Recently I've been getting asked more and more questions about why I chose to be vegan. There are a few simple answers I give, but I think some people who ask me expect me to lecture them on why they should be a vegan demi-god like me. Before I get on to that though, I will share with you my extremely simple reasons for becoming vegan.
1. Animals are adorable.
2. Being abused, caged, branded, castrated, slaughtered etc is shitty.
3. Health.
4. The planet, dude.
There isn't much more to say about my reasons other than that. It's true that for me it was mostly about my health rather than the welfare of animals and the planet, but it's hard to ignore those things when you really know how much it affects them, too. Now I will get on to the main reasons why I don't lecture people about eating meat and dairy products and why it doesn't bother me that people eat those products in front of me (and all other things vegans are supposed to hate about meat eaters.)
The first reason that I don't lecture people on eating meat and dairy products (etc) is because I wouldn't like it if they lectured me on my eating habits. I personally do not have the right to tell them what they can and can't eat, and I'd expect anyone else to feel the same about telling vegetarians and vegans (etc) what they should be eating. As vegans, I think we have to be tactical in how we advise people about their eating habits, because it's easy for them to turn it on us and criticise us right back. Of course it's easy for us to say "but the animals...", "but you're killing yourself...", "but the planet..." If things were easier to digest and understand, I don't think people would be as offensive towards the idea of veganism. Right now many people are at the point where they think vegans are going to shove hugging trees down their throats and so completely abandon the idea before they have even heard it out. This I completely understand because when people are being bombarded with information in a way that criticises them, they aren't going to want to listen. It's about being careful and explaining things properly.
The second reason is because I understand why so many people are set in their ways. From the moment they are born they are taught that animals are put on this earth to feed and sustain us as humans and something that is drilled into you as a child is very hard to break away from in later life. I know what so many people are thinking. "Well, I managed to do it and I was brought up eating meat and dairy products (etc.)" While that may be true and certainly is in many cases, some people are scared of diet change and find it physically, mentally and emotionally difficult to prise themselves away from certain foods that were said to be good for them. The media these days tells us that everything is bad for us, everything is killing us. So, it's no wonder people are terrified of these kinds of diets, because they just don't know what to expect. This is where many of the concerns of not getting enough protein and certain vitamins come from, because people just aren't taught well enough about nutrition and are just going on what they have learned over time from when they were a child. I'm not going to penalise people for that.
The third reason I don't lecture people about eating meat and dairy products is because I know many of them aren't going to listen to a person who has been vegan for a little over a month now. I'm in no way shape or form the perfect vegan, I don't know everything and I'm glad to be learning and growing every single day. I've been documenting things I've learned in a journal and it's exciting to be trying new recipes and food ideas and I think if more people were informed and had an excitement for new foods and healthier foods it would be an insentive to carry on and be a healthier person but also help animals, the planet and the people around them.
The final reason I don't lecture people about it is because people all around the world need to realise for themselves the problems they face every day and the problems every other thing in the world faces due to it. Bad health, bad environment, bad food, feeling bad, low energy, fluctuating weight and emotional instability are all things I have experienced and many people experience it still now. My environment isn't changing, but I am and that circles round to help the environment by reducing waste and not promoting the destruction of environment for animal factories and other horrible places. I can control what I eat, how much I eat, how much effort I put into it and who it harms. If it harms animals or the inside of my body I'm not going to eat it. I've realised something in myself the past month; you can lecture someone for as long as you want about changing their bad habits, they might moan about their weight or how they look or even how they feel, but just lecturing them doesn't work. If anything it makes them even lower. What we have to try and do is find a way to help them come to that self realisation, teach them how to make the changes and have themselves feel better and in the end, make everyone feel better. A good feeling is infectious, as are smiles and laughter. That isn't a bad thing, but in the end we all have to do it for ourselves.
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