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’ve been vegetarian for 26 years (since early secondary school) I didn’t really like meat so just gave it up. It was easy for me as I never once missed it. I toy with the idea of becoming vegan sometimes but a) I love cheese b) it just seems so socially awkward (eating out, eating at friends houses etc) One day I’ll do it!

Well done you.
I'm not veggie but have become almost veggie since my dh and ds (aged 5!) decided to become veggie just before Christmas.
Dh's reason is environmental.
Ds just doesn't want to eat animals.
I've stopped buying meat for the family but will have some occasionally when out. It has been a surprisingly easy transition tbh we are enjoying trying out the very good variety of veggie stuff on offer in our local Sainsbury's. So far it seems cheaper too. I predict holidays abroad will be less straightforward.

Personally I think a little bit of sustainable fish is ok if you're following the environmental argument so I'm hoping to get my ds to have a bit from time to time.

I was a big Smiths fan... just never stopped being vegetarian (or being a Smiths fan).

I was 18, 30 years ago. I just stoped eating meat. DDad didn’t eat meat, so it was t a big deal. I do eat fish now, largely for other people’s convenience. I have never craved meat. Despite being wean on hummus and lentil bake, my own dc are never happier than when they have a plate of roast meat in front of them.

DH was vegetarian when we met. When we got married I started off cooking 2 different meals. Quickly decided to try becoming a veggie and if I missed meat I would go back to it. Over 30 years later have never missed it.

I never liked meat much anyway. Beef, lamb and pork always made be feel bloated and lethargic when I ate it. The smell of pork cooking turned my stomach. I quite liked chicken but not enough to miss it. Never really liked bacon. I always thought it smelt lovely cooking and then was disappointing to eat.

I love all veg and things like lentils, chickpeas, beans, nuts. Also salads so being veggie is no problem. I think there are far more interesting veggie meals than meat meals

I was 14 (I'm now 42) and saw a documentary about abattoir. I'd always been a huge animal lover, but ate and loved meat and fish. This documentary absolutely horrified me. I told my mum I was giving up meat and she refused point blank to support it, saying it was a fad, so I started to learn how to cook and stuck at it.

A few years later. I was still eating fish and read a quote, I think by Linda McCartney, talking about how fish slowly suffocated after being caught. So I gave up fish that day. (I still miss fish, don't miss meat at all).

Then recently I started learning about the dairy industry, how fluffy yellow baby chicks are ground up alive for being male, how female cows are impregnated (some people say raped) and have their babies taken off them and the female cows are then pumped of milk like some machine, while often the babies are sent off to veal farms.

I then saw a video of a baby cow being taken by a farmer, put into his 4x4 and the mother cow was mooing, chasing after the truck as fast as her legs would carry her, to try and get her baby back. Broke my heart.

So I started slowly replacing my Quorn products, cheese and butter with vegan alternatives, became vegan January 1st in 2018, there was loads of great support as it was Veganuary. I've been vegan over a year now. Wish I'd done it sooner TBH.

My DP is a chef and eats meat, fish and dairy. But as he's open to trying new foods he's become quite partial to a lot of the foods I eat and eats vegan a couple of days a week, he's never going to be vegan though. Which I accept. He's been very supportive of my decision and I respect his choices, even if I don't agree with them.

Finding vegan food is so much easier than a few years back. Shops, restaurants and fast food outlets surprise me daily with vegan options. But sadly there's still times where there is nothing to eat for me.

I'm not a "preachy" vegan, meaning that I tend to only talk about veganism if asked, also I've not been vegan long enough to be any kind of expert. If people ask me, I'm happy to talk about why I follow a vegan lifestyle (it's much more than just the food) and I'm happy for a polite debate. But I do take umbrage with someone noticing I'm vegan by what I've ordered in a pub or restaurant and seeing that as a green light to start attacking me verbally about my choice, often followed by bacon "jokes". Yawn.

Likewise, I saw a man post on a vegan FB page last week, he'd pointed to a shopper's goods on a supermarket conveyor belt and loudly exclaimed to his DP that the man in front was a "murderer for buying chicken", the man in front wasn't happy with this and a row ensued, the vegan came onto FB expecting support and never got it. Got told he's the kind of idiot who gives vegans a bad name.

I heard and read a lot about factory farming and it sickened me. I just stopped eating meat overnight. I've never missed it. This was 25 years ago. My body craves vegetables, pulses etc. not meat. I find vegetarian food much more interesting and creative.

I saw that post also IchWill. DH is a member of that page.

We watched Cowspiracy and What The Health on Netflix and literally stopped eating meat overnight.

We were HUGE meat eaters and decided we’d cut down for health reasons but actually it ended up being similar to you OP and we just did it.

Body felt stronger and better within days of stopping.

Lots of recipes and easy to buy things in the shops now too. It helped both of us doing it together, dd came around after 6 months and she’ll have what we’re eating at home and chooses herself at school so does eat meat still. And like the other pp, I’m not too particular about stock / ingredients.

Just run with it and see how you get on.

The problem with the vegetarian / vegan lifestyle is that other people seem so critical fascinated in the “why’s” around your choice; that you end self analysing and reflecting on your decision and choice to cut meat and/or dairy out, which turns into justifying it by research. This then becomes “vegans/vegetarian’s are so opinionated” because you hold information and data that makes other people uncomfortable.

Don’t fall for that. If you don’t want to eat meat, don’t eat it.

As other pp have said - health, ethicalness, environmental, taste and cost are all valid reasons to stop /reduce meat intake. Pick your reasons and don’t read too much into it

@GirlFliesHome yes, that vegan OP on FB was a self righteous arsehole. I did wonder if they were trolling though. 😂

DH is veggie, read a few articles and decided he didn't really agree with the meat industry. We substituted Quorn initially but it doesn't work in all dishes. Since Xmas I've tried to cook one proper veggie dish from a recipe book per week, sometimes me and dc eat it, sometimes we don't. He still eats fish so we eat a lot of fish pie!

I gave up meat when I was 11 due to animal rights reasons. I continued to eat fish until about 5 years ago but am now fully vegetarian

I would like to be vegan eventually and we use vegan alternatives often, dairy free spread, rice milk etc but we do still eat cheese

DH is also veggie and we are raising DS as veggie too. I really hope he chooses to remain so as he gets older

I did it because every meal I ate contained meat. I thought that cutting out meat would make me more creative with my meals, but actually all I do now is eat Quorn crispy nuggets and Asda's vegan popcorn chicken .

I just don’t like meat.
As a kid forced to eat liver and mince with hard unidentifiable bits in and fat/grissle just turned my stomach then and did as I got older so I stopped eating meat at an early age.
A year ago I cut out all dairy too and now follow a plant based diet. Did this for health reasons.
I’m not an animal rights person at all, I just don’t eat animal products.

Girlflieshome go you! Excellent if you want any tips, recipes or recommendations ask away I'm happy to give those and I'm sure others on the thread will too.

My dad always had similar stomach issues to me but liked meat well enough. The combination of bse, other production scandals and the research on red meat and bowel issues mean he's given up red meat and even the chicken and fish he eats is organic/locally sourced from known suppliers with known supply chains. Much of his stomach problems have gone and he's feeling better for it. Mum went along with him just so as not cooking 2 meals again and has also noticed she's less gassy, less heartburn etc.

"So far it seems cheaper too." Omg yes! Dd also doesn't eat red meat - just doesn't like it (apart from bacon 🙄) I was with a friend a while ago she was kindly giving me a lift back from somewhere and she wanted to pop into supermarket to get for her and other halfs dinner and wanted to do it before dropping me for some reason I forget - nope just remembered it was cos she was buying wine too and needed to buy within licensing hours! Anyway! So I picked up some milk and bits too, found her in the chiller getting admittedly steaks as a bit of a treat £4.50 for 2 tiny steaks!!!!! And meat shrinks too! Stuff that for a lark.

Dd will eat meat when out but I don't cook a lot of meat at home although it doesn't bother me. But again the cooking 2 meals nonsense so dd is largely happy to eat veggie at home and I was surprised to learn she sometimes orders veggie when out too simply because it's something she knows and knows she likes - so there's maybe hope for her yet. I've been asked why I didn't raise her veggie and that's because I felt it should be her own informed choice, I've friends who were raised veggie even vegan and as soon as they could they "rebelled" by feasting on meat. I thought I might have more success taking a gentler approach but ultimately it's her choice.

"I predict holidays abroad will be less straightforward" not necessarily if you're not fussy and you're flexible. I've lived and travelled all over Europe and never gone hungry yet. I gather it's trickier in parts of Asia and Africa but generally you should be ok.

Ichwill yep I've had the arseholes (mostly exs friends) who purely from observing I've ordered a veggie dish start with the bacon and blue jobs bollocks, they're not too bad - the REAL arseholes are the ones who try and "catch you out" "I bet those shoes/belt/bag are leather though" nope "I bet that scarfs silk" etc nope! And they hate not being right!

Crosser62 there were many mainly red meat foods I plain didn't like either which made it much easier. I loathed mince! Which we seemed to have nearly every bloody meal time!

I was about 10 or 11. I was having an argument with my sister, she said "If you like animals so much why do you eat them?", I said "OK then, I won't" and went vegetarian on the spot.

That was just over 40 years ago and I've been vegetarian ever since (vegan for the last 25 or so years).

I was 14. I'd been thinking about it for a while but my Mum didn't agree. At 14 I had a major freak out and started dreaming about eating fish and them coming back to life i nay throat while I was eating them. At that point Mum agreed and other than a brief period - maybe 3 months - at uni when I tried to eat oily fish for health reasons - I've been vegetarian ever since so 21 years. I don't wear leather either, check things like wine/cheese/sweets and I don't drink cow's milk. I have my own ethical levels though - so for example I will take prescribed medicines that aren't vegetarian. My kids also aren't vegetarian, however they know I am and they understand why (to an age appropriate level - they are only 4 and 7).

I now have a B12 deficiency though so take vitamins if you are vegan or eat very little meat and dairy.

DH has been pescatarian since a bout of food poisoning at a bbq 8 years ago (dodgy chicken wings not envy). I pretty much stopped cooking meat at home after that, although I didn't eat that much anyway. I still ate meat out, but since Jan 1st this year i decided to cut out meat (although not fish) for environmental reasons. I've actually eaten meat once since Jan 1st, last month, my sil cooked chicken and i hadn't told her I'd become veggie. But i have started to declare it now. I am cutting down on fish now too, i only really have tuna for sandwiches. All our evening meals are veggie, and I try to do a couple of vegan meals.

I became vegetarian at age 10, my mother was ok but dad was disgusted, he'd known very hard times, and even when more affluent would pick up roadkill! Anyway, 55 yrs later I'm still vege, and have brought up two children who are vegetarians, their children are, too. I'd like to be vegan but am too weak and selfish to give up cheese.

Well done you! I don't eat what I call land meat but I do occasionally eat fish, so not really a vegetarian, even though most of my diet is meat free. It's better for your health, the animals and the future of our planet. Make sure you are getting enough protein by adding nuts and pulses to what you eat, there's lots of yummy recipes out there x

I went veggie during the BSE scare in the early 1990s. I just stopped eating meat, and found that I didnt really miss it. I lasted 12 years or so, then lapsed when I was pregnant with DD2 as I craved meat. Now DD1 ( age 16) has been veggie for a couple of years and DD2 not very keen on meat, so I cook mostly veggie meals but have meat once in a while when I fancy it.

I had a childhood of being forced to eat meat then my mum was told not to feed me red meat because of eczema. Thank goodness as I hated it.
She had to force feed me and I often went to bed hungry before this.

I don't even like most animals but I would never harm one or eat one.

My mum was vegetarian when she had me. She tried feeding me meat baby food (the rest of my family were omnivores then) but I wouldn't eat it, so I was vegetarian from the start.

I became vegan (15 years ago) after I got an email from the RSPCA boasting about their Freedom Foods egg standards. I remember reading it and thinking "those hens don't sound very free...".

Now I am older and wiser, I understand that speciesism is philosophically identical to other forms of discrimination such as sexism and racism (obviously the practical details differ), so welfare is irrelevant anyway.

I was 20, a boy I wanted to impress was vegetarian, so I thought I would give it a go for a few weeks. 35 years later, I am still vegetarian though I would be hard pressed to remember what the boy looked like!

I've been slowly eating less meat for a few months now. I keep putting off going fully vegetarian for daft reasons.. eating out might be hard, I like my GMILs roast dinners etc... but after reading through this thread I am going to take the veggie leap as of tomorrow