My Vegan Journey

Much as I love wittering on about my complex anxiety issues, I thought it might be time to diversify my wasteland. There are, believe it or not, other things going on in my life, although I’m an expert at forgetting that’s not the case.

I’ve written before about rediscovering parts of my personality that have helped me regain some form of identity. The problem (well, one of them) when you live with mental health difficulties is the sheer enormity of it all. It’s easy to become consumed entirely by your thoughts, feelings, and trying to understand every nonsensical idea your brain thrusts upon you.

A vegan identity

A huge part of my patchwork identity is my vegan lifestyle. I’ve always loved animals, and finally aligning the way I live with that love allowed a small piece of the jigsaw to nestle into place.

Veganism is becoming increasingly popular year after year. Its rise in prominence as a dietary and lifestyle decision means it’s easier now than it ever has been to be a vegan. I became vegan just over three years ago for Veganuary 2016, and I haven’t looked back since. How did I get to that point, though, and what did I learn along the way? Let’s rewind and find out.

In the beginning

Several years ago I was an omnivore going about my life. I was also mentally healthier, but not without my problems. I’d been a vegetarian as a child, from the age of maybe twelve up until eighteen. When I moved to university I gave up on it – probably because I was shit at cooking, and frankly, shit at being a vegetarian. I don’t mean that I ate meat whilst I was veggie, but I didn’t eat the things I should have been.

I always said that I became a better vegetarian when I stopped. As I grew up, I expanded my palate and became open to more new things. My limited cooking skills grew and I cooked with vegetables and pulses a lot more. I still used meat, but I was a little squeamish about it. In terms of cooking, I only really used chicken breast or beef mince.

Things that were off the menu were pork, sausages, steak, game. Most fish, all seafood. As you can perhaps gather, I was a little fussy with the, er, dead animals I put int my body. I ate cheese, but shunned dairy milk years prior at university. My best friend is allergic to milk, so when we lived together I gravitated towards using plant-based alternatives. The taste of milk knocked me sick and I was glad not to have it in my diet.

Cruelty free cosmetics

Fast forward a few years to 2010 or 2011, and I was an omnivore avoiding milk and incorporating far more vegetables and other good shit into my diet. I started wearing makeup regularly when I was thirteen, partly due to my terrible skin, and partly to express my ‘alternative’ nature. I can’t remember why, but over a decade later I started looking into animal testing, and avoiding brands that still practiced it.

I’d forgotten about this until recently, but at the time I started a tumblr blog about my journey into cruelty free cosmetics. Sadly, it no longer exists (I’m sure we could all do with a laugh), but it was an important step for me. My eyes were slowly opened to alternatives. In my view, it was completely unnecessary to test cosmetics on animals, so it was easy to cut it out. I say easy, it wasn’t terribly difficult but again it’s a hell of a lot more simple now to cut cruelty out of your cosmetics.

Trying meat-free

At the start of 2015, I did a meat-free January. After that I still ate meat now and again but it was slowly falling off my menu. Finally, at the end of 2015 I committed to going back to being vegetarian. I was inspired by a new job, where a few people I knew were vegetarian. After that, I was done. As I said, January 2016 was my vegan challenge and it’s been part of my life ever since.

I think my foray into cruelty free cosmetics helped me enormously in transitioning to a vegan lifestyle. The information and resources I found opened my eyes to animal cruelty in general, and I started being exposed to more vegan information. I’d thought about veganism for a while before I even went vegetarian, and stumbled across social media accounts and YouTubers that helped.

The Vegan Society and Veganuary were great resources when starting out. They had lists of things to stock in your cupboard, advice, recipes, that kind of thing. Changing to a vegan diet is complicated and a little overwhelming at first, but it gets easier.

Slow and steady

The Vegan Society and Veganuary were great resources when starting out. They had lists of things to stock in your cupboard, advice, recipes, that kind of thing. Changing to a vegan diet is complicated and a little overwhelming at first, but it gets easier.

A lot of people are making pretty dramatic changes, switching to a vegan diet and lifestyle overnight. I’m glad I eased myself into it, and I think that’s part of the reason I’ve been able to stick at it and enjoy it so much. My advice would always be to take it as slowly as you need, even if that means starting with one or two vegan meals a week.

The diet seems to pretty much always be the first thing to change. Once you’ve nailed that down, it’s time to look outwards a bit and consider the other aspects of veganism. This is why it’s a process, and why being vegan is more than a dietary choice. Eliminating cruelty from your plate is fantastic. Animal agriculture is problematic in so many ways and reducing consumption of fast factory farming is never a bad thing,

To completely overhaul your life is a little more challenging. What about that fancy leather handbag you have, or those high end beauty products you got for Christmas? I’d always advocate for not wasting things, and using up anything non-vegan before purchasing vegan alternatives. We aren’t going to get anywhere by dropping eating meat and replacing it with over-consumption or mindless chucking away of other products.

Practice makes improvement

Although my beauty collection was cruelty free, it wasn’t all vegan. I still owned a leather handbag, though I’d stopped using it. Household cleaning products were purchased with value for money rather than compassion in mind. Slowly, I replaced my make up and cosmetics with vegan alternatives.

It’s probably a good time to point out that vegan and cruelty free are not the same thing. Cruelty free means neither the product nor its ingredients has been tested on animals. Vegan means it hasn’t been tested on animals, and none of its ingredients contain animal derivatives. You might find a cruelty free product that contains, for example, beeswax or carmine (crushed up beetles). Most brands are getting a lot better at labelling things, and it’s up to you where you stand on brands that are owned by companies that do test on animals.

I gave my leather bag to a charity shop so someone else could use it. I researched ethical cleaning products and replaced them when the time was right. The only thing I’m not sure about is the liquid I use to wash clothes – I’m hesitant to change it as I’ve got sensitive skin that reacts to a lot of washing products. It’s reasonable to assume, though, that I’ll be able to find something that’s definitely vegan that I won’t react to.

Nobody’s perfect

See what I mean? I’ve been vegan for three years and I’m still not perfect. I take medication every day for my poorly brain that has almost certainly been tested on animals, and may well contain animal ingredients. A lot of medicine has lactose in, for example.

I’d be suspicious of anyone who claimed to be 100% vegan, because it’s extremely difficult to do. Cereals fortified with vitamin D often contain traces of animal products (Link), because it’s easier to manufacture synthetic vitamin D from animal byproducts. It won’t say this on the label, and frankly, if you can’t get around it then I wouldn’t bother feeling too guilty.

Tattoo ink often contains bone char. My tattooist is vegan and uses all vegan inks, but that’s something to consider as well. It’s getting easier to find artists or entire studios who work with vegan products, although it strikes me as something people would have no idea about until they researched it. I’ve learned a lot from researching veganism, such as parmesan cheese isn’t even vegetarian. Parmesan contains rennet (cow stomach), so any cheese-loving veggies, make sure your cheese is vegetarian!

Learning to live compassionately

Veganism isn’t about being perfect. It’s about learning to live more compassionately in the best way for you, and gradually removing animal products from your lifestyle in a way that suits. Can you do it overnight? Technically yes, but I can almost guarantee there will be things in your home that aren’t vegan. Don’t worry about that, though, and focus on implementing veganism in a sustainable way.

Chucking out all your food, makeup, and toiletries is overwhelming. Struggling to find replacements might make you more likely to give up and resort to what you know. That’s why I found a slower approach so much more helpful. It’s not to say it can’t be done, and depending on your attitude after a couple of weeks you might find it hard to use things that aren’t vegan. Whilst mine was a slightly slower process, I couldn’t stand the thought (or the smell) of the leather handbag, and I was surprised by how quickly my mind was changed on it.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from my journey, it’s that I’m still learning. Everyone has different tolerances, like some vegans will eat honey and others won’t (I don’t). Some will keep pets, others won’t. I do, and she isn’t vegan. Hamsters are omnivores, and can be picky when fed a dried muesli mix, leaving out some parts that are good for them. An all-in-one nugget type food is better, but it contains animal protein. I’m not about to deprive an animal of what’s good for it when it’s in my care, so I let it slide and let the hamster do her thing.

What’s it all about?

The end goal should be eliminating cruelty as much as you can, and finding a lifestyle that works for you. Veganism has been great for me. I don’t feel as though I’ve missed out on anything, other than perhaps convenience. Picking up vegan food on the go wasn’t always easy, but again it’s getting so much better. I’m settled into my lifestyle know, I know which products and brands to buy and which to avoid. It’s made me more aware of how I treat the environment in general, and led me to make some more sustainable choices.

I couldn’t be happier with my choice three years ago, and I hope me telling my story is a small example of what it’s like to make the change. Obviously, I understand that there are myriad reasons why some people cannot and should not go vegan, such as chronic health issues, eating disorders, allergies, or even cultural beliefs. Would I love the whole world to go vegan? Of course, but I accept it isn’t going to happen. I just hope my choices can make an impact, and I’ll do the best I can to spread a positive vegan message.

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