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View Poll Results: Which transition was more difficult?
Omnivore to vegetarian (lacto-ovo) 3 6.52%
Vegetarian to vegan 19 41.30%
Both transitions were easy 10 21.74%
Doesn't apply to me - went directly from omnivore to vegan 14 30.43%
Voters: 46. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 04-02-2005, 10:37 PM   #1
Mason
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Which transition was more difficult?

This is a no-brainer for me. Going vegetarian was difficult. But going vegan was an order of magnitude more difficult than going vegetarian. And the main reason it took me so long to take the leap. The difficulty has nothing to do with food cravings. I don't miss any of it. It's all about cultural infrastructure.

I miss going out to lunch with people. I miss going out to lunch at all. I spend a lot more time preparing meals than I did as a vegetarian. My refrigerator is now full of parts of things rather than actual meals I can pull out at the whim of hunger. (I suppose this isn't an issue if you're content with just eating the parts. So far, I'm not.) I often think of the parents I know who have to plan well ahead for most meals of the day. I do that now. I live alone. I don't bother putting the cutting board away anymore.

I find it to be a lot of work to live within a society that, for the most part, doesn't account for your presence. If there were just as many vegan options in mainstream grocery stores as non-vegan options and just as many vegan fast food chains as all the existing ones, I would change my answer to "Both transitions were easy".
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Old 04-02-2005, 10:43 PM   #2
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I have found going from veggie to vegan more challenging, partially cuz i live with veggies and omni's. Its the little things like Natural cheetos, ohhhhh love those, and other such items in kitchen, now I just dont "see" them and choose other things, but it was tough at first.
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Old 04-02-2005, 11:12 PM   #3
vegematic
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Omni to veg was much more difficult for me because aside from the sudden realization that meat = dead animals, I was pretty young (22) and ignorant. I started out with nothing more than a desire to no longer eat meat. I had no information to use in explaining/defending my decision, I had no veg cookbooks or nutrition knowledge, and 15 years ago there were very few veg*n products compared to now (at least where I lived). By the time I became vegan I was well equipped with knowledge in all those areas, and being about 8 years older I was much more secure with telling people where to shove their societal expectations. In fact, now I may be a little *too* comfortable telling people that .
-vegematic
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Old 04-02-2005, 11:14 PM   #4
Stitches
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Going from omni to veggie wasn't hard in and of itself...what made it hard was having my family badger and harass me about my diet on a routine basis for two years.

When I cut out dairy (never liked eggs or honey - ewww), I wasn't living with them, so no one bothered me about it.
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Old 04-02-2005, 11:57 PM   #5
Soleil
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Going from 'almost veg' to vegan was horrific because of the guilt and shame of dicovering my ignorance..but hard on my b-friend too. because I couldnt eat out with him anymore if he ate IT around me...then later if ANYONE ate IT around me...made some weddings difficult..but now I just go to the church part only..that's the important part (to me anyway).. and only go to vegan restaurants, so I never really see IT. and my rocky relationship w/my best friend ended when I became vegan. I couldnt and still wont compromise my values my beliefs in this lifestyle...for no one.
Just saw someone eating pizza in front of me (with cheese and circular cow pieces) for the first time since I became vegan (2003) at my work these kids were eating a slice while waiting for mom,(dont usually have pple eating there) and i smelled the cheese, made me hungry, but not for their pizza..
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Old 04-03-2005, 12:14 AM   #6
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I went straight from omni to vegan and it was both easy and hard. I had to get used to the same things y'all have talked about... cooking more (even though I already cooked a lot), having more difficulty eating in restaurants, missing certain foods, etc.

The inconvenience and discomfort we put up with certainly speaks to the importance of our decision, don't you think?
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Old 04-03-2005, 12:42 AM   #7
trichaos
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I went from omni to vegan instantly. Because of the things I'd learned, I no longer had any desire to consume meat or dairy. I also live alone, so for the most part the change was easy. The crash course I took in animal products was a bit shocking at first, I had no idea they were so prevalent. The only hard part of being vegan so far is when I go out to eat with friends, and there are only one or two things at some places I can eat. But I manage that just fine, and never go hungry.
I'm about to go on my first vegan road trip, but I've got vegan-friendly restaurants and health food stores mapped out everywhere I'll be.
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Old 04-03-2005, 03:40 AM   #8
Katelin
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most definitely lacto-ovo to vegan was harder! (this is my second try at veganism)
My family does not eat much meat, and almost never red meat, so when I was eating meat for the first thirteen years of my life, it wasn't that often. I haven't consumed animal flesh in over ten years, and forget what it tastes like. I just know the smell (ick, that's enough to turn me off from it).
I was vegan for about a year the first time around and found it especially challenging since I was a teenager still living with my parents. At that time, the products available were scant and pretty limited compared to now. (both because I lived in Indianapolis and this was pre-wild oats, so Good Earth was the only option, and also it was over 8 yrs or so ago). Nobody understood, and I was faced with criticism (and still am) by people who are uneducated about it. I wish some people would read before they open their mouths. Also, eating out and eating at others' houses as a guest poses a greater challenge as a vegan than vegetarian
...but I'm still not looking back
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Old 04-03-2005, 09:31 AM   #9
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It took me 10+ years to transition permanently from vegetarianism to veganism. I blame it on my own lack of maturity and social factors for the most part.
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Old 04-03-2005, 10:26 AM   #10
kkohne
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I went from omni to vegan over the course of a month or two (just stopped buying animal products completely and used the ones I had up). I guess I'd have to say that going veg in the first place must have been the hardest for me since it took me nearly 30 years to do that, but only a month or two to go veg to vegan.
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Old 04-03-2005, 11:39 AM   #11
bluedawg
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both transitions were "easy" in a sense, in that once i made the decision, i pretty much just went about doing it. but, i voted that vegetarian-->vegan was more difficult, mostly due to the social implications and stuff like that.

i went vegetarian when i was in my first week of a study abroad program in england. i was away from all of my family and friends, and i was living in a dorm that had a veggie option at every meal, so i felt extremely independent and the vegetarian choices were always right there in front of me. after 6 months, i came home, and it was pretty easy to just say, "oh, by the way, i went vegetarian over there, so i won't be eating meat anymore." it was kind of empowering to have the decision made several months ago, already be living the life, and once i got past the "but how do you get your protein??" questions, it wasn't bad at all.

i went vegan 12 years later, and it took so long because i honestly didn't know how terrible the dairy and egg industries were. once i learned, i felt soooo awful, and i knew i had to go vegan. i consider that transition to be more difficult, though--again because of the social implications. i had spent 12 years eating tons of cheese, milk, ice cream, eggs, etc., AND joking around, like, "gotta get my protein!" with my friends and family, and that was all about to stop cold. i don't know any other vegans in person, and i've learned that a lot of people really don't get it, so that has been a little tough. also i was afraid of what my friends/family would think... i struggled with the "coming out" process and there are *still* friends and family that don't know i'm vegan.

so i guess it depends on what *about* the transition i'm talking about. decision-wise, both easy... eating-transition-wise, both relatively easy... but explaining the decision to others, dealing with social stuff, etc... harder for when i went vegan.
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Old 04-03-2005, 11:51 AM   #12
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I went from carnivore to vegan. It happened in one day. And I say "carnivore" because I was a fast food, hamburgers and french fries kind of girl. I hardly ever ate any vegetables or fruits.

The cooking was pretty easy, it was the eating out or eating at someones house that was the most difficult. Still is, but less so now.

I consider it the best damn thing I ever did.
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Old 04-03-2005, 02:08 PM   #13
misanthropy
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Both transitions were super easy for me. In both cases (omni to vegetarian and then vegetarian to vegan shortly afterwards) I just cut everything out. I didn't wean myself off of anything.
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Old 04-03-2005, 02:35 PM   #14
Chijou_no_seiza
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I said both were easy. But that's not necessarily true. It took me a long time to actually figure out what the hell was vegan. Since I kept weeding out products over a long period of time (a year or two) I didn't realize how much animal products were in everything. And of course going vegetarian was easy because well I was four, and I don't even remember what meat tastes like (or eatting it for that matter), so it didn't affect me at all. But as for mentally, nothing about either bothered me, I was never tempted or wished to eat animal products once I discovered it, or missing restaurants and such, because veganisim makes me happier then any food can
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Old 04-03-2005, 02:43 PM   #15
Katelin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluedawg
both transitions were "easy" in a sense, in that once i made the decision, i pretty much just went about doing it. but, i voted that vegetarian-->vegan was more difficult, mostly due to the social implications and stuff like that.

i consider that transition to be more difficult, though--again because of the social implications. i had spent 12 years eating tons of cheese, milk, ice cream, eggs, etc., AND joking around, like, "gotta get my protein!" with my friends and family, and that was all about to stop cold. i don't know any other vegans in person, and i've learned that a lot of people really don't get it, so that has been a little tough. also i was afraid of what my friends/family would think... i struggled with the "coming out" process and there are *still* friends and family that don't know i'm vegan.

so i guess it depends on what *about* the transition i'm talking about. decision-wise, both easy... eating-transition-wise, both relatively easy... but explaining the decision to others, dealing with social stuff, etc... harder for when i went vegan.

yes, yes, yes - i really think the social pressure was the biggest issue for me to overcome 8 yrs ago, and why i ended up giving up veganism for vegetarianism again until 3 mos. ago.
i am always worried about making everyone else happy and i hated feeling like i was 'inconveniencing' my friends, family and loved ones, or that they were going out of their way to accommidate me. i know it sounds like a stupid paradox, really.
going vegan has been a wonderful gift i've given back to myself, i feel so much better inside and out, and my piece of mind has been restored.
however i do have to point out that the decision was prompted or catalyzed by a very important person in my life taking the plunge before me. It makes things SO much easier when your partner not only understands and supports, but shares the morals behind your veg. choices.
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