My vegan story

Well, I recently registered on Vegan represent dot com

They ask you  to first post a vegan story telling more about your vegan journey.


Here is what i posted there


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Here is the basic questionnaire I have been asked to answer while posting my vegan story.
- Why did you become vegan? Was it a bunch of reasons or one major one...gradual or instant?- When did you become vegan?
ANS. I became vegan two years ago.I have been ovo-lacto-vegetarian all my life before that ,primarily because my parents are ovo-lacto-vegetarian .At the age of fourteen i watched a video of pigs being slaughtered and hair pulled out of live pigs to make paint brushes.That video left a deep impression on my mind.I had ever since wanted to completely go vegan.I finally did the deed of going fully vegan 2 years ago.

- How has it affected relationships with friends, family, etc...?- What challenges did /do you face and how you dealt/dealing with them?

ANS.Even as an ovo-lacto-vegetarian. I  have had to order special meals at restaurants and on plane rides and at parties etc...
Now that i have vegan, It has gotten a wee lil bit more finicky,that's all.
Eitherways,I have always been the avoider of boring mundane parties where all people do is gossip about dumb ,nosy stuff .Being vegan has given me an excuse to avoid the idle talk with even more conviction now.

I have meat eating friends, many of them are online ones.Since I don't meet them in person, their meat eating doesn't affect me on such a personal level.I am sure that if i went out with meat eating friends, special accommodations from both sides might need to be made.So far,I  have avoided most such outings though.

My family is fantastic.My friends at work??Well!They work,I work.I am a kickass doctor(wink,wink)They respect me for that..end of story..
I really don't go out eating with them or anything.
Sometimes it gets awkward, yes,especially when someone goes and gets takeaway food for everyone  while all of us are pulling a long busy work shift.But, who cares!
My beliefs are important to me,Especially since I am the one who has had the conviction to sacrifice taste for ethics.
I am proud of my decisions,which helps a lot while defending yourself  when your non vegan friends quite unnecessarily give you a hard time..I think they do that coz  they secretly feel guilty..LOL

- What have you found easy/hard?

ANS.I travel a lot , so sometimes while eating at restaurants.Oftentimes, I end up needing to take time to first ask about the ingredients being put into the dish.
I often also have to pore over food labels on processed food packets at the supermarket.
But I am used to doing those both to a large extent by now..NO biggie
I thought that giving up cheese and eggs would be a big thing and that I would go into relapse because of that..But, surprisingly,in the two years that I have given up cheese and eggs so far,I haven't really craved for either one of them at all.That came as a surprise to me.The fact that I didn't crave for them at al surprised mel.I thought that a cheese craving would make me relapse or some such.That didn't happen.
But then, living alone and cooking (greatly tasting) vegan meals without others eating eggs or cheese in front of you probably helps a lot in not craving them at all.

- What has brought you to VEgan Represent?

One other user on another Animal rights forum cross posted something for me here upon my request..I followed along and I liked it here.I registered :)
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