I've been vegan for a few years now

Discussion in 'Fitness, Health & Nutrition' started by Marijuana User, Jun 8, 2012.

  1. and over the past few days I've had a sort of revelation that made me decide to stop being vegan.

    I didn't change my morals, I just realized how difficult it is for me to eat healthily when I limit myself so much. I'm scared the potential long term damage that I could be doing to myself for that reason. Also, I've never really felt that my effort was all that worth it. I forced myself into a minority that actually negatively impacted my life in a few ways. I never thought I'd be saying it, it's really weird for me.

    Anyone ever gone through this?
     
  2. Haven't been though this, but interested to follow this thread as my girlfriend is vegan. A couple questions:

    1. What caused you to go vegan (treatment of animals/personal health/etc?)
    2. What do you intend to change your diet to?

    I will say that my gf makes it look soooo easy to do, but she's kind of awesome at everything, so there's that. And she really stays on top of her nutrition, making sure to get ample and varied proteins as well as vitamins. However, it requires a good amount of effort for her to keep up with it. For that reason it seems unsustainable to me. I suspect she'll be forced as a practical matter to eat mostly vegan, but make exceptions once her career gets going (law). Time will tell.

    Would love some more insight as to how your life was negatively affected if you're comfortable sharing.
     
  3. Absolutely man. Your words are very enlightened. The more we try to contort to our moral or ethical ideals, the harder and more alienating we make our own lives. When we try to follow a code it inherently creates an us vs them dynamic. I've learned that just going with the flow of the culture and time and people around me isn't a cop-out, it is adaptability, and that's what keeps us the most sane and overall healthiest.
     
  4. Also, I read your comments in that other vegan thread just now. I have to say that that's so fucked that people give other people shit about their diet. I will say time and time again, that I don't think a vegan diet is the most healthy, but who the fuck am I to say what you should put into your body. For fuck's sake.

    I'm sorry that you're not surrounded by more understanding people. My girlfriend has a close classmate that had been vegan for 10(!) years and really helped to out, and I think its been helpful to have me fully willing to eat vegan with her. I imagine that having a couple really vegan friendly people in her life makes it a lot easier that if she was alone in the endeavor.

    Hope everything works out for the best.
     

  5. I went vegan for ethical reasons. It was all for the animals, I can't stand the idea of a factory farm.

    As far as how I'll eat from now on, call it "flexitarian" or "semi-vegetarian". Meat consumption will be mostly fish, and any other meat will be from only local, organic, and free range sources. Most of the time I'll probably eat vegetarian.


    And on to how it's negatively impacted my life. I find myself questioning my own ethics regularly. I'm coming across more and more inconsistencies in my own logic surrounding veganism and animal rights, and I started to feel like I no longer needed to take such extreme measures to still be following my own moral code.

    Also, I really enjoy food and cooking. I feel like my extremely limiting diet was also extremely limiting to the joy I would get from food. I would always have to settle for something without animal products in it when going out to eat with friends, instead of ordering what I was really in the mood for... or sit there hungry when all the people at a party order a pizza.

    And I lost a shitload of weight. I've been working out, but my diet has been pretty low on protein for almost three years now, not protein-deficiency low, but definitely low enough to affect my muscular physique and performance.
     
  6. I've been a vegan for about 4 years now, and I understand the mentality you're present in. In regard to health, though, it's undeniable that a plant based diet is healthier than an animal based diet. Nutrients and proteins in plants are far more healthy than those in animal products. After reading the china study I never looked back.

    I will say I slip up and have fish or cheese maybe 1 time a month, but it accounts for such a small percentage of my overall diet that I believe it doesn't have an adverse effect.

    Good luck, OP. I hope you don't abandon the morals that brought you to veganism originally.
     
  7. #7 silentbob71, Jun 8, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 8, 2012
    Just started raw vegan myself maybe 2 months ago, and I would never want to go back, I feel awesome. It takes a lot of knowledge though, and drive to remain raw. If you crave cheese it's because your body is craving fat, which cheese is. When I started I was on a high carb low fat diet, and I had those cravings all the time, but now I make sure to eat nuts/seeds and coconut oil for my fats, and I no longer have those cravings for cheese.
    Personally though I don't have to eat raw, it's more or less a choice I have made for the time being. I have a gluten allergen, not full blown celiac but still get anti-bodies in my blood and mucus buildup. If I were to change my diet I would eat gluten free and still remain animal meat free, I would just add in pastas and dairy, essentially go from vegan to vegetarian.
     
  8. its kinda pathetic that the world we live in makes you feel completely alienated. When you take the most moral and logical path you can think of for yourself, it seems to be the path of most resistance..?

    so, i know what you mean, but it might just be everyone else going "you gotta be careful youre not getting enough protein.." is it because everytime you talk to someone about it they seem like theyre trying to make you go off your diet? but for real all those people are fucking brainwashed hate to sound new-age cliche but dude.. everyones deficient in some area.. and theres plenty of protein in plants. mario ate the mushroom and got big as shit.. popeye ate the spinach before wooping the bad guys...

    we live in a culture that is very rigid. but hey, do what you want. ive been eating a lot more fruit and veggies raw and learned a whole lot, and cut out meat, but now meat is supplementary, and i only get milk from legit sources, fuck the standard grocery chain cancer puss.

    we are dealt more peer-pressure in our lives to eat certain foods in any given month than to do all the drugs we've been offered in our whole existence.
     
  9. I would say a BALANCED diet containing both is the healthiest of all.
     

  10. Who are you that we should take your advice?
     

  11. To be fair, there's not a damn person who can recommend a "best" diet for all of humans. First, we all have different biochemistry and different needs, and second, even large scale studies like the China Study and Framingham are not perfect and subject to scrutiny and interpretation.
     
  12. Just a guy with a little common sense.
     

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