Three years ago, my journey started with a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) video about factory farming. The shock led me to multiple others and an hour later, I had made the decision to quit meat for good. The rest of the journey was not nearly as easy. With more research I knew my goal was to become vegan. The hardest part was trying to conquer my major sweet tooth and my appetite for anything smothered in cheese. I figured this would only work if I took baby steps. So, I said goodbye to eggs, which I never really cared for, and swapped cow’s milk for soya milk. So far so good.
Soon though, I had a rude awakening realising that my morning croissant was packed with butter and that, if I really wanted to reach my goal, I’d have to say au revoir. It’s as if all the comfort foods I clung onto were being ripped away. But eventually I quit them too, reminding myself of the reasons: the environment, the animals and my health. These days my diet is 99 per cent vegan and 100 per cent vegetarian.
At this point you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you my story. People who find out I’m vegan rarely realise how long and slow the journey was. They look at me now and don’t see that it was an accumulation of so many little changes over time. The result is that they see veganism as unrealistic and think cheating every so often means you’re ‘out of the club’. I think we could all benefit by changing the narrative and encouraging people to experiment with any type of reduction in animal product consumption. Things like meat-free Monday or swapping milks, like I did, are changes that may seem negligible but over time they will make a significant difference to the environment, the animals and your health. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Go on, be a bad vegan.
