Dear Whoever is Reading,

Welcome to my blog. I am attempting the very intimidating but, in my mind, very necessary step toward becoming vegan.  I have been a vegetarian who eats fish for many years now.  But going completely vegan - which means giving up ALL animal products - including cheese, eggs, honey and all products that contain them - makes me feel like I'll fail.  

I have a very busy lifestyle - a job, a business, a dog and a toddler.  Sometimes I only have time to throw something in my mouth before I have to run off.  So why am I setting out to torture myself with a much more limited menu, which will definitely have to exclude a quick slice of pizza (which is, of course, famously tasty)?  For several years now I have been exploring the differences between being a strict vegetarian and a stricter vegan. 

Unfortunately, in many ways, being a vegetarian but still using animal products does not help the animals exploited for food in our country.  That is my main reason for going down this challenging road.  Aside from truly caring about animals, I feel strongly that by supporting the animal exploiting industries we are only adding more overall suffering to our planet, which already suffers so much.  

It might sound "lame" but if you stop for 2 minutes and think about what it might be like for a mammal, at least, to be stuck in a tiny cage, being unable to move for most of its life, being in constant physical pain from restraints and illnesses, seeing and smelling nothing but dirt and suffering of its peers, and then arriving to your table in the form of a steak or a nugget, it may give you pause before wanting to participate in that type of industry at all.  If it does not, you should ask yourself why.  Is it denial? The feeling that you love meat too much to give it up? Not wanting to bother with veganism? 

Of course, in addition to the very real suffering of very real animals, you are also consuming the flesh of animals who have suffered through most of their lives.  Factory farming also consistently pollutes our environment.  But all of these things are easily researched, so I'm not going to go into them. These are just some of the reasons I have chosen to take the step toward veganism.  It's scary, but I'm determined to do it.

The purpose of this blog is to update myself and the world about how I'm doing. I intend to be very honest here. If I slip up, I will admit it.  I simply want to share how challenging but realistic it is to start and, hopefully, accomplish a journey toward a vegan lifestyle.  I invite you to join me in my pursuit and seeing if it is something you might want to explore.

Below are some places I'm using to start:


ABC News 12 Things you Need to Know Before Going Vegan

Vegan.com

Vegetarian Starter Kit (by Peta)