As established in my previous article: I am not a Perfect Vegan. I’m a Cool Vegan, and sometimes I eat cheese. Or at least, I did when I published that article. But I have some great news! I’m not satisfied being that person anymore. I feel reborn.
I am relieved to be finished writing The Perfect Vegan. It took me many hard weeks to put together and was painful to write. I felt somewhat defeated as I published it, the insidiousness of cruelty to animals in our everyday lives fresh on my mind. I was full of sadness thinking about how long of a journey it will be to a vegan world – if it happens at all.
Truth is: our world probably won’t become a vegan one in time for my grandchildren to see it, never mind me.
Sometimes I truly believe that. But if everyone thought that way, then of course nothing would change in this regard.
Most days, thank god, my dedication to veganism is much stronger than those errant defeatist thoughts.
Going vegan is the best thing a person can do for their health, the planet and the animals. This is not an opinion, it is medical fact. Read NutritionFacts.org for the unbiased “peer-reviewed nutrition and health research” supporting this statement.
Veganism holds up. I also know this to be true from personal experience.
Because truth is: there’s a reason I keep coming back to this lifestyle: it feels so right to me. I am at my most happy when I am at my most vegan!
Practicing veganism to the best of my ability allows me to see the world clearly, think critically and act logically in all areas of my life. It’s improved my self discipline, cured my skin of chronic ailments and sent my energy levels through the roof! I have a new group of vegan friends all over the world, a better understanding of where my food comes from, and the know-how to cook inexpensive, delicious easy vegan meals and snacks for myself, my family and my friends.
I cannot emphasize enough how awesome it is being vegan. The industries using and abusing animals will pull no more fast ones on this girl! I may not ever be able to achieve perfection in veganism, but dang-it I can do better than eating cheese!
“Eating meat is a personal choice, let me live my life” – Woefully Misinformed Person
I hear this phrase a lot as an activist… but truth is, eating meat is not a personal choice in any way, because it involves more than one other being. Firstly, a murdered animal, and secondly, all the people hired to do the various tasks involved with turning a living, breathing sentient being into a wearable product or edible food.
I couldn’t kill an animal myself, or steal a calf from it’s wailing mother, or murder the excess male chicks in the egg industry, etc.; so why would I pay someone else to do it? In an article about slaughterhouse workers, PTSD journal states:
These employees are hired to kill animals, such as pigs and cows that are largely gentle creatures. Carrying out this action requires workers to disconnect from what they are doing and from the creature standing before them. This emotional dissonance can lead to consequences such as domestic violence, social withdrawal, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and PTSD.
Let’s recap… this lifestyle causes no harm (as little as possible harm) to other living beings, and is the healthiest and most fulfilling choice for myself and my planet. Sounds good to me! I would like to live in this way forever.
I didn’t name this site Cool Vegan so that I can eat cheese and laugh it off as not a big deal, I made this website to spread the amazing feeling I felt when I first went vegan, before I lost my way and became *gasp* an occasional vegetarian. There’s nothing wrong with vegetarianism, but I want to be vegan and am not happy personally with anything less.
“There are diets proven to not only prevent and treat but reverse our #1 killer, heart disease, along with other deadly diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.” – Dr. Michael Greger
Dr. Greger is talking about a whole food plant based diet. If you’re not 100% sold on the ethics of veganism, and you just want to focus on your own health and overall longevity, a plant-based diet is for you. Veganism is harder, and the pay-off is subsequently more satisfying.
In the past few weeks I saw something I hadn’t seen before. Specifically, this – if I wasn’t living and breathing veganism, through to the very core of my being, why should anyone else? Why should anyone else care what I’m writing here if I’m not even dedicated enough to plan my way out of emergency cheese binges?
A slice of cheese pizza can seem like the delicious triangular equivalent of the holy grail when I am out for the day and neglected to pack a lunch. But cheese is actually kinda gross. In the meat industry, there is murder, but in the egg and dairy industry there is murder AND murder of babies. The only reason we like cheese so much is because of casomorphin aka the chemical responsible for cheese addiction.
Paying for these industries to continue doing what they are doing would be like dating Aaron Samuels, which you can’t do because…
A mother is a mother no matter her species.
So, what does the future look like for this Reborn Vegan? I’ve listed some key points below…
- Attending vigils, to remember the victims here, and keep the urgency. I’ve linked the Toronto Area website, but you can google where the slaughterhouses are in your area if you don’t live close – by to me. Go to them! Bear witness, look in the eyes of the animals in the trucks unloading there and see if you still want to eat their dead flesh. I think you won’t. I don’t anymore either.
- Sundays will be reserved mainly for self-care and vegan meal prep. You may wonder what self-care has to do with efficient vegan-ing, but if I don’t tend to my inner ecosystem then I cannot give anything to the the world’s ‘outer ecosystems. Thank you Yoga with Adriene for this lovely phrasing. It definitely takes work to be vegan, but nothing good comes easy, as they say.
- No more compromises. Read vegan books, watch vegan youtuber’s, research vegan companies, talk to more experienced vegans, draw inspiration and education from all sorts of sources, talk to everyone and anyone about this topic, it’s important! Explore Toronto for vegan options and ENJOY the vegan journey. I am so excited. I want you to join me!
Please comment on your experiences, carnivorous, vegan or anything in between, I would love to hear from you! I may be sounding like a crazy vegan lady at this point… because I AM A CRAZY VEGAN LADY!
I will be creating a series of blog posts, about what I eat as a (somewhat financially strapped) university student and a vegan, to educate and inspire my lovely readers with the recipes I create and nutritional information accompanying them.
Truly the only vitamin necessary for complete human health, that cannot be easily garnered from a whole food plant based diet, is B12. B12 can be supplemented so easily. Everything else nutrient-wise will be sufficiently covered if you are eating properly. Watch this video featuring vegan activist James Aspey to learn more about the vegan movement and please, share this article if you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!
Cool Vegan 