How did you make the switch to full vegetarianism (veganism)?

Question

Cause I'm a Vegetarian, and I've been really healthy since, and now I want to go Vegan, but I'm completely dependent on dairy products. Milk in my cereal & coffee & cheese in my subs. How did you vegans make the transitions, and did you feel better physically afterwards?

Answer 1

I skipped vegetarianism and went straight to veganism. I use Soy milk (Silk brand) and soy cheese, and havent missed anything. Ive lost 15 Lbs, and it's been 5 weeks-ish

Answer 2

Hi, it took me about 2 months to go from vegetarian to vegan, I firstly cut out eggs completely, which was relatively easy as I didn't consume many as a vegetarian. Then I gradually cut down on my milk, cheese and butter, replacing it with soya spread, soya milk and vegan cheese.

Soya milk in cereals is lovely, but tea and coffee took a bit of getting used to for me.  I use alpro soya milk, I find this is one of the nicest!

It is worth looking around the health food shops for alternatives before you start the transition, just so you get an idea of all the vegan food that is available now!

Really worth visiting the vegan society website http://www.vegansociety.com

for info and recipes! :)  And yes I did feel slightly better on a vegan diet! :)

Answer 3

I read about the plight of dairy cows and the insipid chemicals/hormones/somatic cells in milk and milk products.  It's really a cruel business and when I thought about how these animals are suffering from birth to death, I thought to myself:  how can I continue eating animal by-products?  

I weighed the pros and cons of going vegan and I couldn't think of many "cons" except for more trouble eating out, etc.  I figured out that I was only eating dairy and eggs for my tastebuds.  Once I found that I was contributing to farm animal abuse practices simply for my selfish tastebuds, it was an easy choice for me to make to go vegan.

I have soymilk in my cereal.  There are vegan cheeses out there but they don't taste like the real thing, so I usually just go without (I know this sounds hard, but you will get to a point where the cravings disappear).  

I feel in better health now.  My blood pressure has dropped 20 points.  And I am lighter too.  But my energy levels are basically the same as before.

Answer 4

Dairy?  Don't eat cheese.  Easy.  Put soymilk or other milk on cereal -- in fact, stop eating cereal too -- eat something healthy such as oatmeal.  There are lots of vegetarian and vegan cheeses out there too.

Yeah, felt physically better afterwards.  I also cut out all other animal products at the same time, so can't speak specifically for dairy.

Answer 5

First I cut out eggs. Then I slowly replaced milk with soy milk. After I was fine with this, i replaced butter with oil or vegan margarine (Earth Balance). The last item I cut out was cheese, It truthfully was the hardest one to cut out (compared to the other Vegetarian–Non-vegan items). It took me around 4 months completely to do the transition, which is a bit longer than the average but it seemed fine to me. I would cut out one item (ex. eggs) and wait till i was completely adjusted to having that item omitted from my diet, then I would move to the next one.

I honestly feel great since I've adopted veganism (3 years ago). In fact, it felt soo good that I continued with veganism for the past few years.

Personally I wouldn't advocate jumping straight to cheese replacements (soya cheese etc.) right away. It will be easier to cope with your adjustments to a vegan diet, if you  don't try to replace cheese, with vegan alternatives. After not having a cheese for a course of time, you will no longer *miss* it, and the though of even cheese alternatives won't even seem that appealing it.

Please understand that I am speaking about cheese only. Vegan Margarine is so incredibly tasty and more preferable than vegetable oils, and soy milk is almost a staple of the vegan diet.

Good luck and remember to take it slowly, but surely. Its much better if you pace yourself and adopt slowly but stay consistent with the bigger picture ahead in the future. And most importantly Thanks for your interest and once again goodluck.

Answer 6

I became a Vegetarian in February and then 2 weeks later a Vegan. I have to be honest, I was a true-blue milk baby. I used to drink at least 2-6 full glasses of milk A DAY. And cheese? Oh please. I ate cheese on EVERYTHING. And I loved ham and cheese omelettes (with a big glass of milk of course!). I was here on this site and saw where someone had put a link to a site that would supposedly really open your eyes about dairy products. Boy, did it ever! Here's the link: http://www.notmilk.com and also  http://wwwmilksucks.com

The inhumanity and torture these poor cows go through, and the egg-laying hens, it's ridiculous and cruel and it turned my stomach to the point where I could never drink milk or eat cheese or eggs again. The health benefits of giving up dairy is unreal. Did you know that milk has trace amounts of blood and pus in it and is linked to everything from ADHD to Crohn's Disease? I can see now that humans are not meant to drink the breast milk of other species. What was I thinking??? And as far as feeling better, I no longer have heartburn, stomach aches, digestive problems, etc.

Check out those sites. It will change your mind, I promise.