and said "I am never eating a hamburger again!!!" Apparently I did, however, but the guilt of eating meat never left me. I came from a typical, meat-for-every-meal, American family.

I eventually did stop eating red meat and pork and settled into a lifestyle of eating turkey and chicken only. About 6 months ago, I decided that I had waited long enough to truly consider going vegetarian.

Like most people who are considering vegetarianism I wondered: How I am going to get all of the nutrients I need? How am I going to find enough to eat? Will I even like the meat alternatives? So I bought a book and read about the process, bought the meat "replacements" and bought a couple vegetarian cookbooks.

Now not only have I been a veg for 6 months, but I reeled my husband in as well. We are so happy we did and spread the word wherever and whenever we can. My favorite thing to say to people who are even CONSIDERING going veg is this: "Just try it for 2 weeks. You will feel so much better and see it as a realistic feat. You will be sold...just like we were."  :-)

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.