So how did you become vegetarian?

[AmIVeggieNow]

Obviously not an aibu but posting here for traffic.

So I made a bet for to stop eating meat for 5 days. It’s day 6 today and I haven’t cracked. Usually I eat meat most days, save a few days a month when we have salmon or other fish. I didn’t think I’d be make to make it for full 5 days but here I am! Not even craving meat. On the contrary, my body feels good. Probably psychological but I feel less sluggish. I have actually enjoyed my meat free meals and want to eat more vegetarian meals than meat-based meals. I might even become vegetarian or pescatarian but it’s early days. I might crave a steak in a little while but right now that does not sound appealing at all.

So all you veggies out there, I’d love to hear how you became vegetarian. Was it a gradual process or did you wake up one morning and decided that’s it, no more bacon rolls! 😀

I stopped eating meat. Simple.

Ha ha. People always assume it’s the bacon rolls that make veggies fall off the wagon 🤣

I had wanted to do it for a longtime, but wasn’t allowed at home. I left home and life got busy/fun and very social so it didn’t happen. I didn’t live in the uk at that time and was living in a very meat centric country. Then I booked a flight back to the uk and booked vegetarian meals. Never looked back; never missed/craved/wanted meat. I was vegan for 5 years but I was travelling extensively for work and it was incredibly difficult to the social events required for my job and so ended up back ‘just’ vegetarian.

I wanted to before I did but mum refused to be cooking 2 meals every night after working a full day which I now accept as perfectly reasonable.

So I went veggie when I started college as I was no longer going to be home for dinner same time as rest of family, was happy to cook for myself or eat out. Parents were also supportive at this point as it was several years later and so clearly not a passing phase.

But essentially yes I was a meat eater one day and not the next. And it was a damn site harder then (over 30 years ago) than now too!

I've since found I believe I'm intolerant to red meat. Within a few months of going veggie stomach problems I'd suffered all my life practically vanished, but there were a few occasions (labelling and info in restaurants not being what they are now) where I was accidentally given red meat products and I was very ill the next day.

I don't find it difficult at all, even though there's a few things I used to enjoy eating and sometimes miss (not bacon though which is the usual one cited) I'm just used to eating like this now it's my normal.

I do get annoyed that some restaurants and ready meal makers seem to think veggie = bland tasteless underseasoned food but I generally cook for myself and give my custom to those who DO make good veggie food.

It's good you've done 5 days but I have to say I'm more impressed by a friend who did veganuary (whole month vegan plus she's a VERY busy working single mium)

What did you find easy and what difficult?

I stupidly watched a video of pigs being forced into slaughterhouses and they were screaming. Okay squealing but it sounded horrendous, that in the last moments of their lives they knew what was about to happen to them. Then I discovered the Facebook page of Esther the wonder pig (couple bought a teacup pig but she grew to a normal sized pig) and she's so smart and funny and I just can't bear the thought of eating animals now it really turns my stomach. It was an overnight thing just completely stopped all meat and then stopped eating fish about a year later.

@heeblejeeble

Same for me, watched a video of pigs being gassed before slaughter and that was it. Haven't eaten anything from an animal since. Been over 5 years and don't miss it at all.

I read Diet for a Small Planet so vegtn seemed like right thing to do.
I was vegtn for 17 yrs.
I started eating meat again b/c...
*I was very fed up with people thinking I was an insane animal rights supporter
*Bacon
*some meats in Britain are raised differently from the model that D4aSP assumed (ie, grass fed lamb). The reality didn't fit the argument against.

Also stayed non-veggie b/c it was less thinking & planning, and I was constantly prone to slight anemia while vegtn. A little heme iron in my diet sorted that out. 19 yrs later, DH (does most the cooking) is experimenting a lot with meat-free meals lately. I am making sure to put some meat back in my diet coz I don't want to have the anemia again.

Aged 11. Felt like a hypocrite because i was known for being the animal loving kid. Just stopped. Family werent helpful but they were all big meat eaters, into game and hunting and fishing.
Im late thirties now and haven't touched it since. Went vegan at 18, give or take a few mistakes ive stuck to that too.

My 7 year old daughter wants to be vegeterian, she has refused to eat pork for a while. Not sure if it's a phase or not.

I had never enjoyed meat and would eat it so it was easier for everyone else. Last year I stopped eating it. I don't miss it, I was only eating it if DH was home for tea or if I was at someone else's house.

Id be humming and hawing over it for years due to animal welfare issues and then one day decided today was the day. I find it easy because im a good cook and its "trendy" just now so eating out is easy but dont get me wrong my mouth waters when my partner is tucking into a steak! But i stay strong!

I watched vegucated on Netflix over 4 years ago and that was enough for me. I've always felt weird about drinking milk any way. So I went vegan over night and stayed vegan for about 6 months and then went veggie. I'm not Mega strict I allow myself to eat a little bit of fish if we are on an abroad holiday but that's the only time I eat fish now and never meat. I know it's hypocritical but I feel like doing your absolute best is better than doing nothing at all. Also we go on holiday abroad less than once a year. I've actually not eaten anything meat/fish since May 2017 so it just works for me. My parents in law have 3/4 meat free days a week now which they gradually increased and that is massive for them as they are huge meat eaters. Anyway what I'm saying is that's great what your doing and doing your best and if you have a little slip up it doesn't mean that it's all over. I suggest you what some programmes around how the amount of meat affects the plant. Education is great to help connect the dots on something most people don't question as we are mostly all raised in meat eating house holds.

I am not a vegetarian but I don't eat any "obvious" meat and am pretty much off dairy now as well.

I don't check packets and don't worry about stocks and stuff though.

I just went off it gradually, even bacon.

We eat a LOT of vegetables in this house and I cook meat for the family if I can be arsed, but mostly I can't.

For instance tonight I made stew, all of the usual ingredients (including split peas and lentils and barley etc) I just left out the meat. It wasn't veggie though as it had beef stock.

I am happy with this level of meat consumption, I don't think I could be bothered going full veggie. Too hard.

Milk weirds me out if I think about it. Bizarrely though I am A-OK with cream in my coffee. I just roll with it these days.

I was more or less veggie by default & then watched a programme about battery hens, which swung it. I know the logical extension would be veganism but I’m not ready yet.

I never really liked bacon anyway.

I watched Celebrity Big brother one year when there were a couple of vegetarians in it. Don't know why but it made me decide I wanted to be a vegetarian. I just stopped eating meat.one day and haven't had any since. I think it was 11 or 12 years ago.

Wow it was actually 13 years ago I became veggie. Time goes so fast.

I was 14 announced it to my mum, she got the rose Elliott bean book and went from there, i carried on until i was about 30 and had to cook for dh, ds and myself, 3 separate meals.
when ds was away recently i really enjoyed just cooking vegetarian meals, dd is veggie. Now tend to cook veggie meals once a week or so.
I dont like steak or lamb or beef burgers and am not really keen on bacon

I always felt a bit weird about eating meat, and I’d told my parents I wanted to go veggie a few times as a teenager, but my mum had always told me to stop being so ridiculous and eat my chicken When I went to uni I was suddenly in charge of making/choosing my own meals, and one day I just decided I wasn’t comfortable with eating meat any more, and I stopped literally overnight. I’ve never felt tempted to eat meat since. I actually think that if you’re an animal lover who eats meat that there’s a fair amount of cognitive dissonance involved. Once you make the connection between the animals you love and the animals on your plate, it’s a bit of a pandora’s box effect and you can’t easily go back.

DH became vegetarian a few years back for animal rights issues, then became vegan a year ago. I have continued with meat and yesterday decided 'enough'. So today is my first day!

I stopped eating meat when I was 11. I just realised what I was actually eating and the thought of it made me feel sick. The thought of eating blood, arteries and bones etc. I've been vegetarian ever since and last year I became a vegan. I do eat some meat substitutes so I can eat things like sausages and mash and lasagne. I cook tofu lots of different ways and I love it. I cook a vegan version of nearly everything. I've never missed meat and now I don't miss dairy or eggs. Cheese was the hardest thing to give up because I was a big cheese lover and vegan cheese isn't that good but I've learnt to make a great vegan cheese sauce.

My mum also refused to cook 2 meals, so from the age of 11 I cooked all my own food. I think that was a good thing, because now I can cook well.

I became vegetarian because I read that we have enough food in the world to feed everyone but due to feeding animals, to fatten them up for our own consumption, there is now not enough food to go round

I was a vegetarian for 34 years. I've been a vegan for 9 months. I tried to become a vegan 3 times before, but found it too difficult because there weren't many vegan foods around. This time I found it easy, there are loads of foods for vegans now and I can eat out almost anywhere and buy plenty of ready made stuff when I can't be bothered to cook.

I also noticed that since becoming a vegan I have lots more energy and I feel a lot more positive. I thought it would be the opposite. I would recommend it.

I was 12, I’m 31 now, vegetarian girl in my school. Told me why she was vegetarian and it just clicked. I went home and told my mum I refuse to eat meat.
Became pescatarian when my DS arrived. After 6 years of being married my DH announced he wanted to become pescatarian too, that was 3 months ago. Absolutely no influence from me, he’s concerned about his health rather than animal welfare whereas I was the other way round.

I was 12 and now 43 so it's been a long time! My school had a farm where you looked after an animal for a year and during that time I realised that the animals I was eating were as sentient as my pet dog. Then my lamb went to market and I thought never again.

Now meat doesn't feel like food to me, just a bit of dead body which to be honest is pretty repellent.